The secret to being an influencer is to become a content ninja

Good news! Your time spent playing Fruit Ninja just might be useful when crafting your influence online. That is if you can abstractly take your slice and dice skills to a piece of content to produce an intricate multimedia campaign.
Matthew O’Brien, founder of Mint Social, was a super ninja at AZ Tech Beat’s Lunch and Learn when he divulged how to build out one piece of content into a full-blown campaign by using multiple social media platforms, as well as how to boost your influence online.
Here is a rundown of O’Brien’s top tips for being a content ninja and online influencer:
Build a Content Engine

MintSocial Founder Matt O'Brien
Mint Social Founder Matthew O’Brien

“Content isn’t easy and typically we screw up when it comes to publishing,” O’Brien said. “We have no plan, no frequency and we typically have what’s called underutilized content.”
To prevent content from being underutilized, O’Brien recommended building a content engine, or a game plan for how you plan to distribute your content across multiple platforms.
A content engine consists of taking a single piece of content — such as a written story or video — and dividing it into multiple bits of media that can be released across social platforms as teasers. Altogether, these teasers produce an organized campaign that can be launched on a set schedule.
O’Brien’s favorite form of content? Video.
“I love video because video you can slice and dice,” O’Brien said. “We go online to look at cool things and by 2017, 70 percent of our time on the Internet is going to watching videos.”
Other People’s Profiles
Although we may be living in the age of the selfie, O’Brien recommended flipping the camera around and taking a closer look at other influencers in the field.
By finding industry experts who are connected to the topics and people you care about, you can build a community that shares and works together, he said.
“You need to find these people because they are the ones that you can pimp out their profiles,” O’Brien said. “You want to think because I’m connected with them, it’s going to elevate my popularity.”
In essence, by “pimping” another person’s profile, you are actually building your own influence online.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUuVoALqzVo&list=UU7bzyiijcVHA8JwuIL15mxQ[/youtube]

Watch time 27 minutes and worth it

One way to build another person’s profile while also creating content for yourself is to host a Google Hangout with these influencers. With Google Hangouts, you can record the video of your conversation and automatically upload it to YouTube. From there, simply break the content up into multiple pieces and build your content engine.
“Think of it like a military operation where we’re infiltrating a database we have never been able to touch and these people are connected to who we care about,” O’Brien said. “It really starts with who you care to be associated with as an industry expert.”
Be like Tom Sawyer
When thinking about becoming an expert, O’Brien recommended looking at the classic literary character and how he managed to influence others. Tom Sawyer was able to connect with others because of his personal and community outreach, which led to later having professional developments.
“We want to know about you as a person and how you connect with the community, then we want to know you as a professional,” O’Brien said.
To develop these connections, the first thing you have to do is organize your content into three areas — professional, personal and community — O’Brien added.
“We have all done things in the past, but we haven’t organized our life in the way we want people to find us,” he said.
By organizing our online content into these “buckets,” it gives you the opportunity to connect with influencers because you are able to easily identify what you have in common with them.
While an obvious LinkedIn search can show what you have in common professionally, personal and community related content helps others relate to you and identify you as an influencer because they differentiate you from the mass of blank faces.
“We all look the same online, so we really have to pull out the things that make us human that we really care about,” O’Brien said.
Related: Growth hacking with your data – AZ Tech Beat Lunch and Learn October
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