I was lucky enough to chat with Sarah Evans on the phone recently.  Many of you may be familiar with her because she’s such a powerhouse on Twitter.  If you don’t know who she is, you may want to.

Who is Sarah Evans?

Sarah is the creator of the Top 50 Tweeples to Follow list, a compilation of the most voted for Twitter users by others on Twitter.  I asked Sarah why she developed the Top 50 Tweeples contest, and here’s what she had to say.

“It seemed like a really neat way to connect with people.  The end result is that everyone would benefit from what happened. All the people who won the contest would get noticed, possibly have more followers.  New people joining Twitter would see people that they found valuable that they’d want to follow.  And I was hoping it would just be a continuous chain reaction of good things.”

Tips for Building Social Media Influence

I also wanted to know Sarah’s thoughts on how people can become influential in social media and draw more attention to their blogs.  She says, “The number one thing is great information.  My filter for everything is to answer the question, ‘Why does this matter to me?’ in everything that I do. What makes me want to read something is when I’m going to learn something or I’m really excited about something.”

This is good advice.  Be thoughtful and purposeful in your content and in what you put out there. Sarah puts nothing but fun and positivity out into the internet world, and she gets great things back.

“I have so much fun in social media that I hope I exude the energy and the passion that I feel for what I’m doing in my social persona.  I hope it has something to do with why people may want to play along with me.”

The Time Investment of Social Media

Finally, I had to ask her about the time investment.  Lots of folks wonder why they should spend their valuable time reaching out to others in cyberspace.

Sarah says, “It can be time-consuming, and I definitely have to find balance for that, especially with my husband.  What I did to help him understand was to put him in front of my computer.  It just helped that context into understanding what it is that I do.  When he sees the results, he’ll ask, “How’d you know that?” or “Where’d you get that information?”  The joke is that it came from my Twitter friends!

If you’re wanting to get more attention from PR reps or bring more readers to your blog, it pays to follow Sarah’s lead.  She’s genuinely interested in bringing people together, in learning from others, and in sharing her own knowledge.

Be active in the social networking groups that you join.  Share what you know with others and let your personality shine through. You can learn more from Sarah at her blog or by following her on Twitter  at @PRsarahevans.

__

Mary Davis loves her job as a freelance writer because she gets the opportunity to talk to fabulous people and learn new things.  You’ll find more from her at her blogs, Everyday Baby Steps and Adventures in Freelancing.