You may not be an expert on social media, but distinguishing yourself as an expert in your field can gain you the credibility you need to gain readership, offer better SEO traffic, and in the end more conversions on your blog and website.
Heres are some ideas from Head-Hunters to get you started on your expert personal brand:
Decide on a niche for your personal brand expertise
Everyone is an expert out there. But competing against the BIG dogs on social media, marketing are going to relegate you pages deep in searches with the hundreds of thousands of other bloggers and Twittering Twerkers out there. Get specific. Gear your articles towards your SEO and specific keyword results and create rich content that other readers will want to backlink to. Your niche will separate you from the other generalists out there specially in the long tailed search strings that are ranking much higher now and will grow in the future.
Your Opinion
People are looking for thier next opinions, and where do they get them if they haven’t had to time to sort it out themselves ? You
Most opinions are based on the last person they talked to or read. It’s a simple statement of fact. Be dramatic, or tow the party line. But be consistent. People will come back to you because of what you offer them in ideas and if they like your personal branded voice. Flip flopping back and forth will not do you an favours and bring a consistent readership to your platforms. You are also more likely to have reputable sources linking, and retweeting you when you have a steady congruent professional message.
Be Current and topical
In this ever changing super fast world of online digital strategies, it only takes one blink and you are seen as yesterdays news. Making sure you are spending the time to stay current by reading other peoples blogs, news feeds, current policies, and keeping the pulse on the topical conversations (along with your keywords use in all the arenas) will keep your contentfresh and relevant. No one wants to read yesterdays news.
Start locally
It seems simple this idea, and its probably the easiest of all. Start with your local city, neighborhood and target local audiences both online and in the real world. Most of us haveprofessional associations we belong to, or networking groups, or local business groups we work with. Reach out to these groups first, establish yourself as an expert locally and build your following here (while cutting your teeth) before you move onto a wider audience both in person and online. Write articles for local papers, post on local business forums, write press releases and talk on the radio, and get out there to local fetes, and community events and engagements.
Guest Blogging
You can find lists of local blogs that are pertinent in your field. Spend some time googling your competition and find out where thier articles are landing up and how. Pick the leaders in your local field and ask them where thier feeds come from, and then write some RICH keyword articles with relevant content. Use an plugin such as Squirrly SEO to help you get the most out of your articles for ranking. And for Pete’s sake, make sure you have spell checked and had someone proof your article. There is NOTHING worse than seeing amateur mistakes going out on national sites, and there is NO excuse for it!
Guilty by Association
We all know that you can gain a HEAP of recognition instantaneously by celebrity endorsement. Take the time to consider who in your industry has that celebrity pull (Seth Godin is the first person that comes to mind not to mention the highest raking blog online). Guest blogging is a great way to get some juice from industry leaders and the recognition and backlinking and twitter mentionshelping you with momentous gains in followers! Mentions, direct linking, recommendations, retweets, follows, all add up really quickly in the social media world! Get out and interview the leaders and experts in the field you are wanting to penetrate. Just the request alone will put you on the map as due dilligence leads those experts to check out your validity and even though you might not make the final cut, at least you have introduced yourself as ‘keen and on the scene’.
Just imagine what an endorsement from Brangelina would do for your personal brand!
Lets go start that expert path today and see you in the ‘bright future’.
If you have any further ideas about creating your expert personal brand let us know in the comments below!
Featured images:
License: Royalty Free or iStock source: www.shutterstock
License: Image author owned
Erin Pimm is a photographer specializing in portfolio and headshots as well as images for online businesses. She also has a keen interest in maximizing digital media, blogging, SEO, Social Media and how to leverage every drop out of your personal and business brand at Head-Hunters Photography
