Being an influencer not so much a practice as it is a new term and new approach to becoming an influencer.
By becoming an influencer you are someone who is trusted. Your product or brand is trusted. How to get to that point takes time.
In the early ’80s networking was huge. Still, in college, I was president of Phi Chi Theta, a business fraternity. The short of it is, we spent a lot of time have wine and cheese parties and inviting key people who we thought would help us and other business students make it in the real world. Then in early 2000, I created a website business. I spent many hours going to network meetings, volunteering and in general being very active in the Bastrop, TX community. As a result, my business did great. People knew who I was and knew I could be trusted with their digital presence.
Fast forward, a year ago, the task doing what I did in Bastrop, is much more difficult. I discovered I was spending too much time in my office, redoing my website, hunting for the optimal keywords for my site, putting in ads, doing an occasional post. What I was doing very little of was getting to know people. I also didn’t put out near enough articles, because, I didn’t think I had anything to offer.
Three months ago, I sat back and looked at where I was, where I wanted to be and try to see what could I do.
That’s when I thought about networking. And so I began.
Interestingly enough, a few days ago, I heard the term influencer and though who is that type of person and how did one get to be an 
influencer. That’s when I found a great article by Hubspot.com. The article, “How to Become an Influencer” concluded with the obvious, but often neglected key element: connections.
No matter how you look at it, it’s networking, you can’t sit in your office or home, you have to find or create new opportunities to meet new people. The difference is the type of networking you do and how you do it. With the digital world, blogging posts, contributing to groups on social media, supporting a product, sharing your experience on Google Review., and getting out to meet real humans in both professional, ie meetups, and non-professional environment, ie, polar bear swim, farmers market, home show, etc. Set goals to go have fun, talk to people, learn about the community you live in, help others. Even reach out to old friends and say, “Hi.”.
If you are an introvert, then this is very difficult to do, but a must. If you have spent the last 30 years beating the pavement, find new ways to beat the pavement but do it. Have fun, you are making connections, not selling your product or service. You are getting to learn about human behavior, what’s hot, what’s not, you are making yourself a helper, listener, fun, engaging, sensitive person. You can be an influencer.
