How to Be a Trusted Expert in Your Niche

Use Personal Branding & Promotion to Be an Authority Online

Everybody is an expert at something. Watch the video from Jim Kukral talking about his strategy for identifying your expertise and building a business out of your personal brand. You can become a trusted expert online in virtually any niche in just a few short weeks. When you are an acknowledged authority–you know more than the people who are searching for help with the problems you can solve–you can parlay your expertise into a nice living.

Tim Ferriss is one of the latest authors and speakers to talk about how you can design your lifestyle using this approach (as well as other methods) in his book, The 4-Hour WorkWeek.

He gives some tips on how to do this and I’ve added my own from my work on The Four Pillars of Personal Promotion. I’ve been helping peopled become experts to increase their business results for many years.

Tim’s tips:

1.  Join two or three related trade organizations

2.  Read the three top-selling books in your niche

3.  Give one free seminar at a nearby well-known university on your topic

4.  Write one or two articles for a related trade magazine

5.  Join ProfNet

I like all of these tips. We’re not suggesting that you become a “fake” expert. But you can quickly demonstrate your expertise and help many people with the level of information you already have in your area of expertise. It could be something you now do only as a hobby–such as breeding Betta fish. (By the way, Adam Short, founder of Betta Fish Center website, has built quite a business from this little website with a newsletter of helpful advice about caring for your Betta fish. He claims he gets 20,000 unique visitors per month. Quantcast.com shows an estimated 8,000 per month at this writing. Still a sizeable amount of visitors and a growing email list that he markets to!)

You should strongly consider blogging and engaging in social media and social networking sites such as LinkedIn (where you can submit your personal and company profile, make online connections with other businesspeople, and answer questions in your field), Facebook (start a business fan page, the equivalent of a personal profile), Twitter (micro-blogging), and YouTube (create your business video channel) and other key outposts to publish online content that demonstrates your expertise and your helpfulness.

Have you “Googled” yourself lately? It’s an exercise that may bring you many insights. The search engines are placing more emphasis on social media posts (including blogs) because they are current and often expert information about the topic being searched. If you “Google” my name, you’ll probably see that my LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook  profiles are at the top of your results. (Individual results will vary–another thing the search engines are doing now is presenting you with more and more personalized search results based on your previous search behavior).

I’ll expand on some of my other tips in a related post:  The 4 Pillars of PersonalBranding & Promotion.

Marketing You, Inc–Use LinkedIn to Find a New Job

Yesterday I arrived at the office to learn that one of my small business clients had suddenly shut down operations. Big message on the website home page and Facebook page: Doors closed, orders cancelled and refunds to be made to customers. It was a shock to me and my co-workers, and apparently to the staff I was working with on SEO and social media efforts to improve the company’s online reputation management (ORM).

Fortunately, I had made connections with my key contacts at this company on LinkedIn so I could message them there (the company emails would not get to them). I sent them each a personal message of sympathy and support and offered to help them in the transition to the next position.

I was reminded that the time to weave your parachute is before you’re ejected from the plane! Use LinkedIn now while you are an employed, successful expert in your field to make connections and provide assistance. Then, when you need a parachute, your LinkedIn network of connections will be there to keep you from free falling. Don’t forget about  in-person networking and other online ways to create your parachute as well, such as Twitter, Facebook, business forums, and professional organizations.

Guy Kawasaki, author and entrepreneur, published an article  “10 Ways to Use LinkedIn” with some interesting statistics and tips, including:

• People with more than twenty connections are thirty-four times more likely to be approached with a job opportunity than people with less than five.

• All 500 of the Fortune 500 are represented in LinkedIn. In fact, 499 of them are represented by director-level and above employees.

• The average number for Harvard Business School grads is fifty-eight, so you could skip the MBA, work at Google, and probably get most of the connections you need. Later, you can hire Harvard MBAs to prepare your income taxes.

My Top 45 Tips on Becoming an Expert for March

Tips to Become an Expert Online

If you didn’t have a chance to follow my “micro-blog”posts on Twitter @CYL4G_SallyAnne, here’s a summary of my top tips and related links to help you become an expert online:

