What is an “Influencer” and why does it matter to me?
If you’ve ever tried to reach an audience online, you know already that you can’t. You don’t have the audience to catch enough interested people to statistically or practically make a difference in your monthly income.
In short, advertising sucks.
You get about 5 people to reluctantly take a peek at your postings now and again, but nobody really notices you standing there tap-dancing your heart out, hoping for the Big Break.
Big Breaks don’t happen for folks like us — you have to make your own Big Break, and here’s how to do it:
Become an Influencer.
Then you’ll have an audience ready to listen to you and maybe take your advice, which is a trust issue. You will have to build trust, and that takes time, and time takes patience.
Have you got what it takes?
Patience means just that. You can’t be hungry. You HAVE to be authentic, honest, real, in order to become a real Influencer, and that takes some inner work, cleaning out the nest of spiderwebs — the beliefs and attitudes of a private citizen, as opposed to someone dedicated to the Work and to the benefit of all beings everywhere.
An influencer isn’t just someone who can afford to buy followers and finance promotions and raid other influencers for more followers.
As a matter of fact, if you’re one of those kind of influencers, you won’t last long on the internet — the odds will eventually catch up with you as the algorhythms become even more sensitized and able to detect third-party activity.
You don’t need any of that. Just be yourself.
Hmmm. Now that I consider it, “be yourself” isn’t all that easy, if you have no idea who or what you actually are.
Okay, so first things first — work on yourself until you have at least a 90% chance of knowing who and what you actually are.
This opens the door to the question, “Why are you here?”, and the answer had better be “To do the Work”, or you won’t succeed as an Influencer.
Authenticity comes from the heart, not the brain.
The reason you want to become an Influencer is because it doesn’t work to buy influence. As an Influencer, you have an audience that believes in YOU, trusts YOU and hopes that you don’t turn out to be just another asshole with a good business plan.
To become an Influencer, you’ll need at LEAST 10,000 followers, and I personally recommend you don’t stop building your client list, not ever, because they do drop off — don’t forget that there’s an “unfollow” button real handy, in case you become boring to them, or they spot your not-insignificant personal or professional flaws.
Those flaws don’t need to be there. Work on Self will clear the path to greater good. Look, every time you DM someone back, or post a new photo or video or wise saying, it’s another opportunity to stare Reality in the face.
Be real, be authentic, be yourself.
That’s about 20 years of hard inner work right there, and at that point, you’re just ready to begin. You should have handled Samadhi and Satori years ago, but if you still haven’t gotten over yourself, this is the time to do it.
You don’t want to enter the Maven Expert Guru field without some clue as to your Identity, your Community and your Purpose.
- IDENTITY — You are an immortal Being. Try to remember that as you go along.
- COMMUNITY — You are a member of a Soul Group that rebirths and works together.
- PURPOSE — Your task is to introduce the Godd™Particle & the Bardo Band.
The greater purpose is, of course, to help All Beings Everywhere, especially on Planet Earth, which is under direct assault at the moment by the forces of Chaos — that’s the actions of the Goddess Discordia, a good friend and a great street fighter.
Your main task at this time is to use the shamanic magical tools available to you on this level — we’ll go over them one by one:
- POSTS — Your post is your Best IG Tool. A post is deceptively simple, yet it carries within in all the energy you need to get out there and get your point across.
- PHOTOS — Photos do a lot of the Law of Attraction work for you. REAL Eye-Candy will always get a tap from a viewer — pretty photos won’t get the same attention.
- VIDEOS — A 15 second video can do a lot of influencing.
- CONTACT BUTTON — Your contact button is the key to influence, which is all about interaction and engagement.
- MINI-BLOG — Your post can be as long as 330 words, but make sure the first 125 words are the right words, because that’s all anyone will ever see.
- PROMOTION — You can promote your posts as ads, but remember that the “likes” and such accumulated on your promoted post will vanish once the promotion ends.
- HASHMARKS — Find those “parties” where they’re talking about your main skill subject, and put your two cents in, for what it’s worth, plus be sure to put in a “Like” and a “follow” and if you have the time and inclination, add a “comment”, then tap or tag some of your followers with this thing as well, the equivalent of “share”.
Don’t be shy.
