Introducing Yourself to Successful People in Your Creative Niche

I’m a big fan of networking with others in your creative niche. If you know some of the big players in your niche, you can get inspiration and help promoting your products and services. Plus, you can build long-lasting relationships with some amazing people.

What’s holding you back from contacting the best of the best in your creative area? You might feel silly, fear that the person will laugh at and reject you, or wonder why the person would ever want to interact with you. Here’s the thing: social media makes it so much easier to interact with these big players that live hundreds of miles away.

What You Should Not Do

The first time you reach out to someone in your niche, there are a few things that you just shouldn’t do:

• Don’t ask her for something. Don’t ask the person to promote something on her blog, don’t ask her to let you write a guest post, and don’t request that she read your new ebook and write you a testimonial. Many people who have successful businesses and blogs get asked for favors regularly. You want to build a relationship and stand out before you even begin to think about asking for something.
• Don’t tell him that you can do something for him. If you’re contacting someone that you admire and is successful, what you can offer the person may not be anything he needs. For instance, if you contact Darren Rowse from Problogger and offer to review his blog on your website that gets 200 daily readers, he’s probably going to ignore you. Why? He doesn’t need you to review his blog. He already gets enough traffic.
• Don’t act as if she’s so much better than you, and you can’t believe that she would even take the time to read your email. You’re both human, and that’s unappealing. Get confident {but not cocky}.

What You Should Do

Now that we’ve gotten the crappy stuff out of the way, let’s talk about what you should do when you want to build a relationship with someone you admire in your niche:

• Start small. Follow the person on twitter and subscribe to the person’s blog. Begin leaving thoughtful comments on the person’s blog. Leaving a comment like, “Nice post!” doesn’t cut it. Engage in the conversation, add extra tips to the article, or relate some of the advice to your business or life. If you leave a handful of thoughtful comments over a couple weeks, the person will start to recognize your name.
• Every once in a while, respond to what the person says on twitter. Don’t respond to every tweet. You’ll look a creepo stalker. If the person tweets 10 times a day, you might respond once every other day.
• Once you’ve gotten your name in front of the person at least five times through commenting on blog posts and responding to tweets, consider writing a short email. In this email you want to introduce yourself, give the person a compliment, and let the person know how he’s helped you—but you need to accomplish this in just a few sentences. Here’s an example:

Hi April,

Thanks for sharing your latest post on introducing yourself to people in your creative niche. I followed your advice and heard back from an artist I’ve admired for years. I wrote a post about it on my blog, Follow Your Dreams. I hope you get the chance to check it out.

Best,
Lydia

http://www.followyourdreams.com

Why This Works

We’re all humans, and people like to hear that their advice worked for someone. It’s always nice to hear that you’ve helped someone. You’re not asking for anything, and you’re not being pushy about your blog post. This gives the other person complete control. She might write you back, but she might just be too busy. Don’t take it personally if she doesn’t write you back. It sets you up for contacting her in the future and building a relationship.

3 Last Tips in Closing

1. You have to follow the advice of someone before you write an email like the one above. Don’t lie. If the person doesn’t give advice on their blog or website, you could send pictures of one of the DIY projects she outlined on her blog that you completed, or tell her that a post that she wrote touched you to do something. For instance, if she wrote about feeling energized after spending a day at the park, you could tell her that you were inspired to spend a day outside playing with your kids.
2. If the person doesn’t write you back, don’t write another email telling him that you’re disappointed in him, wished he could take the time to get back to you, or anything else snarky. Just leave it for a couple weeks {but continue to leave thoughtful comments on the person’s blog}, and then try again. At this point, you could pitch a guest post. If you don’t hear back again, move on.
3. Link to your website, blog, and twitter at the end of your email, so the person doesn’t have to Google your name if she wants to find you online.