Expert Advice

With the growing influence of social media and new ways to communicate, it is getting harder for your voice to be heard above the chatter. To succeed, you must not only be heard but believable. This begins with positioning yourself as an expert. Here are a few tips that might help:

1. Choose the one thing that you do best and are passionate about and build on that strength. If you are a marketer and your passion is branding, focus on that. If your business is local, start by targeting your efforts close to home.


2. Talk about your passion to everyone who will listen. Okay, this should not be the only thing you talk about at holiday parties, but have an elevator speech ready to use when someone asks what you do!


3. Participate in online conversations related to your topic. Follow other bloggers or news sources and comment on their stories (make sure you include your website URL in your response); contact local radio and TV stations and offer to comment on news stories; submit commentary or offer to be interviewed by reporters. Check out the website HARO.com (Help a Reporter Out); this is a good way to get quoted as an expert.


4. What is your Google "footprint"? Will people find you when they search? Press releases and social media like LinkedIn (a business must), Facebook, Twitter, Picassa, Flickr, having a website URL with your name (even if it redirects to your bio page on your business site), and creating a Google Profile all increase your footprint and make it easier for others to find you online.


5. Start a blog. Make sure you add new content at least a couple times a week. Even if no one reads the blog at first, it helps get you “found” by the search engines and gives you another place to post relevant content. If you don’t feel you have time to blog, guest blog for others. Note that it makes sense to secure a URL related to your passion and use this on your materials.


6. Write a book or produce a video. Both are great ways to add credibility and position you as an expert.

Building yourself as an expert in the eyes of the public is not an overnight process. It does take time and effort, but keep at it and you will be surprised at the results! Let us know what you have done to distinguish yourself and become more visible to colleagues and the public.

Are You a Real Person?

By Jeanne Frazer

When we work with clients, we spend a lot of time researching and analyzing results. One of the common denominators across almost every client we partner with is the interest by their website visitors and prospects in them as individuals. Having a bio page on your website is a start, but the basics aren't enough anymore.

Potential clients are searching for a reason to choose you and it isn’t always education and associations. So what do we recommend? You need to become a "real person" in the minds of your prospective clients. Here are a few suggestions to consider:

• Include some personal information along with your education and experience. Why did you choose your current job? Which areas do you like best? What are your hobbies and interests? You may want to also post a photo if you don’t have one there already. Consider adding other pictures that show more personality than the standard head shot. Change photos based on the season.
• Include a personal approach/focus to articles you write for newsletters, brochures, etc. Write about what you learned during summer vacation (related to your business, of course!).
• Create a Google Profile for free at www.google.com/profiles; this has the added benefit of appearing in search engine results.
• Make sure you’re LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/), with a free personal and company profile. Public profiles are found by the search engines and will pick up new activity. Ask for recommendations.
• Add a Facebook page (personal and business) at http://www.facebook.com/. Make sure you set your privacy settings or don't provide too much personal data. Include a link to your business website, as well.

While you don't want to open up all aspects of your personal life, you DO want to provide just enough information to allow clients and prospects to become comfortable with you and to make a connection.