You are an expert, a Maven, an Influencer, and that means you’re the very best in your field, even if you have to say so yourself. Don’t wince or flinch at this — it’s the Age of Trump, and everything is Fake News.
Be real, be authentic, be yourself.
Stay on target, Luke. Just keep your sights where you’re headed. Every chance you get, share something with your audience, but DON’T POST TOO OFTEN.
Five times a day, only at Optimum Times for your clients, whatever time that turns out to be.
In my case, my clients are worldwide, so pretty much anytime works for me — I’m sure to reach some part of my audience, and if folks do happen to miss the posting, the other folks on my client list will surely advise them within a day or two of the original posting.
My client list is very targeted, very niche.
I specialize in only one thing, and I’m here on Planet Earth to accomplish that one thing, and you can develop your inner self by following that same plan.
- So first, know thyself — always good advice in any situation.
- Now that you know thyself, get an InstaGram business account.
- Decide on a good name for your account, and a good avatar name as well.
- Get your page together, put in a bio with a direct website link.
- Post something of interest to your client base and include hashtags.
- Make sure that when your client goes to the website page, it looks good.
Now you’re ready to start building your page, which means getting new clientele, finding new folks to react and interact with your page.
The whole idea is to make yourself visible to InstaGram, and the more followers you have, the more interested InstaGram will be in you, because that’s money to them — they’re selling your ability to attract viewers, and if you’re an Influencer, you can sell your influence to others, if you trust their products or services.
Best advice there is to find out about the product or service that you’re agreeing to endorse before you endorse it — don’t wait until it’s too late and regret is your only hope.
That’s also true of this functional Work on Self — don’t wait until it’s too late. Most folks will never get past the first feeble efforts. Let’s hope you don’t happen to fall into that category of feeble efforts.
It will take a hell of a lot to make YOU into a Maven Expert Influencer, and you might not want to put the effort into it, but let me tell you — it’s the only way to fly.
If you straightline this stuff, you’ll end up HAVING to become an Influencer just by sheer weight of numbers — once you’re over the 10,000 followers mark, you ARE by IDENTITY an Influencer.
Here’s an example of what an Influencer can do:
Isn’t that terrific?
Of course, what you really want is for the client to click through to the website where they can find ammies and other goodies and get started relating to their Community of Work.
Everything’s wired these days, so you can just plunk videos almost anywhere. It doesn’t take all that rubbish with the embed codes and such, not anymore.
You can enhance your postings, promote your postings and knock yourself out and even go deeply into debt by over-promoting your page.
You need only follow the one rule — interact.
It’s all about the Rules of Engagement, and you need to learn them, and fast. You’re going to find yourself in a pickle if you don’t master the basics right away, so get going!
First, let’s post something.
Hit the PLUS SIGN at the bottom of your IG screen, which will open up photos, vids or prompt you to take a selfie right now and post it. If you’re on PC, you’ll get a selection of possible images from your graphics storehouse, wherever that may be.
One way or another, you’re going to end up with a graphic. Hit the “Next” button or whatever word it shows to go on to the next thing, and you’ll see a page which affords you the opportunity to select your choice of presentation — I use the default, “normal” and then add my text in the “edit” portion of the screen.
Here’s where you can put in as many as 330 words, but remember that only the first 125 words will be visible without a “more” prompt, which is an additional click you’ll seldom see.
How long will it take until you become a Market Maven or Guru?
Well, I’ve put millions of years into it, and I still have to crawl before I walk. Don’t be impatient — it has a very bad effect on your patience.
Everyone you know should be helping you. If you’re a friend of mine, you’ll help by logging onto InstaGram and hitting the “Like” and “Follow” buttons and tagging some of your friends to receive my post, and maybe asking them to tag some friends in turn, which could lead to thousands of new followers, if the thread goes out far enough.
Think of your post as the source of ripples on the water — it goes out and soon is swallowed up by the composite counterwaves, but sometimes can go much further than you expected.
That’s the way of a “viral” thing — it spreads beyond the normal ripple effect, carried outward by some other force, some unexpected boosting agent.
What that is, nobody knows. You can’t predict “viral”, but you can load the cannon with better powder and prime the fuse, which means putting the effort into the post in the first place.
I’m an old hand at writing, and have done it for centuries without much pause. I can write by hand, by keyboard at 180-240 wpm thanks to the U.S. government, and by dictation or discourse.
