I had the opportunity to address 55 women business owners and a few men at yesterday’s Women in Business Forum at Meydenbauer Center on the topic of how to become an expert in your field through the power of free publicity. If you weren’t able to attend, here are the 15 ways for you to consider:
1. First and foremost, do great work for your clients so they are happy to go to the mountaintops with their bugles to sing your praises. If you are truly doing a great job for your clients, you have earned the right to ask for testimonials and use them to celebrate your expertise.
2. Be clear about your commitment to serve others first so your own success can grow. When you share general tips and information that ease aches and pains others are experiencing in their businesses, you will invite others to engage you for a fee for the specifics to solve those problems.
3. Craft a fabulous bio that proves and declares your expertise in a winning, memorable way. Leave the blah, blah, blah boring bio behind and lead with a story that is memorable, likable, and worthy of respect. You and your expertise will be well served.
4. Write regularly for the local, trade, or national business media.
5. Use those articles to ask for and earn an ongoing column in a local business journal.
6. Contribute commentary, tips, and resources to social networks, online forums, blogs, radio shows, and other media.
7. Speak at professional events and serve on panels through which your expertise can add value.
8. Launch and sustain a useful electronic newsletter, and invite new subscribers to benefit from what you offer by offering valuable resources, special reports, and other tools to support their success.
9. Launch and maintain a useful blog.
10. Maintain a quality website that celebrates your expertise.
11. Host teleseminars, webinars, and workshops to share your expertise with others and expand your sphere of influence. Tell. Don’t sell.
12. Merchandise your contributions and perspectives to the media via your online pressroom to make it easy for editors and writers to connect with you 24/7.
13. Write special reports, e-books, or other tools to support others’ success through the power of your expertise.
14. Win awards that celebrate your winning ways and reflect favorably upon your reputation.
15. Explore video as an avenue to share your expertise with the world. Now that YouTube is such a powerful force, along with dozens of other online video sites, the opportunities to share your expertise and message in a way that will engage others are limitless.
I don’t just offer this advice. I apply each and every tip to support my own reputation as an expert, and it really does work. I even have my own Nancy Juetten channel on YouTube.com. Check it out!
By the way, I got most of the presentation on my digital recorder, and I’ll be offering the audio file to Authentic Visibility ezine subscribers in the next issue. If you are not yet a subscriber, please opt-in. In return, you’ll receive 12 sassy newspaper columns to empower your DIY publicity success. Best of all, you’ll never miss out on fun, high value offers I extend from time to time to support your success.
