Defining Yourself as an Expert Online Part 6 of 6

For those who have read all my blog posts for the last 5 weeks about using the Internet to define yourself as an expert I appreciate it. For those of you who have not you might want to look at one or all of these articles to help you get more from this wrap up.

• Introduction Article
• Using Your Website to Define Yourself as an Expert
• Using Your Blog to Define Yourself as an Expert
• Using Social Networking to Define Yourself as an Expert
• Using Email Marketing to Define Yourself as an Expert
• Using Local Resources to Define Yourself as an Expert

Each of these articles provides one aspect of the parts of a plan. Your Internet marketing plan cannot work effectively if it is an island and not part of an overall plan to increase brand awareness and differentiate yourself from the others you compete with.

The reason for a plan is to see the big picture of what you are doing and evaluate what success means. It is very easy to invest all your time in answering questions on LinkedIn Answers or sending out the best eNewsletter the world has ever seen but if these things are not part of a greater plan how will they help you?

I love the book Good to Great by Jim Collinsand in the book the idea of a Hedgehog Concept is revealed. The Hedgehog concept asks three questions of a company that relate to a business plan but are the most overarching questions a business can ask should relate to marketing as well.

1. What you can be the best in the world at (and, equally important, what you cannot be the best in the world at)?

2. What drives your economic engine?

3. What you are deeply passionate about?

You can read more about this on the Good to Great Website but the crux of the story is that where these circles intersect that is your business. Once you know this about your business you can apply it to your marketing.

What marketing tools show that you are the best in the world as something that matches your economic engine and you are deeply passionate about. If you don’t like the idea of email and in fact you hate getting email you will not do a good job with it and it is not the right tool for you.

If answering questions online takes all your time than it does not match your economic engine. It is nice and important to share the knowledge we have but we must do it in a way that helps makes sure we have food on our plate.

It is important not spread yourself to thin. Is it better to be in more places with junk or fewer places with high quality content? I would hope you would say that quality is more important than quantity. Consistency is also a critical factor. Can you keep up the quality writing 4 blog posts a week or is it better to write 2 and sometimes three to keep up the quality?

Remember, email marketing is part ‘how we are doing this’ as well. Try to collect where you connect, meaning that if you are connecting with people ask for their email address for your email newsletter. You should have a form on your website, links on your blog and your social networking presence. Research suggests that email is the preferred media for reaching people over 30 and that it will be for a long time.

One of the tricks to all this is give people the information they want when they want it. You should provide links between your presences just like we talked about above with sign-up opportunities. The Denver DataMan contact page lists many ways and places to Contact Denver DataMan giving everyone the tools they want.

I hope you feel that you have better tools to define yourself as an expert. It is a lot of work and you will find there are things about it that are very hard but using it can also be a lot of fun. Share, grow and discover how these new technologies can help you.

Part 5 of 6 - Using Local Resources to Define Yourself as an Expert

As the Internet grows with more content, finding things in your local sphere of influence can be more challenging. A growing market of local search and information sites are becoming more popular and to use as a place to define yourself as an expert.

When search engines started to become popular, Yahoo created indexes categorized data by localities. Yahoo Local and tools on Google, in addition to many other search engines help users find things related to their location. You can use these indexes to get your content listed with local information. Looking like an expert online involves being found online where other experts are found. RachLocal is a service that helps you get on local searches and buy advertising with the search engines for local search.

There are index services that help find people in your area. For example, there is ColoradoBizBuzz.com. Merchant Circle is another site provides access to local companies. You can also find pay for sites like Angie’s List . However, I caution you to question the value in paying for the service with other free options.

Another aspect of Local Internet is local bloging sites. There are sites from the major players like Your Hub, The Denver Post, and others. Sites like Hello Denver, TDC Guide and Lone Tree Guide are other examples.

Getting involved in local search and local blogs is an important part of defining yourself as an expert.

Part 4 of 5 (now 6) Using Social Networks

One of the biggest buzz words in business and the rest of the world is social networking. Is social networking more than teenagers talking their weekend? It is, much more than this, especially as social networking sites grow. Social networks, as well as specific social networks, are becoming viable parts of a strategy to use the Internet to define yourself as an expert.