It’s easy for me to write ad copy — I’m highly skilled at it, and can make a head turn or the attention come to roost at the snap of a finger.
My skills at finding hashtags rests upon a thorough knowledge of Romance Languages, meaning those grounded in Latin, and a very deep knowledge of Germanic Languages as well.
Of course, there’s always the Eastern languages, but I’m not there now, I’m here in the West.
As a matter of fact, although I hate to admit it, I’m the Avatar of the West. Not a very impressive Avatar of the West, I’m afraid — I don’t like to show off.
Okay, maybe this once, but I’ll show off in a Work way, not a personal way.
If you trust me, click here.
That’s what I mean. Building trust comes with time and personal experience personally experienced. I also demand of you that you TEST each and every thing I present — I insist that you NOT take my word for anything, especially Work Ideas.
There isn’t a Work Idea that I present that can’t be TESTED IMMEDIATELY by you to see if it’s Truth or Bullshit, and no matter what the temptation or provocation, I don’t deal in Bullshit.
Got no time to fiddle around. Time is short, and The Time is Here. This is Ragnarok, so get ready to blast off the Earth along with all the other living species of Earth, and it can happen virtually any moment now.
Don’t let it get you down. There’s plenty more where that came from. There will always be another Earth, but there is nothing like a Dame.
There is nothing you can name that is anything like a Dame, and that goes double for parody songs.
Never mind Broadway show tunes, let’s get back on subject:
Becoming an Influencer is not easy — some suffering there must be, just like in the formation of a Soul.
Yes, souls have different levels of formation, which is why you’re here now in this situation, to grow your soul, and that goes right along with growing your Community, which is basically your job.
Yes, your job, if you decide to take it on, Mister Phelps. Your mission is to bring The Teaching to The World, and InstaGram is going to get you started on the Path.
It’s great, because you don’t have to ever actually walk around on a street or stand on a street corner or hang out outside a health food store or a public library to try to catch a passerby and bring them into the Circle of Work.
Gaining converts in this way is not easy when you’re out there in public on a street or streetcorner or in some dismal subway station, but with InstaGram, you only spread the Word of God to those who are interested in hearing it and seeing it.
The market makes itself, and you’re not selling anything. You’re merely giving away a variety of interesting experiences, and hopefully, that will lead some of your clients to the Work — not many, just a few at a time.
One out of a thousand. Two out of ten thousand. It takes more effort and there’s more resistance, the higher the numbers go, but on the other hand, people really like to go where other people go.
Important Facts:
- People like to go where other people go.
- People like to repeat what other people say.
- People like to believe what other people believe.
- People like to wear what other people wear.
- People like to do what other people do.
If given the opportunity to do anything they want, a roomful of people will generally copy one another. You can use this to advantage by encouraging sharing in InstaGram and on other social media platforms.
If a conversation occurs in a crowded roomful of people, the level of conversation will slowly rise until no one can hear anything, even themselves.
The room will remain noisy and keep getting louder and louder, until someone whispers the words “Oral Sex”, at which point, you can hear a pin drop, as proven during the Official 6:00 PM Dinner Hour Experiment, by Menlo Macfarlane at Pasticcio’s Restaurant in New York City some 37 years ago.
So how do you become an Influencer, and can the process be speeded up?
You become an Influencer by first deciding what it is you are an expert at or on or with, OR what ferocious interest you have as a personal passion.
Influencers write emotionally, not intellectually. Brainiac doesn’t work.
My friends Joe Karbo and Mel Powers both told me that you have to give the customer something that solves a “RIGHT NOW” problem with a “RIGHT NOW” solution.
That’s hard to come by and harder still to deliver.
Be real. Be authentic. Be yourself.
Never promise what you can’t deliver, and don’t ever send someone where you won’t go, or put someone to a task that you yourself wouldn’t be willing to do.
Tough rules?
Yeah, the Rules of Engagement are a lot tougher on the Guru than they are on the End User — John or Jane Q. Public.
You’ll need a whole new range of higher ethics, and a way to test your stuff to see results before you recommend it to someone else.
There’s a lot to this, but let’s take it one step at a time.
What do you really know? What do you really care about? What’s worth sharing with others? Exactly how do you want to spend every minute of your remaining life?
