Who doesn’t covet influence? It’s invaluable when you need to sway the boss, get your peers to cooperate or perform, convince people to mind your work, persuade prospects to become customers—the list goes on.
Clearly, as a marketer, or communicator of any sort, your ability to influence others is key to your success.
Much has been written on the subject, including the landmark books How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie and Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini. Both are must-reads. Mike Myatt, author and leadership advisor to CEOs, writes, “True influence is nothing more than understanding how to work with and through others to achieve a stated objective while staying true to your core values and maintaining your integrity.”
Dr. Karen Keller has devoted her career to studying the art of influence and focuses on influence training. A great passage on her website explains, “A crucial aspect of influence is the emotional connection you make with people. True influence involves building trust and a relationship, getting those people to align their views and values with your own for long-term gain.”
My passion for the topic inspired quite a bit of research and deliberation, and then, the list post “30 Action Items to Get Serious About Influencer Marketing,“ as well as an infographic featuring ideas from 22 influential marketers. I also teamed up with the design team at Visme to create the infographic below Shop, which features the 20 qualities I believe are common to influential people (and monsters).
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