Business: How to become a recognised expert – advice for entrepreneurs

Every person, brand and organisation has stories to tell. For entrepreneurs wanting to become an expert or thought leader in their field, the challenge is figuring out what their story is, how to make it resonate with people and how to use it to boost their profile as a thought leader. As an entrepreneur myself, it’s a challenge that I know all too well.

Public relations and social media are core components critical to the success of becoming a well-recognised expert. Once you have established your story the struggle is to figure out how to make PR and social media work for you so your stories resonate with audiences and assist to promote yourself as a thought leader.

To assist entrepreneurs to become well recognised experts these five steps are required to boost your profile and start opening doors to new opportunities.

1. Figuring out the Why

First thing’s first; you need to ask yourself why you are looking to build your profile as an expert. If it’s purely promotional, you will struggle to develop emotional connections with people.

The key is to be transparent and genuine, and really believe in yourself. People will only consider you as an expert if you believe in yourself.

2. Setting the Stage

After determining what you want to achieve from PR, the next stage is to define your personal brand. Personal branding is central to how people perceive you, so it’s important to pick your niche and stick to it to avoid confusing your audience.

Developing an elevator statement or pitch is an important part of personal branding that clearly explains your role as a thought leader. Not only are they an effective way of making great first impressions, they can also lead to new business and customers.

3. Turn on the Spotlight

At stage three, you’re starting to shine. You’ve done your planning and it’s now time to illuminate your role as an expert and thought leader.
The first step is to create a personal website where you can promote yourself. A great website will not only increase your exposure online, but you will also gain more control over your online identity.

Blogging is another great tool to increase your profile and allow you to connect with your audience in an engaging way. Blogging takes time and effort, so be sure to do your research and consider your audience before taking to the keyboard. The key is to write often, and write well.

Another step to becoming a recognised expert is to network and build relationships with your audiences. Attend functions, connect with local businesses and make yourself known to anyone who’s interested.

4. Use the Media to Shine the Light

By stage 4, your role as an expert will start to take shape; you will start to use the media to share your expertise and reach the people that will influence your success.

Approaching journalists can be a daunting task, but the best way to get your story out there is to shape it in a way that’s attractive to the media.

Journalists only pick up stories which they consider to be newsworthy, so it’s worth taking the time to create a great angle. Creating strong relationships with journalists, knowing the publications you’re pitching to, and sending it to the right inbox is also worthwhile.

5. Own The Light

The final stage of the transformation from unknown to expert is to step into the social media spotlight. Social media is a critical step in developing your profile as a thought leader, and it’s an essential tool that allows you to communicate directly with your audience.

Before jumping into the deep end, take a moment to think about your goals and what you want to achieve from social media. Having a goal will help you to determine which platforms will be the most effective for boosting your profile, and to manage your time online.

So there you have it; you have progressed from unknown to expert in just five steps. Congratulations! However, it’s not the end, it’s just the beginning. In fact, it never ends because success is a continuous cycle. Bios, media releases and speaking topics change over time and take a different shape as you evolve as an expert.

From Unknown To Expert: How to use clever PR and social media to become a recognised expert From Unknown To Expert delivers a comprehensive, step-by-step framework that will skyrocket you into the spotlight using the proven Unknown To Expert 5 Star System. Catriona Pollard, author of From Unknown To Expert captures 20 years of PR and social media know-how into a practical guide to help you gain more exposure, increase sales and enable new career opportunities. Packed full of easy to use templates and examples, From Unknown To Expert will give you the confidence and skills to get you the media coverage and community you deserve.

About the author
Catriona Pollard is the author of From Unknown To Expert, a step by step framework designed to help entrepreneurs develop effective PR and social media strategies to become recognised as influencers in their field. Catriona is also the director of CP Communications, which merges traditional PR tactics with cutting-edge social media strategies that engage consumers as well as business.

Follow Catriona:
Twitter: @catrionapollard
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Blogs: www.catrionapollard.com | www.unknowntoexpert.com/blog