Calvin Lee, also known as @MayhemStudios, has been building his online influence for years. While Calvin is an award-winning graphic designer, he is often most recognized for his social media influence. Whether he is tweeting about the latest in tech, social media strategy, food porn or his workouts (slowly becoming the Hulk’s stunt double), Calvin Lee has built a large and super-engaged audience on most of the large social media networks. His 86,000 followers on Twitter makes his community larger than the rest of our speakers combined. You might also recognize him from his features in publications like WIRED, Forbes and Huffington Post. Calvin was also a case study in Mark Schaefer’s book, Return on Influence. This year, Calvin was rated by Forbes as one of the Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers of 2013.
I first connected with Calvin when I joined the Klout Squad and quickly realized that his Twitter wasn’t lying about him being the “Nicest Guy in #LA.” When I started working with the Confluence Conference team, I knew that I wanted to reach out to Calvin to get his insight on digital influence. He was gracious enough to answer a few questions for me.
What do you think is the biggest factor in your rise as a digital influencer?
You have to be a Giver. You have to be Genuine. You have to expect nothing in return. I like and feel good when I help others by sharing their context, answering questions and being social.
You should also be out there in the space, online and in #irl. Truly, want to meet and engage people. I was a very shy person when I first started. Twitter really brought me out of my shell. Funny, people that knew me back then say now “What Shell?”
What is the best piece of advice that you got from someone else about building or managing your online community?
Good question, I don’t think anyone has yet. Since I started way back before social was popular. Everyone came to me for the answers.
What tools do you like to use to manage your different communities on social media?
I don’t really use any. My main social media are Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and Path. I dislike automation of any kind. I’m pretty old school and still do everything manually from the app. It may take me longer but I feel it’s more legit.
What’s the one piece of advice that you’d give a blogger/tweeter that is looking to ‘Make It’ as a digital influencer?
You have to be passionate about what you do and really want to be there to make the connections, engage and help others. People will see this and will return in kind.