1. Recycle your online content to get more bang for your buck. 7 ways to repurpose articles and blog posts creatively. http://kl.am/9Mqv
2. Considering a site redesign or migration for your blog? Helpful tips to make it successful for search engine findability. http://kl.am/9IbN
3. DalaiLama The greater the level of calmness of our mind, the greater our peace of mind, and the greater our ability to enjoy a happy and joyful life.
4. zappos “Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” -Anonymous
5. “If you want to write the fortunes for…cookies that don’t exist any more…lead your own tribe and hire yourself.” Seth http://kl.am/9FBV
6. More than a biz expert. . .be a “maven”. . . passionate and sharing helpful information with others on your website/blog. http://kl.am/9EPl
7. Need ideas for your biz blog topics? Copyblogger has 50 ideas to help your customers get the most from your service. http://kl.am/9BJv
8. Become an expert. Start your own online business. Take away some of the uncertainty of a “job”. http://kl.am/9wr3
9. Everything on your website/blog is “content”. So who writes those “404 Error” message pages? Do they help your visitors? http://kl.am/9sBA
10. SEO tip to Capture lost link juice… How to Redirect 404’s to your Home Page in WordPress (cont) http://tl.gd/k2so8
11. 8 mistakes you’re probably making on your website and how to correct them with keywords, links, calls to action and more. http://kl.am/9o3a
12. Make the new FTC guidelines on disclosure your best friend for your website and affiliate marketing copywriting. http://kl.am/9jPY
13. SMBs use social media for real results to build relationships, engage local community, & provide extraordinary service: http://kl.am/9h4j
14. The art of deep conversation can lead to happiness. That’s something you can’t Tweet in 140 characters! NYT article http://kl.am/9dOt 10:40 PM Mar 21st via web
15. thatbradleyguy just found a very cool new website: http://bit.ly/2Sj0IV (it’s called muselife)
16. Your best online content begins with solid keyword research. Brush up on how to’s with these great tips from Copyblogger. http://kl.am/92sx
17. Creative marketing genious, Seth Godin: “You can’t out Amazon Amazon” & other gems. Great video interview about Linchpin. http://kl.am/8YSa
18. Eureka! Guy who dipped a chunk of ice cream in chocolate and invented Eskimo Pies had a creative genius idea. You can too. http://kl.am/8XpM
19. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.” – Ben Franklin. Blogging is for Benjamins ($) http://kl.am/8UaU
20. Small biz spends higher % of total mktg budget on content. Why? Higher rankings, better brand building, cost-effective. http://kl.am/8SIo
21. Chris Brogan has some quick customer touch points to help you manage your social networking time and efforts wisely. http://kl.am/8S2I
22. SMBs fail at marketing online with content because they don’t niche small enough! Small is the new big, as Seth Godin says. http://kl.am/8PDp
23. Why grow your SMB? Small is a great destination in itself. Build a profitable, satisfying biz, and be happy! Tim Ferriss http://kl.am/8Nql
24. How self promotion online will change the world – P. Shankman at SXSW. Relevance, helpfulness, transparency are critical. http://kl.am/8Jm2
25. “Chances are that your job likes you precisely as much as you like it. But no more.” – N.Hill. Find the best in it. Focus. http://kl.am/8IOk
26. Spend your time creating thoughtful, valuable blog posts with your insights. Automate distribution to Facebook fan page, Twitter, LinkedIn.
27. tferriss too much focus on distribution, not enough on good content #sxsweird 7:30 PM Mar 14th via txt Retweeted by you and 8 others.
28. Online marketing success–not about magic SEO tricks or super PR insider connections, it’s fresh, relevant content. http://kl.am/8Ck5 #SXSW
29. Even a SMB needs a content strategy–fancy name for marketing plan. Determine your customer-focused message and goals. http://kl.am/8y4D
30. For SMB bloggers trying to figure out where and how to spend time on other social media efforts, CMO has a great chart. http://kl.am/8xJX
31. Local search is a hot topic in search engine optimization circles. How can you help your small biz be found by searchers? http://kl.am/8uHc
32. “The climb upward will be easier if you take others along with you.” Take the initiative. Inspire those around you. http://www.naphill.org/
33. 8 essential apps for your brand’s Facebook fan page, including Twitter, Notes, blog RSS, Flash, and Posted Items Pro. http://kl.am/8qrU
34. I just read a great post by Outspoken Media on “Personal Branding and Finding Your Naked Super Hero.” Found yours yet? http://kl.am/8mIh
35. “The surest way to promote yourself is to help others get ahead.”–Napoleon Hill http://kl.am/8kom Does your biz focus on clients’ success?
36. Want to start your own small biz? Go solo with consulting? Take this 2-minute quiz to see if you’re entrepreneur material. http://kl.am/8hd5
37. Want to use Twitter as a small biz private messaging IM group–for projects or customer support? Mashable has some tips http://kl.am/8aZv
38. Public speaking tips to nip negative tweets RT @mashable: 5 Ways to Use Twitter to Avoid a Backchannel Disaster – http://bit.ly/d5rOfm
39. Is your online biz ready? Google’s “caffeine” update is affecting your rankings now. Content–fresh, relevant, linked, social–is critical!
40. Got the “woulda, coulda, shoulda’s” about your affiliate marketing publisher site? Read SugarRae’s inspiring success story http://kl.am/87zd
41. “In the cacophony of voices, the leader is the one who can make sense of the din.” –Paul Gillin. Are you and your biz ‘din’ or ‘sense’?
42. You can get HBR case studies for $7. Check out the HubSpot Inbound Marketing case study to improve your online business. http://kl.am/81G7
43. Create case studies on your expertise and success stories, and share them on Facebook, Twitter, SlideShare for viral WOM. http://kl.am/80gO
44. How to build and promote your personal or SMB brand? Become an expert and act like a publisher. BNET tips from 7 gurus: http://kl.am/7Z8o
45. What’s Sprezzatura? Experts make it look easy with grace, elan and class. RT @ThisIsSethsBlog Seth’s Blog: Sprezzatura http://bit.ly/bzFurb

Update:  By the way, if you are looking for creative ways to find topics for your own expert blog, you can do the same type of post by “curating” your Twitter posts, IMs, Facebook fan page updates and other social media content. I wrote about this recently in the LinkShare blog on “Twitter Your Way to a Blog Post.” This technique also makes your Twitter posts more search-engine friendly for SEO value.