Stepping back from the main topic, two words in the last paragraph stand out as critical points to the overall series. The first is part – each of these articles discusses a piece of the overall puzzle. Just one part is not going to be effective unless it is part of a cohesive whole. The second word is strategy. The word implies that there is a plan and that your use of social networks or other tools is planned. Without a plan you cannot have success.

To get an overview of social networking you should read this article, but this blog post will cover the specifics of defining yourself as an expert.

The trick to defining yourself as an expert using social networking is to work with the social network and its norms. One should not to use it in a pushy way against the flow and norms of the network. For example, norms for LinkedIn questions expect you to ask and answer questions not by not trying to promote your products or services.

I am a user of LinkedIn AnswersLinkedIn Answers and I think almost any service business should be as complete. LinkedIn Answers gives business people a forum to ask questions about any topic under the sun. Answers can be voted as best and commented on. These best answers are ones that show your expertise but do not sell a specific solution. In this article on ReadWriteWeb there is a list of many Q&A sites and the types of questions they lend themselves too.

I have personally focused on LinkedIn Answers because one of these easiest ways to fail using social networks is to over-extend yourself. Answering questions for a bunch of different networks can’t be a full time job. Find one or two networks that you will focus on.
If your market calls for reaching young professionals, Facebook is your place. Facebook was started as a place for social interactions and it is exploding into a place for business. Facebook Pages and their connection to the Facebook advertising system are wonderful tools.

Squidoo is a network that has sections called Lenses where you can post content about a specific topic. If you are a florist, it might help your company if you discuss about floral arranging. Just because you write content about how to arrange flowers, it does not mean that the average Jane or Josh is going to be able to do their own. You have just given content that proves that you know what you say you know and that you are willing to share with the community. Read the book The Go Giver for more on why this works.

Meetup.com is another very popular site for use in business because it attempts to bridge the gap between social networks online and the real world . You can plan “Meet-up” events and then meet in person as well as keep in touch using the Internet site. The South Metro Chamber of Commerce is able to do this better than any other company I know.

Next week we will take this local and discuss how to use local Internet directories and resources. I will also be adding a sixth week to the series on tying it all together and making a plan.

Using Email Marketing to Define Yourself as an Expert Part 3 of 5

For the past two weeks of the five part series about defining yourself as an expert with the Internet, we have looked at web sites and blogs. Both of these tools are great, and if a reader of these posts wants information from you and he or she is therefore more likely to be in a buying mood The goal of an email is a bit different because email is something that comes when you send it and the reader chooses when to read it not when to receive it.

The value of email is to remind and inspire your contacts. The emails remind them about your existence and your position as an expert. They inspire a potential client to read more, buy something or take another actionable step.

For example, many of you readers are here because you found out about this five part series from my newsletter. The goal of that newsletter was to get you to my blog. The next step is to get you interested enough to read the remaining part of the series and then for you to see me and the Denver DataMan team as being experts in defining us as an expert using the Internet.

• Email marketing can take several general forms:
• Promotions
• Reminders
• Newsletters

We will focus on newsletters. Newsletters are key way to define yourself as an expert because you give your reader something special and say your product or information is something s to share it. When a business coach shares information about time management, they are showing that they are an expert so that you are willing to pay to get them to help you apply a specific concept.

The newsletter can have seminar reminders and even a special but it is about providing information. Here are some tips to add value to the information.

• Write about current issues
• Write about topics that your clients and prospects commonly ask about
• Make your newsletter feel exclusive

Each of these items will make people want to read your content and then will see that you are an expert. Come back next week for information on using social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook to define yourself as an expert.

Using Your Blog to Define Yourself as an Expert Part 2 of 5

Last week, I wrote about using your website to establish yourself as an expert. Blogs are another tool to sharing information with your clients, prospects, and partners, supports that will differentiate you from the crowd.

What is Blogging?

Blog stands for WeB Log, a type of web content that is used for sharing informal updates. Generally, blogs have at least one poster who shares information about their prospective about  anything in the world. Blog posts will generally have dates and be sorted chronologically. However, because there isn’t an Internet-wide guide for blogging, this can be implemented differently by different websites.   

There are bloggers who blog about politics, bloggers who blog about what they ate, bloggers who blog about parenting, bloggers that blog about their business, and those that share about anything else you can imagine. Because there is often no cost to blog, many people star a blog for the fun of it and the quality can vary greatly.

