Successful Blog

  • Home
  • Community
  • About
  • Author Guidelines
  • Liz’s Book
  • Stay Tuned

7 Tweaks to Your Social Presence to Reflect Your Expertise

August 5, 2008 by Liz 19 Comments


Does Your Presence Look Expert to You?

The Living Web

People speak and write a lot about personal branding. Online that breaks down to presence which in simple terms is reputation and focus. Both become enhanced when we highlight our expertise in a strategic and consistent fashion.

7 Tweaks to Your Social Presence to Reflect Your Expertise

Experts have authentic skills, knowledge, and experience. But some of us with those exact traits have more insight to making sure those traits shine through. Here are 7 ways to manage your online presence to be seen as the expert you are.

  • Walk your own path. Be the expert you are, not the expert someone else is. You can’t be compared. You’re not a fanboy or a fangirl. Differentiate what you offer from the start. Play to your strengths. Check your social networking profiles — at Facebook, SU, Twitter, etc. –to see that they underscore the same differentiated traits.
  • Focus on ONE thing Make that one thing particularly suited to you. Be a “go to” person for a specific problem. Then find a way to meet that need that no one else can do the same way you do.
  • Write expert answers and content — LinkedIn question and answers are a great place to do this. Seek out questions about your chosen point of expertise throughout the Internet and write thought, precise, actionable answers to them. Give information, examples, AND analysis. Occasionally offer evaluation, synthesis, or predictions.
  • Always know what’s happening with folks who need what you do. Join the sites and the offline groups where your potential customers and clients hang out. Refer and promote customers and clients whenever you can. Sometimes they’ll need a helping hand and they’ll remember the expert who helped them out.
  • Know your niche in detail. Get to be friends with Google Alerts and discovery services. Follow key terms around the Internet.
  • Be an expert at helping colleagues. Don’t be shy about sharing information. Talk with them. Visit and comment on their blogs. Ask them for an interview. Guest post now and then. Help others in visible ways — on your blog, on Twitter, through Facebook groups.
  • Go deep. (Don’t be shallow.) Find out what researchers are thinking so that you can offer the highest quality, relevant information and analysis. Add information to the conversation that no one has found.

An expert to most people is someone who more knowledge, skills, and experience than we do . . . never discount how much expertise you’ve gained or it’s value.

What else might we do to let our expertise show through?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Like the Blog? Buy my eBook!

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc, expertise, online presence, social-media, social-networking

Comments

  1. pete says

    August 5, 2008 at 12:28 PM

    Tahnks for the tips, but mostly the Google Alerts tip. I use alerts for other things but I never thought about using it to track my niche (it’s so obvious, not sure why I missed it). Your timing is great, I’ve been looking for more info relating to my site. Thank you!

    Reply
  2. Scot Herrick says

    August 5, 2008 at 12:40 PM

    I’d add in “build on-line relationships.” One of the finest gifts I’ve had while I have had my own sites is the relationships I’ve built with people I now know.

    These seven, by the way, are spot on.

    Reply
  3. Ron Capps says

    August 5, 2008 at 12:42 PM

    Excellent overview of the importance of establishing your social presence or online brand that clearly and consistently identifies you and your expertise.

    Too often many lose their focus and fail to engage fully with others or demonstrate an ability or willingness to follow their own teachings and preachings.

    I’d love to have the opportunity to chat with you in further detail about the role of blogging in the social marketing process and a project that is being developed to address some of these very issues.

    Dr. Ron the NicheProf

    Reply
  4. Miz Liz says

    August 5, 2008 at 12:44 PM

    Great stuff here! Thanks!

    Reply
  5. ME Liz Strauss says

    August 5, 2008 at 12:51 PM

    Hi Scot!
    Thanks for the addition! Online relationships, such as the one I have with you and those you have over at Cube Rules are the foundation of our life and reputation online. 🙂

    Reply
  6. ME Liz Strauss says

    August 5, 2008 at 12:52 PM

    Thanks, Miz Liz!

    Reply
  7. Laura Roeder says

    August 5, 2008 at 12:57 PM

    Great list, reading industry research can be dull at times but it’s important to keep up on. I made myself read a fairly boring report on email marketing this morning, but I now feel more confident in my knowledge of that topic.

