If you want to grow your brand and establish yourself as an icon in
your field, you’re going to have to get to work. Look at successful
entrepreneurs such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Ali Brown and Pat Flynn. These are just a few examples of ordinary people who have achieved extraordinary results through hard work and bootstrapping.
While money and an ultra-successful product can help catapult you to
fame, the truth is you can do it on your own from the ground up. I
discusseded keys to establishing yourself as an expert back in 2011 based on the book I co-authored, Small Business, Big Vision: Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made Entrepreneurs Who Did it Right.
While these steps are still essential, here are some other new ideas
you might want to consider to expand your reach when following these
keys to icon status.
1. Start blogging and guest posting. Blogging
is a great way to share your knowledge with the world. When you write
quality posts with tremendous value, you’ll establish yourself as an
expert and have people coming back for more. There are other ways to
grow through blogging outside your own space today. With the emergence
of shared-content sites such as Medium, Quora and Slideshare, you can take your blogging to a whole other level.
There are some guidelines to follow though. Make sure you write in
your own voice. Writing the way you’d speak to a large audience will
help you get your conversational tone of voice down, and the way you
write can translate toward your overall brand. Don’t worry about making
your content amazing and “giving away” your best information. In fact,
worry about not giving away your best. If you hold back and don’t add
real value to your content, your blog will suffer. Give your best and
share your style and great content to build yourself as a
entrepreneurial icon.
2. Market yourself. You have to spend some time
promoting yourself if you want to become an icon in your field. That’s
going to take some wisely invested money to start spreading the word.
You’ll need a strategy that markets you as the expert on your business
and in your field. Start with the same marketing techniques you might
use for your business, including a social-media plan that establishes
your credentials. Next you’ll want to spread your organic reach. Try
scheduled press releases, pitching yourself for relevant stories and
trying to get face time with media outlets as an expert for topical
issues.
If PR sounds intimidating to try alone, then consider hiring an
agency to represent you. There are new ways to connect yourself with
audiences such as the popular site HARO
(help a reporter out) where you can register as an expert and have
journalists reach out to you for your expertise and opinions. Regardless
of your approach, you’ll need to market yourself to become an icon.
3. Create compelling content. Creating great content
ties in with blogging, but can go far beyond just the writing basics. A
few years ago writing a nice story might have been enough. However,
today we live in an economy of value exchange. If you give great value,
people pay attention and will seek you out. It doesn’t have to just be
great blogging content or media advice like in the past. With the
emergence of more technology has come the ability to create more
compelling content for less cost.
You should now consider adding videos, audio clips, informational
graphics, podcasts and animated videos to your content regiment. The
more you share compelling content, the more you will be establishing
yourself as the leader in your field. Do it yourself or look into agency
help, like that offered by Visual.ly,
which will create compelling content (for a cost) for you. Don’t be
afraid to get creative and give all mediums of content a go.
4. Create valuable products. Not only are products a
great way for you to create supplemental or passive income, they also
help to further establish yourself as an expert. One common practice is
to offer something of good value for free to readers willing to
subscribe to your email list. Industry standards include long-form video
content, e-books, workbooks and workshop materials. Creating products
from your experience that fall in line with your business is a great way
to introduce yourself to these new readers.
It can be an especially valid tactic to offer some kind of low-cost
product on your website if your typical products are at a high price
point. By having a lower price-point product that’s highly valuable, you
can ease clients and customers into your brand and your expertise
gradually. If the content is truly great, they’ll be back to invest in
bigger offerings and higher price-point items from you while tuning in
to see what other advice you have.
5. Up-level your expertise. Once you’re established,
try to up-level your experience by leveraging your expertise. There are
lots of ways to achieve this. You can start consulting and use your
expertise as a service. Or you can create your own mentoring programs on
speaking circuits as a keynote and workshops. Another incredibly
popular route today is to start your own podcast. If done right you have
access to a large audience and can build loyal followers through your
own personal experience and by having guests from your personal
connections you've built over the years.
Excel at these keys and you could be the next big name in entrepreneurial circles.
(Source: entrepreneur.com)
