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January 18th, 2012

Want to Become Known as an Industry Expert? 3 Tips to Get You Started

With 2011 behind us and 2012 underway, many of us are starting to take out our list of business goals to make sure that we’re at least started down the path of achieving them. For those of you who’ve decided that this is the year to up your visibility, you may be asking yourself “how?’’ How will you become known as the one to go to for relevant press stories, speaking events or other high profile events? How will you make yourself and your brand stand out in your space?

It starts with building your reputation as an expert. You may be thinking, “Well that’s easy, I AM an expert. No one knows more about my industry than I do.” In that case, you’re more than half way there. It’s great that you feel confident about your knowledge base, but now your focus should turn to getting others to see you in the same light.

Here are a few tips for doing so.

  • Call yourself an expert. This is something that a lot of us are hesitant to do. We fear that others will perceive us as bragging or that there’s some magical threshold we must pass before we can TRULY be considered an expert. Wrong! If you feel confident enough to put your name out there and speak about a particular market segment or industry, feel confident enough to tell people that you’re doing so. Be on the lookout for opportunities to contribute to conversations—whether through social media or relevant industry groups. You can also start to build relationships with a targeted group of bloggers or journalists by letting them know your specific areas of expertise and your willingness to chime in if and when they need a specific quote, facts or data.

 

  • Share Generously. Which brings me to the next point. As you have interesting industry news to share—whether it’s about a particular trend you’re seeing or up-to-the-minute data you’ve gathered, let people know about it. Blog about it, email industry influencers about it—maybe even think about putting together a press release. Sometimes business owners question whether and how much they should share—they think that their knowledge is their ‘special sauce’. When it comes to brand building, application of that knowledge is what counts. Many business owners can study the same topic—the real question is who will become known as the go-to person in that space.

 

  • Stay Focused: While the ability to appoint oneself an expert opens up a world of possibility in terms of business and personal brand-building, the flip side is the worry that the title doesn’t mean anything anymore. If we’re all walking around calling ourselves experts, has the bar for the term been lowered? Maybe, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid the dialogue. Instead, it’s an incentive to be really clear on your skill set and what you want to be known as. For example, telling you I’m a communications expert doesn’t really tell you much about me. You may be wondering if that means I was an English professor in a former life and you should call me with grammatical questions. (I wasn’t and you shouldn’t). However, telling you that I’m an expert in helping high growth businesses stand out from the crowd through powerful content and publicity platforms should give you a much clearer picture of my area of focus.

Making yourself known to industry influencers (media and beyond) is an ongoing effort. It takes time and constant attention. But in today’s noisy world, there’s no short cut in making yourself and your business visible in your space.

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