    Reply
  8. Linda Sherman says

    August 5, 2008 at 6:37 PM

    I would second the importance of building on-line relationships. One of the benefits is the conversation that happens with comments on our blogs. Personally, being a “hugger,” I would say on-off-line relationships.

    I would also add keeping up with the context and technology of social media. It’s a huge task to cover it all but fortunately we are surrounded (especially on Twitter) by experts doing that for us. In my own career, I have gone from high tech to consumer products and have now thrown myself back into work that requires me to taste that hectic pace of change that accompanies social media. We can choose how much of technology shifts in social media we need to absorb based on what we are trying to accomplish. But since we are in it, we can’t ignore it.

    Reply
  9. ME Liz Strauss says

    August 5, 2008 at 8:10 PM

    Hi Laura,
    I know what you mean. I watched an hour long video last night and learned so much that I’m going back to watch it again. Inside it, books were mentioned that I want to read. 🙂

    Reply
  10. ME Liz Strauss says

    August 5, 2008 at 8:11 PM

    Yeah, Linda,
    Actually I would say that everything is to keep the relationships going forward and the conversation working right. 🙂

    Reply
  11. Andrew Lightheart says

    August 7, 2008 at 9:33 AM

    Hey Liz

    Great post – I think this has a broader application for all one-person service providers offline as well as online.

    Have you read Michael Port’s book: ‘Book Yourself Solid’? Based on this post alone, I think you’d like it.

    Nice to find some things in the list I’m doing and some new things to explore.

    Any advice on the time demands of social media?

    When I first started reading blogs just a few months ago, it treated it like a guilty distraction.

    With the great people I’m meeting, and cross-pollination of ideas, I’m realising it’s an important part of growing my business, my knowledge, and me.

    Need to stop hiding, and feel ok about allocating a significant block of time to the *productive* parts of social media every day.

    It’s not just writing, but commenting, connecting and conversing that’s equally important.

    And with so many people out there, the more you can be you, and in your niche, the better.

    Made me think – AGAIN!

    Reply
  12. ME Liz Strauss says

    August 7, 2008 at 11:36 AM

    Hi Andrew!
    So much of what we do seems to be what we are used to. Something new has to find a way to fit into our lives.

    Every month or so, I try to sit back to find the value in what I’m doing. it helps a lot to help me keep track of my time. 🙂

    Reply
  13. Alana Daveduk says

    October 1, 2008 at 9:08 AM

    The more I read about Social Marketing and development of my online presence- the more I feel this is who I am. I love to help people, research and ask why. Everything I read says to shine, be helpful and just get to know people. Awesome.

    My career path is an Administrative Assistant, but I am also a marketer and a “helper”, researcher, problem solver. I am looking to take my career to the virtual level and this has lead me to research social marketing. I can’t get enough info.

    Reply
  14. Lasitha Silva says

    October 24, 2008 at 5:43 AM

    Hi Liz,

    Great thoughts..! I was just browsing and got this valuable ideas of yours. Its blessing for us young to have such expert people publishing their ideas and pathways for future and to achieve our potential peaks.
    Social networking is the best tool to be connected and informed where ever you be.
    I am providing help for my friends and other unknowns in uplifting their weak areas thus it makes me happy to help other homo sapiens.
    Cheers..!

    Lasitha Silva

    Reply
  15. Morgan Sully says

    January 14, 2009 at 3:35 PM

    Hi Liz,
    this is a great post. Clearly written, not jargony and helpful. Thank you!

    To add to the 5th point, I’ve become a big fan of search tag/keyword RSS feeds. There’s a great post on making a ‘social media cheatsheet’ to stay on top of your knowledge specialty here:

    http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_build_a_social_media_cheat_sheet.php

    I also use http://www.search.twitter.com to generate RSS feeds of the latest mentions of my keywords/fields of interest on Twitter. I then feed these into my Google Reader.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recently Updated Posts

6 Keys to Managing Your Remote Workforce

9 Reasons To Use WordPress

Useful Marketing Tools That Wont Bust Your Budget

Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Successful Blogger?

Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Successful Blogger?

6 Tips for the Serial Side Hustler

How to Make Your Blog Popular



From Liz Strauss & GeniusShared Press

  • What IS an SOB?!
  • SOB A-Z Directory
  • Letting Liz Be

© 2023 ME Strauss & GeniusShared