1. Stop Trying To Impress Them
Influencers are used to people trying to impress them so don’t try. The influencers that I know don’t want to be impressed, they want to know that you’ve taken what they’ve shared and done something with it.
2. Find Ways To Serve Them
If you see a place that they can be helped, help them. Buying them a random gift is nice but many won’t even accept gifts because people so often give them with strings attached.
3. Spread Their Work
My friend Jeff once bought a copy of every single of Seth Godin’s books for someone. It was a generous gift for the person who won the books and it flattered Seth. He did it because it was a nice gesture to Seth but more importantly, it was a way of spreading Seth’s ideas.
Another idea is to dedicate an episode of your podcast or a blog post to their best ideas. Yes, you can mention them in a tweet after you’ve done this and maybe they’ll find it but the goal isn’t just to gain their attention. The greater goal is to introduce them to new people.
Agenda or No Agenda?
So the secret to gaining attention is to point others to your influencer. If you don’t gain their attention the worst case scenario is you served someone that you admire. That’s not a bad worst case scenario.
