The most powerful buzzword in the influencer’s lexicon is no longer “word-of-mouth.” Or “relationship.” Or “SEO,” “share-of-voice,” or “social ROI.” (Sorry, that last one was two words.)
Right now, the most powerful buzzword, which is also the key to amplifying your message and building your brand with efficiency, is collaboration.
Right now, influencers from all over the world are gathering together—inspired by their shared passions—and are collaborating on projects to bring more value than ever to their audiences. Experts, activists, artists, entertainers, bloggers, YouTubers, you-name-it. When they connect via a shared passion, and start collaborating, they utilize the power of teamwork.
Albert Einstein was rumored to have said, “The power of compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.” Now, yes, he was speaking specifically about the almighty dollar, of course, but in the influencer’s universe, the most powerful force is collaboration.
Through collaborations with other influencers, you expand your reach for the same effort, getting in front of new audiences and communities.
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How to Grow Your Audience 10X
When you collaborate with another influencer—preferably one who shares similar and has a loyal audience—you’re able to get your expertise, your work, and your brand in front of new eyeballs. And if those eyeballs are truly passionate about your subject matter, you can gain followers for life.
Collaboration also allows you to create content you may never be able to create on your own. Great at blogging but not so hot with videos? Collaborate.
But let’s say you want grow your audience big-time. None of this 10% growth baloney. You’re aiming to double, triple, or even 10X your audience. Oh, yeah, now you’re talking!
Gunning for a 10X increase in your audience, though, is a massive goal and is probably not going to happen if you just do the same old, same old. If you want different results, you need to change up what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.
You know how we’ve been explaining the value of collaborating with other influencers to you? Well, all of that has centered on one-to-one collaborations.
That’s fine and good, but if you want to 10X your results, you’re going to want to change the way you approach your collaborations. Instead of partnering with one person at a time, you should instead look to 10X your partnerships.
In other words, instead of teaming up with one fellow influencer for a blog post, aim to collaborate with two, three, or 10 influencers on that post. Do this…, and watch your reach explode.
But where do you start collaborating? And once you start, what’s the proper protocol? You don’t want to show up at an influencer collaboration party and have everyone point and laugh at you. No. Let’s OWN this party.
Tips for Successful Collaboration
Riding this “influencer party” metaphor of ours, you don’t want to show up, eat all the cocktail shrimp, burp, and leave. It’s a bad look. (And the shrimp won’t appreciate it, either…)
Find influencers in your area of expertise—Perlu.com is a great place to start, of course—and make the other wonderful creators, authors, designers, artists, and experts aware of your work, your expertise, and your hard-earned community.
Connect with them. Go follow and subscribe to their content. Comment on and like their content. Link back to their content. Tell others about them. Or, see how you might be able to help them. Earn their trust.
Now, start a Perlu Pack (a group of fellow influencers based around a central interest or theme), and invite them to join and start collaborating with them. Or, find relevant existing Perlu Packs, ask to join, and jump into a collaboration with that Pack’s members.
If it’s your collab, be the leader (with kindness). Set clear goals, roles, and deadlines. Be the point-person for all content gathering. Proofread it. Control the communication. Brainstorm on how best to promote the content on your channels, but if the project starts to go off track, pick it back up and steer it in the right direction.
Bring your best ideas, share with the others, and help them succeed. By doing so, you’ll all succeed.
Successful Collaboration Examples
Ready to get going on your multi-influencer collaboration? Popular collaboration pieces when you’re looking to 10X your audience include articles, videos, and surveys:
Article Collaboration
To 10X your audience, try what Gerald Rhodes did on his website: invite 16 fellow cycling bloggers to join forces. All he did was ask one simple question of each of them, and bam, the article basically wrote itself. As part of the collaboration, Gerald included Tyler Benedict, Founder of BikeRumor.com, with close to a million subscribers, 216K+ Facebook fans and 65K+ Twitter followers. Talk about 10Xing your reach!
Elna Cain at TwinsMommy knows a thing or two about 10X collaborations, as well. She gathered expertise from 12 bloggers (from Chanele of Good Life of a Housewife to Amy at The Thoughtful Parent) and created a post discussing what new bloggers should focus on.
At the end of the article, Elna invited readers to join her Facebook Group and—this is key—interacted with them in the comments section. Don’t forget, many of the article’s readers came from one of the 12 bloggers that participated in the article.
And if you’re eager to not only 10X your audience reach, but to 40X it (for all you overachieving types), Elna can provide guidance on that, as well. In her post “40 Moms Reveal How to Accomplish Your Day When You’re Juggling Everything,” she serves up insights from 40 individual mom bloggers. Woot woot! 🎉(She’s like the Serena Williams of collaborating mommy bloggers!)
Video Collaboration
The masters of collaboration—the Dude Perfect team—recently transitioned from “real world” trick shots to join forces with online sensation, Ninja, in a Fortnite battle. This collaboration is like Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney teaming up—while sponsored by Epic Games or Pepsi, respectively, but still—this is influencer collaboration at its finest, expanding the influencers brands across different channels to new audiences while maintaining their authenticity and entertaining their original fans.
Another video collaboration example is cupcake connoisseur and unicorn poop chef extraordinaire Rosanna Pansino, who joined up with chef Josh Elkin and comedy specialist Alex Wasabi. That’s quite the eclectic bunch, and although it’s not a crowd of 10, they were able to introduce themselves to new audiences while having the time of their lives. Plus, in the comments section, Rosanna wisely asked her audience whom they would like her to collaborate with next. Four-hundred fifty-three replies later, she has a mountain of great ideas—all brainstormed by her followers. Bonus!
Survey Collaboration
A great start, especially if you’re not a YouTube, Instagram, or blogging sensation quite yet, is to create a survey for other influencers. You could then create a roundup report summarizing the results, listing each one’s insights (just make sure you make them aware that your intention is to highlight them by name).
But wait, there’s more. Why not turn those results into a blog post, SlideShare, special report, and infographic? Then maybe you host a webinar or Facebook Live showcasing the results. And make sure at every step that you include the influencers you’ve collaborated with. Share the love and they’ll share the love right back, growing your brand and your audience.
It’s a win-win-win-win-win for everyone.
Summary
To grow your audience massively, remember to take your approach to collaboration to the next level. Instead of limiting your collaborations to one-on-one engagements, think big. Think bigger. And then think bigger than that.
