How to Promote Yourself as an Expert

Think of yourself as a "personal brand"

• Branding yourself as a person (personal branding) will explain how to do this

 

Get a professional "head shot" taken of yourself

Don't skimp and have a friend or family member take this.

You will use this photo everywhere. You want to look your best. 

You can save money by going to someplace like JC Penney's Portrait Studio. You can make an appointment online and bring in several different things to wear. You can see what they look like right away. You want to buy the disk of the digital versions, not the printed photos. Look for a coupon to save more.

Or find a professional photographer who specializes in "head shots." They will charge more ($200 and up, plus time for touch ups). 

 

Here are some examples of professional "head shots"

 

 

 

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Start speaking at meetings and conferences

Prepare several impactful presentations. Then promote yourself as a speaker. Talk to as many groups as possible.

Volunteer to talk to key organizations, service clubs and business groups free of charge.

Start with smaller venues and groups and then work up to speaking at national conferences and events. 

• Public Speaking has more tips

Give "webinars"

These are talks you give for free online. If you've given a speech, you can give it again as a webinar to increase the number of people who hear you.

• Webinars explains how to do this

 

Create a video bio about yourself

A video bio  should not be a video resume. Instead it should bring you as a person "to life".  Use it as a way to demonstrate your "soft skills" and personality by sharing stories about your achievements as a way to help you stand out from the crowd by making a real connection with your prospective clients or customers.

Don't get in front of the camera until you're confident with what you want to say. But don't rehearse too much.

Make sure it looks professional. Use the proper audio, and lighting to position yourself most positively.  Consider using VideoBio, an online company that specializes in this.  Or do it yourself by learning about Video Marketing

Upload your video bio to video-sharing sites like YouTube, Viddler, Tube Mogul, and Vimeo. Include a link at the top of your resume, in your LinkedIn profile, and on your blog. Tweet your video to your followers.

Write a letter to the editor each quarter

Share tips and advice to help people.  Most local papers accept letters to the editor that are not obvious sales pitches. 

 

You've got to toot your own horn, or pay a PR person to do that for you

You need to let others know that you exist and that you are an expert source of information about your industry.

• Best Sources for Marketing Freelancers
  
• Press Releases

 

Write a book (or pamphlet) and publish it yourself

Make sure the cover looks impressive and professional.

Send your book to your existing clients with a personal note.

Send it to people you want to view you as The Expert - People in the press, industry leaders, people you want to refer business to you

• How to Create and Publish Your Own Book
  

 

Write articles

• There are lots of places that accept articles. Learn more about Article Marketing.

Contact your industry trade magazine editor or local town newspaper about writing a column. Be prepared with a sample column to share with them.

 

Write a blog

• How to Make a Blog
• How to Write a Personal Blog
  
• If you don't have time to do this yourself, start a company blog that people you identify in your company collaboratively write. Those are called Business Blogs.
• How to Attract People to Read Your Blog
• All about Blogs and Blogging
  
  

Guest post on other blogs

Here are some online resources for finding relevant blogs to request to guest post on: Technorati; Authority Blogger; Google has a topic based blog search and a ‘Related blogs about…’ feature;  MyBlogGuest is a forum for connecting people who need guest bloggers with people who want to post on other peoples blogs.

• Top Blogs lists the top blogs and explains how to find the most popular blogs in an industry or local area. 

 

Get quoted by the press

You need to do research on what reporters cover what topics and industries and cultivate a relationship with them.  Help them look good, compliment them, give them tips, respond immediately when they call and need a quote.

• See How to Get the Press to Cover Your Business. Create a win-win relationship with people that is give and take, not all about what you want.
• See Business Networking.

 

Help a Reporter out (HARO) www.helpareporter.com, a website that alerts you via email to stories that print and broadcast reporters are working on for which they need sources to interview who are experts. It's free. Journalists from reputable publications use this. We know of a small business owner and consultant who was interviewed by a writer for the Wall Street Journal through HARO. You'll need to respond immediately to requests from reporters since they are on deadline. 

The main way to become an industry voice and be quoted is through building relationships with reporters which now is easier than ever as each has blogs, online versions, etc., that enable you to engage with the reporter and establish some level of credibility versus smiling and dialing.

Listing yourself as a subject matter expert available for interviews at ProfNet and HARO (help a reporter out) can make it easy for the right reporters to find you.

• MuckRack.com is a good way to find and follow journalists by beat and/or by news organization. They describe themselves this way, "What if you could get tomorrow's newspaper today? Now you sorta can, by tracking the short messages on Twitter written by the journalists who do the muckraking for major media outlets. Muck Rack makes it easy to follow one line, real time reporting."

Answer questions on popular question and answer sites

• This article on social media Question and Answer Sites explains how to do this well

 

Contact experts in the field and ask them how they became experts

• Learn more about Business Networking

 

Get involved in key groups on a committee or as a board member

Host seminars

• Seminar Marketing explains how

 

Host (or be a guest on) a local radio or TV talk show

Start tweeting and attract followers on Twitter

• Learn more about Twitter Marketing

 

Start business networking

• List of Business Networking Sites & Organizations
  
• Effective Business Networking
  

 

Use LinkedIn

Use your status update to tell your connections about what events you're speaking at, when your book is published, to give links to great blog posts...

• Learn more about LinkedIn Marketing

 

Learn all you can about video marketing

Post speeches you've given on YouTube and other video sites

Create videos just to post on these sites

• Learn more about Video Marketing

 

Learn all you can about social media marketing

• Social Media Marketing

 

Write letters to the local newspaper that offer relevant advice and tips for the community

These won't be accepted if they come off as a "sales pitch".

What does work is thanking (and naming) people in the community for participating in an event; a restaurant can offer a recipe for an upcoming holiday; a CPA can offer some tax tips; a veterinarian can suggest ways to keep pets safe during the winter or during fireworks. 

 

Do all this and, by the time you contact people in the press and broadcast media and present yourself as an expert, you’ll have plenty of credentials.