You most likely already know who is the best audience for your message. Getting them to invest time and energy into actually listening to you, however, is the hard part. That’s why your next step should be identifying people they already listen to – and developing a relationship with them. Let’s talk about three ways to get that done:

  • Mentorship

Many of the great MediaMasters® learned their craft and found their audience by allowing themselves to be mentored. Of course, that’s easy if you meet your mentor at 17! If you’re an established professional, however, you may feel you’re beyond the stage in life where you need anyone to mentor you.

But keep in mind you are crossing over into a new field. You may be very accomplished in your profession, but you are new to the world of MediaMastery – allowing someone who’s successful to mentor you can give you invaluable access to their expertise and audience.

We still approach people to mentor us on different areas of our lives and business, it’s just a smart thing to do! Open yourself up to the idea of a MediaMaster® mentor. Many of the greats began that way, which paid off for them a million times over.

 

Mentoring Advantage:  You gain first-hand knowledge from an experienced MediaMaster® and access to his (hopefully!) large audience.

Mentoring Disadvantage:  In many cases you can end up tethered to a single individual, which could limit your opportunities – and your fortunes could rise and fall with that individual too.

  • Networking

If you’re more independent, networking can be a way to tap into a vibrant and receptive audience. However, it can be time-consuming.

With networking, your objective is to connect with influencers – the people others in your audience listen to and respect. You’ll want to form relationships with many different influencers and hope that they use their standing to promote your thoughts and ideas. This can be done through virtual networks (Facebook and Twitter), real-life networks (conventions, events, organizations, etc.) or, most effectively, a combination of both.

On social media, you would want to “follow” every influencer that deals with your subject matter. You’ll then want to engage with them by commenting, sharing and offering them some sort of benefit with your presence. You also want to try and attend conventions and gatherings that focus on your subject matter, and personally sit down with the leaders and speakers you encounter. In today’s virtual world, face-to-face meetings are becoming increasingly rare – making them increasingly effective!

These influencers are the kinds of contacts that are invaluable when you begin distributing your MediaMaster® content. If you’ve been generous with these influencers, then they’re going to be generous with you. Many people we work with we met through events, like Richard Branson, Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield, Dr. Peter Diamandis, Dan Kennedy and Dan Sullivan just to name a few.

Networking Advantage:  You will reach a wider pool of potential followers due to connecting with a variety of influencers in different locations.

Networking Disadvantage:  This will take much more time and effort than simply working exclusively with one MediaMaster®.  

  • Advocate Marketing

Advocate Marketing puts together the best attributes of networking and mentorship to create a powerful group of “brand advocates” who have the ability to further your MediaMastery in a significant way. It involves reaching out to the rich and powerful that are a vital part of the field in which you want to make your impact – and creating relationships with them that combine the best elements of mentoring and networking.

Our friend, Sean Stephenson, for example, is a very successful MediaMaster® who employs this method. He has twenty-two people in his advocate network who are well-connected in different industries. Some of them gravitated to him because they believe in his message, others he had to work to gain access to. In all cases, these are powerful people who accept his call when he reaches out. In return, he sees himself as “on call” for these people 24/7 if they want something from him.

Advocate Marketing, however, works best for those who have already established some level of MediaMastery. You have to have some kind of reputation already in place to get close to these kinds of “people in high places” and be seen as useful to them. If you are successful in creating a strong Advocate Network, however, you’ve created a huge resource that will definitely boost your profile in a myriad of different ways.

Advocate Marketing Advantage:  You create a powerful group who have the ability to connect you with a wider audience and powerful backers.

Advocate Marketing Disadvantage:  The Catch-22 is you have to have some power in order to connect with the powerful. This is difficult unless you currently have a high profile or have experienced some MediaMaster® success.   

To sum up, whether you choose mentorship, networking or advocate marketing will likely depend on how advanced a MediaMaster® you currently are.

If you’re just a beginner, think about finding a mentor to help you learn. And remember mentors are always proud of their pupils, so they’re likely to present you to their public.

If you’re already fairly active, networking might be the best path for you, particularly if you are generating content and doing social media in the role of MediaMaster®.

If you’ve developed a reputation – or are already a fairly high-profile individual consider Advocate Marketing. You will have more to offer truly influential people if they see you as someone helpful to them.