Answer those questions before you embark on this journey, or face the dire consequences when they pop up by themselves in the course of these actions on IG, because they will.
“Okay, okay, I get it,” I hear you saying. Well, I happen to know that you don’t get it, not yet, and it will be a while before you do get it, but let’s proceed:
How do you become an Influencer?
Again, I ask you, “what is an Influencer?”. The answer is not simple, but it requires at least a little examination before attempting an answer.
An Influencer influences.
That’s all. Period. End of Line. Nothing more to be said. Now, any idiot can fill the basic requirement, which is to simply show up ready for work.
The advanced student will want to go further and faster, and that’s what this blog is all about — further and faster.
So you’re looking for followers. Well, they are out there, ready to follow anyone willing to lead, and you’re just the one to tell them where to go.
No, a leader doesn’t hang out behind the troops. You lead by going first, so that’s what you’re going to do, take a chance, take some risks, get out there and invite howls of laughter, derision and scowling disapproval.
What the hell, it’s no worse than trying to win approval from your parents, and you know how successful THAT was.
The main strategy is TO INTERACT, to ENGAGE and to ENCOURAGE ENGAGEMENT with your photo or video along with the compelling ad copy you wrote in the mini-blog with your post.
When and if you get responses from your client list, be sure to RESPOND to them with DM and comments on the page related to their response, plus LIKE and FOLLOW and COMMENT on their page as well.
You want to go out there and comment on people’s posts — you can find plenty of opportunity to do this by commenting on the posts that your followers are putting up, plus commenting on posts you find in hashtag searches.
Of course, you can buy a service that does this hashtag commenting for you, but be careful — third party bot-driven stuff can cost you dearly, if IG takes exception, and they might. They don’t like bots.
If you’re already well known in a field, you can ask your friends in that field to follow you on IG, and to comment and like and such as they feel inclined, if ever.
If you’re teaching a class or you have a large group of interested folks for some other reason, you can ask them to do the same — follow you and like your stuff on IG, for at least a few hits.
Some dedicated fans will help a lot more and might recruit help in building your base. You need help, and if you can’t recruit it, you’ll need to spend a few bucks in advertising to take up the slack.
If all the various work circles would help one another to build a presence on InstaGram, we will have a very powerful work force there, and I appreciate all the help I am getting and have been getting to accomplish this.
You can also help by donating to our promotion fund — at the moment, I have $12.73 in the fund, but it’s growing by leaps and bounds every day since the day I started it — yesterday.
What else can you do to help?
Quite a lot. If you want to do some gardening, carpentry, home repair, plumbling, roofing, tiling and more, us old folks surely could use the help!
I had the idea of operating our Granny House — which cost $375,000 to build and is a beautiful comfortable building on the east side of our property — as an “Air B&B” rental.
We consulted with our realtor friends, all of whom tell us that the place would easily rent at $500 a night or more, but we won’t rent to strangers, only to those who can respect that they are staying on a cloistered property dedicated to the work of higher spirit.
That having been said, we need to get $3,000 a month out of the rentals every single month for the next year in order to pull ourselves out of the hole, and that doesn’t cover the expenses of doing our work with groups and individuals everywhere.
You would be put to work firstly making the Granny House right, which means all sorts of small cleanup and fixup tasks.
The Granny House is Trane air-conditioned and heated, and has a beautiful little “kiva” gas fireplace in the corner of the front room.
There’s a mini-kitchen, a Jacuzzi and a walk-in closet, and the house is surrounded by a fabulous Japanese Garden, with a tea house built by Dick, which is just outside the Granny House.
It’s as close to Living in Paradise as you can get. There’s a lot of food gardening to do, and Rose can use your help in preparing for the next wave of veggies.
There’s building and painting and roofing and plumbing and electrical and gardening, like I said, but there’s also learning how to help on the internet, how to train runners on Orbs and all sorts of training on the SuperBeacon — it can do a lot more than you think!
Okay, I’ve run outta time for da blog, so that’s it for the moment.
Wear a Godd™ Particle Pendant today, and slap on a Bardo Band just for breakfast time! Wear your Bardo Band to stay in touch with anyone who has passed!
Wear the Godd™ Particle to insure higher rebirths!
See You At The Top!!!
gorby