by Venchito Tampon Jr | Last Updated on October 24, 2021

A person with influence gets more opportunities than someone without. It’s a reality most content marketers must embrace as they try to build content authority and influence through content marketing and link building.

Knowing how to use your sphere of influence has its given advantage in link acquisition. You earn hard-to-replicate links, repeated links from the same trusted domain or website, and even increase the exposure of your top or middle of the funnel content assets.

how to use influence to build more links

In this post, we’ll cover tips on how you can use a sphere of influence to build more links to your website.

How to Use Sphere of Influence to Build More Links

1. Use seed planting strategy

A subtle approach in building your influence works pretty well in establishing trust without the need to invest a huge amount of resources — whether that’s financial or time-intensive resources.

The key is to look for groups of people to whom you’ll be adding value on a regular basis.

You’re not looking for a massive group of audience, but a small targeted group who has the potential to amplify your brand content assets.

Discover your target group of amplifiers. You can check out this latest guide by Rand Fishkin to learn how to discover small invite-only amplifier groups.

You can also create your own list by finding small to medium-sized blogs in your niche using Buzzsumo.

buzzsumo twitter influencers

It is best to get radar of their latest posts by subscribing to their email newsletters or blog RSS feeds. This would get you notified of their new posts.

This is where the seed planting approach takes time. As soon as their new posts are published, be the first to comment.

Always add value to the conversation, perhaps ask a question. Don’t just add any link to your content in your comment, unless it’s relevant to the content you’re commenting on.

In most cases, you use your name as anchor text to a link of your website — a standard approach on blog platforms.

Another seed planting technique is to share the latest content of your target content amplifiers. Get on their latest tweets and only share if it’s relevant to your brand. Otherwise, you may come off as robotic and automated in sharing their stuff.

2. Engage in channel-specific groups

Besides creating your small list of content amplifiers that you’ll engage in for further connections, you may also find specific channels where your target customers or content audiences engage in.

Here are some channel-specific groups you can consider:

  • private Facebook groups
  • private Slack groups
  • Linkedin groups
  • industry-specific websites (Growth Hackers)
  • niche-relevant forums (Traffic Think Tank)
  • private Skype conversations (invites only)

While not all of these you can’t penetrate quickly, if you can find a few private groups where you can invest heavily in conversations, those are gems with a high return on investments.

traffic think tank

Getting into channel-specific groups has other content marketing benefits besides getting organic links. These benefits include:

If you can look for channel-specific groups, you can engage better with your audience in a more personal, relatable approach. Thus, helping you build your brand and earn authority links.

3. Leverage LinkedIn as a subtle connector tool

LinkedIn shouldn’t be a platform to spam people with straight right hook offerings (products/services).

There is a way to build relationships the right way, and at the same do link building without the need to annoy people with insensitive, non-personable messages.

Start optimizing your profile. The key is not just to introduce yourself in one message with lengthy profile credentials.

If you can provide enough details and descriptions in your profile about what you do for a living, you’ll have better chances of getting more profile views. This can lead to more opportunities for connections and natural links in the process.

In addition, create a content plan for a month and have it scheduled to post for the best times every week.

You may opt to follow your existing content calendar or have a separate strategy just for LinkedIn posting.

By promoting your content assets natively on the platform, you’ll have better chances of engagements, and an increase in organic reach.

linkedin sales navigator

It is best to use the Linkedin premium account, particularly Sales Linkedin Navigator to maximize sending off invitations to target people. This gives you more capacity to add more like-minded influencers in your circles.

Enterprise sites can leverage Linkedin as a way to personalize their approach in connecting with their potential customers — strengthening their brands and acquiring new enterprise links.

4. Maximize attraction marketing

Influence has its advantage to attract high quality backlinks.

With the idea of marketing flywheel, you create more visibility by developing content resources that appeal to your target audience.

With organic and manual link building and content promotion, you reap your initial benefits of links, social shares, and other engagement signals. This gives you the opportunity to get more flywheel effect for your content.

Here are some ways to apply attraction marketing:

  • Produce lead magnets such as checklists, top lists, and coupons — to capture email addresses, which would have an increased possibility of visibility for your future content assets.
  • Develop comprehensive evergreen pages on your site that match your audience’s needs (may it be a linkable audience you’ve chosen or a target group of influencers).
  • Create timely content to attract new content consumers to your site. You can check out this guide on content marketing strategies during coronavirus.

Be A Value-Adding Influencer

Influence has its responsibility of putting people first. With this kind of mindset, you enable yourself to become a forceable brand that engages people with value-adding content assets.