How to Become an Authority in Your Industry

If you are a florist, vet, personal coach or stylist and you want to grow your business, it pays to establish yourself as an authority in your industry. Ultimately you want to establish yourself as the authority in the industry. Alternatively you may have a passion that you’d like to make profitable, again you will need to establish your authority in the area. How do you do that? By establishing a personal brand! Ideally you will use a combination of online and offline strategies. That means you need to use social media and traditional media, like newspapers and radio.

Get a Team

Does this sound overwhelming? Then recruit some help! Basically you need to find someone who can write and someone who has the tech know-how. You may think that you don’t know anyone with these skills, but think again. When it comes to finding a writer ask yourself if you know an English teacher, a journalist or PR specialist or even someone who likes to write fictional short stories. Could you ask them to help you produce your content? Now you need to find someone who understands social media. Do you have a friend with this kind of expertise? Or do you know any teenagers? Most teenagers have an amazing amount of online knowledge! They understand Facebook and could easily set up a blog after watching an online video on the process. They also probably already know how to post to YouTube, and have Instagram and Twitter accounts. Another alternative is to pay a company to help you.

Build your Profile

Once you’ve found your support team, it’s time to start building your profile. I would suggest you begin by blogging. A blog is basically a column written by you and posted online. There are many sites that host blogs, including WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr. You can also illustrate your site with photos and video, again ask your IT support person for help. Once you have a blog, send out emails to everyone you know, with a link to your blog. Ask your friends to send the link out to their contacts.

Use Social Media

As well as a blog, ideally you should have a Facebook page. The page should profile you, your education, expertise and experience, and have a photo and email contact address. You should regularly update your Facebook page with relevant, engaging posts. You might want to write comments on industry trends. If you are a personal stylist, what is big in London and New York? You should also set up a Twitter account and there are other platforms you can use – Instagram, YouTube, SnapChat and Pinterest. The more platforms you use the more often you will be found when people search Google for content relating to your industry.

Leverage the Media

Again, don’t forget to use traditional media to establish your expertise. Traditional media like newspapers, radio and television still have huge followings. If you are a vet you could offer to write a weekly column on pet care for your local newspaper. If you’re a personal coach, why not contact the host of a Saturday radio program and offer to do a weekly spot on self-improvement. Start by approaching a community radio station. Often local newspapers and community radio are scratching for content.

All this might sound like a great deal of work, but remember you can repurpose or recycle content. The articles you write for the community newspaper can also be posted up on your blog and Facebook pages.

Have Strong Visuals

Do not forget to use photographs and video on your webpages. Today people are overloaded with information, so photos and graphics are a great way to grab attention. Strong visuals communicate ideas. For example you could post up dynamic pictures of yourself at work. The brain processes visual information thousands of times faster than text. Ninety percent of the information transmitted to the brain is visual. Good photos speed up comprehension and retention and prompt emotional reactions. You also need to think about designing a strong logo for yourself or business. What about funny cartoons for your site? Do you know anyone who can draw? Your webpages should have multiple layers enhancing your ‘brand’ identity.

Engage with your Audience

In building your profile you might also want to consider how the public can interact with you. Connecting and engaging with others builds your brand. If you write a column for the community newspaper, could you also invite letters – perhaps questions from your readers? Could people post comments to your webpages? There are many nasty trolls out there – always ensure that you restrict posting when you set up a new webpage.

Aside from letters and questions, there are other ways of interacting with the public. There are quizzes, polls and contests you could add to your web or newspaper content.

Use Videos

Videos are growing in popularity online. Half of mobile data usage goes to viewing videos. Videos are another form of visuals that evoke emotions and feelings. Have you ever thought about going live on a webinar? You could promote your webinar ahead of time and then interact live with your followers.

Start Public Speaking

Another way to establish your expertise in an area is public speaking. There are many community groups on the look-out for guest speakers. To build your brand, you have to put in the hard yards first. Please get a gathering of family and friends together to listen to your speech before you give it in public. Ask for honest feedback, and instead of being defensive, write down everything they say and then consider each comment carefully. A good speech is hard to write. It is a fine balance between humour and insight and ultimately tells a story and provides the listener with a lesson or new information.

Write a Book

Spend a good year building your profile through online and traditional media. Next step is to consider writing a book and self-publishing with a company like Amazon. There are heaps of sites on the internet that will guide you through this process. You could promote your book though your webpages and also your appearances in traditional media. At this point you might also consider paying for some advertising.

Remember that Rome was not built in a day, but becoming an industry authority will increase your sales and establish your business as the pre