Become an Industry Expert
One of the best ways to become an expert in your industry is to create a blog. Alot of people believe that they want to be, or are, an expert in their chosen profession, yet they haven’t told anyone that they ARE an expert! A blog allows you to tell the world that you would be their best choice when they need to avail themselves of your services and expertise.
Blogging allows you to educate present and potential clients about topics related to your industry and how much you know about those topics. It proves to people that you are up-to-date, informed and knowledgeable about what is happening within your area of expertise. This information makes people want to connect with you verses connecting with your competitors.
To be successful in blogging you set up a blog and a schedule for posting blog content; perhaps at the rate of 1 new blog per week. Determine what you are going to write about; perhaps topical news or industry-wide news. A great example of a company who uses their blog to great advantage is Vision Payroll Company of Leominster, MA. You’ll see how often they update their blog with information regarding the payroll industry, issues regarding minimum wage and unemployment; as well as announcements from the federal government with regard to payroll topics. These are all excellent choices that demonstrate that they are updating their website with topical, timely information and the reality is that they didn’t pull the info programmatically. They have actually read these articles and understand them. They know what’s going on within their industry and with other entities that directly impact their industry.
Let me just touch base briefly on how NOT to blog. If you set up a blog the worst thing you can do is put up your first message and then not post anything again for 4 months. Sporadic posting is not effective because it leads people to believe that you are not knowledgeable and are not keeping up with changes and news within your industry. You need to create a database of articles or at least have a good idea of what you are going to post in the future so that you are faithful and consistent in your posting.
To get the word out, and we’ll talk about that in a later post, you’ll want to feed your blog through your FaceBook Fan Page. If you feed from your Fan Page then more people are going to see your name and your blog. That’s called “reach” and your marketing reach is going to grow enormously by using this simple tool.
So, that’s how you become known as an expert in your industry. You may already be an expert but you need to tell everyone you are by informing them and educating them about your industry in general and why they need to avail themselves of your expertise in particular.