What do most successful marketers have in common?
They are always learning!
And what is an easy way to become an expert in your niche?
Personally, I’ve found that following other influencers in my target market is an awesome way to do this.
I gain knowledge from the content they are publishing, learn about new trends and offers, and many other benefits.
Back in the day, you could use an RSS reader to follow influencers on their blogs. So every time someone published a new post, it would automatically show up in your reader.
But now, influencers are publishing their content on multiple platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, as well as blogs.
So I wanted a better way to follow people on all these platforms, which is why I decided to create a new software called Watcher Spy.
Let me show you how it works, and all the ways you can use Watcher Spy in your own business.
How Watcher Spy works
Watcher Spy is a simple chrome extension that sits in your Chrome web browser.
When you click on it, it will open up a window like this in your browser.
Since you’re not following anybody at the start, nothing will show up on the main screen.
So you need to start following people first.
Click the Add Follower button and you will see this screen.
Here you can enter the URLs of the platforms you want to follow the person on.
You’re required to input a name and then at least one platform to follow that person on. Hit Save Follower when you are done.
Watcher Spy will then automatically fetch their content on the main Feed page.
By default, this screen shows all the content from everyone you are following. But you can use the filters at the top to narrow down your results by platform, user, time period and tag.
And that’s all you have to do to use Watcher Spy!
Add in everyone you want to follow, and you will have an always-updated feed whenever they publish content on any of their platforms.
Watcher Spy will check for new content every 30 minutes by default (specified in the settings)
Whenever someone publishes something new a numbered badge will appear over the chrome extension icon so you can check.
If you don’t find yourself regularly checking the extension for new content, I also added the ability for Watcher Spy to send you a regular email digest to your inbox directly.
Just go to the Settings page to enable it.
5 Ways to Use Watcher Spy in your business
There are so many ways you can use Watcher Spy to help your business. But here are five ideas to help you get started with the app.
1. Level Up Your Knowledge through Continuous Learning
The main reason why I follow someone is to learn from them.
For example, SEO is a topic I love learning about. The field is constantly changing, so it’s crucial for me to keep up with what the experts are saying about it.
Some of these experts include people like Brian Dean or the guys over at Ahrefs. When they post new content I’ll specifically set aside time to read it because I know I’m going to learn something new on the topic of SEO.
Watcher Spy ensures I’ll never miss new content from them, no matter what platform they are publishing on.
2. Expand Your Network By Finding More Interesting People to Follow
Building your Dream 100 list can take some time. That’s why I use a platform like Twitter to find new influencers in my target market.
For example, one of my favorite people to follow on Twitter is Matt Diggity.
He will often retweet interesting people on his timeline, who I will end up following after I dig into their content.
I like to call people like Matt, “Network Connectors” and the more of these types of people you start following, the faster your network will grow.
3. Build Better Relationships By Engaging with your Favorite Influencers
Building relationships has been one of the key factors in my success online. And the best way to do this, especially if you are not well known yourself, is to regularly engage with the content that your favorite influencers are posting.
Let’s say I wanted to get on the radar of Spencer Mecham, ClickFunnel’s #1 affiliate. (This is only a hypothetical example since I’m already friends with Spencer)
I’d add him as a follower to Watcher Spy and whenever he published a blog post or YouTube video, I’d try to be the first to leave a comment. If he posted on Facebook, I’d visit his post and heart and engage with whatever he wrote there.
This would become a small part of my overall Poster Boy strategy.
If you do this consistently with any influencer, they WILL notice you which is the perfect foot in the door to start building a relationship with them.
And who knows where that could lead.
4. Create an automated Content Idea Machine
If you pick the right influencers to follow with Watcher Spy, you will have a neverending supply of content ideas to use as inspiration.
For example, here on this blog, I write a lot of product reviews.
In Watcher Spy, I often add blogs that I see consistently popping up in the SERPs for the same product reviews that I write about. Then whenever they publish a new product review post, I’ll be alerted to it right away.
And if the product sounds like it has potential, I’ll add it to my own todo list of products to review. I’ve found lots of product review ideas this way.
You can do the same thing by following great content creators on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter as well.
5. Increase Trust by Becoming a Content Curator
Are you suffering from Imposter Syndrome? When you’re new to the game you might be struggling to come up with your own original content.
That’s why content curation is such a powerful thing.
Watcher Spy can help you come up with regular content that’s worth sharing with your audience or even other people’s audiences (like inside other FB groups you frequent).
If you consistently share content that others find valuable, then that naturally increases how people know, like, and trust you.
So even if you are a newbie, you can build up your brand just by curating valuable content and sharing it.
Another great idea for content curation is to put together your own Weekly roundup posts around a specific topic.
Again, I’ll point to Matt Diggity who does a brilliant weekly SEO roundup post on his blog. He curates the best SEO content he’s found during the week and then adds his own editorial to each roundup.
Your readers will love this type of content, and it’s a great way to network with people you end up linking out to. Plus it’s an awesome way to build backlinks as well.
And guess what? I designed Watcher Spy specifically to make creating these roundups easy by giving you the ability to tag your followers and to filter your feed by date.
Final Thoughts
I’ve been using Watcher Spy for a while now, and it’s become a core part of my own content strategy. It’s only $7 a month, and you can take the 14-day free trial to take it for a spin.
Let me know how it works for you, and let me know if you have any feedback.
Great tool! Cant wait to give it a try!