As people go about continuing their education, at some point everyone becomes an expert in something. What is important to remember is that others don’t know that you are the expert in something unless you make it a point to say so.
So what I’m going to introduce here is my own five step approach to how to become an industry expert. I know these steps work because I’ve followed them in the past (previous brands of myself), and am comfortably to the point of saying I’m an expert on a few things; Linux, Oracle to name two. I have spoken at conferences, written white papers and sat on advisory boards. You might be thinking that you aren’t an expert in anything, but that simply isn’t true. As I’ve become more knowledgeable about new things, why not share the expertise I’ve learned with others? Remember everyone is an expert in something! People around you come to you for advice in your field so to them, you absolutely ARE an expert.
1. Determine Your Area of Expertise
The first step is to figure out what this field of expertise is. Remember: passion is very important here because the more passion you have towards a subject the more committed you are and the deeper you are willing to go to be the best. One of the greatest things about the web is the fact this area of expertise can be very specific because of the scale of the internet.
If you are an expert in ice fishing in Michigan, then share that. There are people that are willing to pay an expert ice fisherman to take them on trips. Get this passion onto the web and tell your story. Use this medium to get found! Yes, people will WANT to pay you to take them on trips. Personally I LOVE solving problems through the web and helping people be successful through this channel, hence why I take the time to write this.
2. Start Creating Content
Start a Professional/Personal Blog: The first step to getting found is actually being out there producing the content that you love. The reason I say professional/personal is because your personal passion and expertise should come through in your writing, videos, pictures, etc. Don’t be afraid to establish a unique persona. People love stories so tell yours. (Here is a great post on personal branding from copy blogger that highlights the use of a unique persona: What Belly Dancing Taught Me about Personal Branding)
But Find ways to relate your experiences into your expertise, but this doesn’t mean we care what you had for dinner or lunch. That is what twitter is for. Remember, just because you take it for granted and do it on a daily basis doesn’t mean others have a clue how those things really get done.
3. Start Building Relationships
Comment on Other Blogs: Back links are the currency of the Web. You need the Back links and brand recognition to get off the ground with your new identity, so get out there into channels and begin engaging. Just because you are an expert doesn’t mean that you are the ONLY expert. Also, if there are other established experts out there these are the people that you want to be networking with. They obviously share your passion and you have a lot in common. Start building a relationship with them.
From a strictly search engine standpoint all those comments are back links pointing to your personal site. You should know that 99.9% of blogs have comments set up as nofollow links (they don’t pass search authority). This means that they won’t help your rankings in search engines. The whole point of a link is to drive traffic and if you are leaving great comments then people will click through to see who you are. I can tell you as a blogger I ALWAYS click through to see who people that leave insightful comments on my blog are.
Finally, just to be extremely clear on this step, starting your own blog and commenting on blogs are what help you rank for your own name in search engines. As you build out more authority as an expert, ranking for your own name is crucial! One other tip: having a short name that is easy to remember and easy to type is helpful in establishing an identity. Not that you can change your name, but coming up with a short and easy to remember identity can be a game changer. (More on this in a future post on how/why I am branding myself as paulmacp)
4. Network, Network, Network
I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it a hundred more times: most of the time it’s not about what you known but whom you know. I’ve learned a ton about the web over the last 8 years, but even I don’t know everything and would never hope too. What I do know is that between Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and the still not obsolete telephone, I can resolve just about any problem thrown at me.
Those comments I mentioned earlier are a great way to start building those relationships with experts you hope to join! Having six hundred friends on Facebook, two hundred connections on LinkedIn and four hundred followers on Twitter is only good if you actually know who those people are and what they do. You don’t want to necessarily be dependent on them, but you never know when there is a service one could help you with and one with which you can help them. Also, get out and go to social events related to your niche and definitely DO NOT be shy and sit in the corner at these opportunities. A good examples of new type of social event is the meetups on Facebook or currently popular tweetups.
5. Write an e-book
Once upon a time I would have recommended making a presentation at a conference that supports your niche. But professional conferences are quickly becoming a thing of the past, like newspapers. So now I suggest writing an e-book, pulling from all those blog articles, notes and stories that you have compiled on your niche. As if it wasn’t hard enough to get off the ground and make it to step five, this one requires the biggest leap of faith. After producing the e-book give it away for free and produce a 5-20 minute video explaining its key lessons. Think of this as a virtual keynote presentation on YouTube.
Remember your network that you have been building? If you have really built relationships then they will be there to support you. Finally, I just can’t help but address it… If you really know your subject and your audience then you shouldn’t be afraid of putting it out there on video.
Conclusion
Although there might be more steps on this path, these steps stand out as being the most helpful in my mind. The point is to get off the ground and ask yourself if you have the passion and what you can become with it! What steps would you give in this digital age to build a reputation, your own personal brand (more on that in later posts) and become an expert in your niche?
photo credit: alancleaver_2000
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