Grow Your Business by Building Credibility #1

In today’s world of five-person or less small businesses, oftentimes building demand for your business requires building demand for your expertise as the owner and a subject-matter expert in your field. With the many resources available today, online and elsewhere, the opportunities to showcase your expertise and build your personal “brand,” as well as that of your company, are almost limitless. This series of articles will provide you with tips to use some of these opportunities to your best advantage for growing your business.

Build Your Credibility as an Expert Through Blogging

Having an area of expertise is useless if no one knows about it. To build your business, you need to let people know that you have expert knowledge to share. One of the easiest ways to do this is through blogging on your field of expertise. Blogs are fairly simple to set up, and if you use one of the free blog hosting platforms such as WordPress or Blogger, there is no cost associated with it. Blogging can be one of the most cost-effective methods of marketing your expertise, and your company, that you’ll find.

Finding Blog Topics

Once you’ve started your blog, create posts that demonstrate your expertise in your subject matter, your industry, and all things related to your area of knowledge. Stumped for a topic? One way to identify a topic in your area of expertise is to answer common questions about your subject matter. Consider questions that clients have asked you in the past, areas of assistance they needed—or consider recent events which have taken place within your industry or your community. All of these will likely present topics worthy of discussion in your blog.

Promoting Your Blog

Then you need to promote your blog. Consider participation in social communities such as Facebook and LinkedIN, as well as Twitter. Each of these vehicles can be utilized to promote the content of your blog, and further reinforce your positioning as an expert. However, be certain when participating in these communities that you are not just “pushing your product.” Such behavior is not looked upon favorably in these social media environments. Make sure that references to your content are provided in a a context that people will perceive its value to them and will willingly share it in the online community. Otherwise you are likely to be ignored.

Writing on Other Blogs

After your blog has become well-established, then it’s time to branch out and begin writing on other blogs. Seek out other blogs that also deal with your area of expertise, or an area that is closely related, and leave well thought out comments about the blogger’s topic. Include a link to your blog in your comment if you have relevant information which you believe the blogger or his/her reader’s might find of value. Do this regularly. Once you have developed a relationship with another blogger thru regular comments, then it’s time to contact the individual directly to inquire about writing a guest post on their blog. Posting on other blogs will enhance your position as an expert in your subject matter.

One caution to remember about building your expertise thru blogging: this is not meant to be a “sell, sell, sell” environment. You should not be utilizing the blog and your blogging relationships simply to push product, but rather to build your credibility in your field of expertise. Once you are an acknowledged expert, the selling will take care of itself.