The quality of your posts must  be worth reading. I don’t always have my editor read my blog posts because they don’t need to be as formal as other items. However, this special edition is more formal and even though I am using my blog it has still been edited.

Blogs should be updated often to be effective. This can be very hard. We all have a hundred things that we should do and deciding to make posting on a blog a priority is not easy. However, if we want people to come back to our blog to see what we have to say, then we need to make the time. Popular blogs can have many people visiting them in addition to using RSS   to send updates. For example you can use RSS for  a feed of content updates about the DDM blog.

Other ways that people find your blogs are through links on your website, search engines like Google, and blog search engines like Technorati. Social bookmarking sites like Digg and Del.icio.us help drive traffic to your blog.

You can build a blog on your own site with the help of a web developer or you can use a blog service like Blogger, Word Press, Thoughts.com and others.  You should look for a service that is easy to use. I like Blogger because it is free, easy, and reliable. Ideally your Blog should look more like your website than mine does, but I am trying to demonstrate the use of a third party blogging site. 

Blogging on these sites are focused on text and having a few  ictures and video. Picture blogging, video blogging and podcasts are valid tools to use as well. If you want to make the assertion that you are an expert on a given talk, how better to do it than to make Podcast?  That is, if you have the time.

Video blogging, or blogging by posting video s something that is becoming more and more popular. This is still primarily a social trend, but if you have things you want to show or topics that require more of a demonstration, then video blogging can be done.  

Podcasting refers to audio recordings that are done regularly. Many news agencies and some companies are using Podcasting. You can use RSS tosubscribe to Podcasts so that they are automatically downloaded for you. iTunes may be the best tool for this job.

Overall, blogging gives you a less formal tool to help you establish yourself as an expert. Come back next week for part III using email newsletters. 

Using Your Website to Define Yourself as an Expert Part 1 of 5

Websites have been popular for some time now. In the past, look wasn’t so polished or or you would be forced to spend millions of dollars to play with big boys. Now the tools of big business are available to everyone and more people know how to access the web and expect me from it. Shifting trends in the cost of having a website and in the use of web sites make them an ideal tool to define yourself as an expert.

There are two nearly universal things that a business/nonprofit website needs to do. The first is share promotional information about your organization and the second is to give potential clients the ability to act on that information. Now, you can do this in more than one way.

One way: Write about your project with self praise and bombastic rhetoric. This is the same way that TV commercials discuss being the BEST. This may work if you want to sell Orange Juice. This is not necessarily going to convince someone that you are the best at a specialized task.

Another way: Provide sales information but also provide value added information about your products, services, organization that give someone a way to see that you are an expert. Look at my site for an example: I have sales information on the site, but I also provide value added content like the Articles Section, FAQs and the Glossary.

The first thing to establish about your site is that adding value is not free consulting. A glossary-even a great one- does not replace the need for a computer trainer. But, if you like the definitions I write in my glossary, hopefully you will see me as a more of expert than you might have before.

Building a site that facilities meaningful content takes thought and preparation. First, you need to make sure you have content worth reading. There is nothing worse than underdeveloped content because this will make people think you are just full of hot air, not an expert. Second, you need do your best to make a clear line between value added content and content that is there to sell. The value added content is a much softer sell and people who want to learn more before they buy can do so. Third, make sure the ability to take a next step is easy to find,/ If a viewer cannot figure out how to contact you, then the viewer won’t even think you are an expert.

The content that you put up should be meet the needs of your clients and should match their needs and ability levels. It is also important to make sure that your content is well written and you probably should work with an editor to check this. Well written content will be found on the Internet because more and more search engines are finding relevancy by quality and readability.

As we continue this series, we will talk about technologies that will draw people to your site so they find your content.

Stay tuned next week for Part 2 – Blogging. If you want to be notified of the release of that article, consider adding an RSS feed of this site.

Projectors

In general we think of projectors as being tools for showing presentations or maybe for watching movies at the theater. If you walk through downtown Denver right now you can see that the sides of building are canvases for projecting all the products that anyone could ever want. Verizon and
Cricket Wireless both have a big presence. The floor of the Westin also has a a logo welcoming the DNCC delegates using a projector. I just find it interesting how we find new ways to use technologies.



Reply with any cool uses of projectors that you see around Denver or wherever you are reading this blog from.