How To Build Relationships With Top Influencers

If you want to influence others, one of the most effective and time-efficient ways is to try to build relationships with people who are already influential.

There are a number of ways why you might want to do this, including:

• you might want members of their audience to become members of your audience
• you might want the ‘social proof’ of them being involved with your work
• you might want to get to know them because you want to learn from their methods

Of course, you need to think very carefully about what is in it for them- why would they want to help you. It might be because:

• they find your work of interest and worth supporting
• they know what it was like to have a smaller audience than they have today and how much it helped them to have people who brought them wider exposure
• they can tell that you are an up-and-coming person who might not be at their ‘level’ yet but one day will be
• you have already helped them out in some way

Whatever the reasons on either side, how do you actually go about starting and building these relationships?

Here is an amazing article by Jonathan Chan for foundr which explores this topic,

‘The Ultimate Guide To Finding, Reaching, and Interviewing Top Influencers’

It is packed full of fantastic information and foundr‘s own story is a perfect example of how to build influence, fast.