Micah and I are working on a podcast for Great Leap Studios. In fact, by the time this gets published we will probably have already recorded the first episode and I’ll be knee deep in Audition editing it for upload.
We know nothing about creating podcasts, but we both love listening to them and are eager to not only reach out to our audience, but make podcasting a part of our service portfolio for prospective clients. It’s a great medium with incredible potential for optimization.
More importantly, the presence of a finely crafted, well tuned podcast in iTunes and SoundCloud makes you look like an expert in that field, especially if you sound like one in the recording.
It’s just one of many ways you can build expertise and leverage it to grow your audience faster. Here are a few other quick tips for how to build your expertise and reach a new audience:
Hold Local Events
A local event is a great way to obtain instant authority in your niche, whatever it happens to be. When you’re the person on stage sharing information, people tend to trust you a LOT more than if you simply tell them you know your stuff.
Showing is always better than telling.
The best part, though, is that holding these events is very easy. Because so few people are comfortable doing it, and the barrier of entry SEEMS so high, you can build your credibility incredibly fast with a small 20-30 person event or even a webinar (held with Google+ Hangouts on Air).
Get Press Coverage
Next, try to get press coverage for your event. There are a few ways to do this:
- Send a Press Release – Send a simple press release on PRWeb (starts at $89) and press will see your event by default.
- Call a Reporter – Find the reporters who cover local events in your area and call them directly. This is done a lot less often than you’d expect so it’s surprisingly easy to do.
- Prepare a Press Kit – Create a kit of information about your event including graphics, copy for an article, interview quotes, and video clips that the press can use as is to discuss your event.
- Donate to Charity – Take attendance fees for your event and then donate the money you gather to charity. This is a great way to get free coverage for your event.
The goal is to make your story newsworthy, but also easy for the press to pick up. The more you give them to work with, the easier this becomes across the board.
Publish in Popular Marketplaces
Publish content you writer in popular marketplaces. Create an author page on Amazon and create a handful of Kindle books about your area of expertise. Create a series of videos showcasing your knowledge on YouTube. Build a landing page for yourself on Squidoo or other top marketplaces where you can gain a lot of exposure.
Get Featured by Thought Leaders
There are three ways to get featured by thought leaders and all three are surprisingly easy. They include:
- Guest Posting – If you can get a post you write featured on a big site in your niche you will instantly piggy-back on the expertise of the site owner. It’s assume that because you are on their site, they implicitly support you.
- Interviews – Interviewing or being interviewed by a thought leader is an instant path to credibility in your niche. This takes some extra work to make happen, but sites like Live Ninja can streamline the process quite a bit.
- Create a Product – Create a product that leverages your expertise and get thought leaders to promote and support it.
Expertise is a real thing, but the perception of expertise can often blur the line between experience and confidence. You don’t need to have been speaking in public for 10 years to do a good job on stage in front of 50 strangers. Nor does your career depend on a lifetime in sales or marketing, just the perception that you know what you are doing.
Creating expertise and leveraging its perception to build your business can and does work in many circumstances. You’ll still need the real world experience to back it up, but you’ll get a lot further off the bat with the tips above.
