Last week, Dale Denham announced his 4th Annual Online18 from PromoMarketing. On this list, Dale outlines his list of the 18 biggest influencers in the Promotional Products Industry…and our very own Kirby Hasseman was recognized as this year’s number 1 influencer. What an honor! In looking at the list, we also realized that these fantastic people have been our teachers and mentors over the past few years…and we wanted to outline some of the lessons I have learned from the #Online18. They Give First: If you look up and down this list, this group of people provides value to those around them. Whether this is through creating valuable content or by sharing the content of others, the Online18 “give first.” They are Connectors: If you look at this list of influencers, you will notice people who know people. More importantly, you have a list of people that are willing to connect people. They do not hoard relationships or business…they spread it. They Create: Though there is a different level of “content creation” up and down this list, the Online18 is a group of people that create. Whether it’s through blogging, video, Facebook, Twitter, etc. they share what is going on in their lives. In doing so, they create value for those that follow them. They Choose Themselves: It takes a level of bravery to put yourself out there. It’s easier to wait for someone to choose you. This group doesn’t wait for someone else to appoint them to create value…they take the words of the infamous Nike campaign and they “just do it.” They Engage: In addition to pushing out their own content, this group engages with other content. We all have “that voice” in our head that tells us we are not good enough. The Online18 understands that by engaging with others content, you validate and start to build relationships with them. So like, comment and share your way to growing your own network! They Curate: You don’t have to be the only content creator on the block. It can be totally appropriate to share other valuable content to your followers as well. You add value and credibility. You also have the added benefit of helping the content creator as well. The Online18 is a great list of leaders in the Promo industry…and you can learn a lot of all of them. But let’s not forget the one that put the list together…Dale Denham. Dale puts a lot of time in this list each and every year. And the secret of course is the real influencer is the one that gets to select the influencers. That’s a great lesson to learn as well!
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