How to Position Yourself as a Subject Matter Expert

As you are building your online reputation, one of the key elements that you need to establish is your position as a subject matter expert (SME). You need to go from anonymity to respected and credible expert.

The only way that you will advance in  your business and the way that  you will get people to come to regard you as a SME is by proving over and over again how knowledgeable you are in your field and how capable you are of imparting your expertise to others in order to solve their problems. Success and power are not earned overnight. It takes time and consistently hard work to achieve the level of success that you are expecting (or hoping) will happen. Engagement is key and the more discussions you have, the more exciting and substantive your interactions will be.

There are many different ways in which you can establish your reputation as an SME in your niche or industry.

Build relationships: Relationships are at the heart of online success (and social media success, in particular). It is a really good idea for you to align yourself with a person from your industry or niche who has more influence and connections than you do. For you to achieve SME status fairly quickly, you will need to really hit the ground running and you can’t do that unless you are armed with information that will allow you to make a positive impression on people who matter as quickly as possible. Always remember to have it in your head that you are a big player and fully capable of playing with the other big players.

Offer exciting promotions:  A great way to get the attention of other people is by offering promotions that nobody else has offered. Chances are very good that people will react favorably and will remember you and your offerings. The more you offer, the more people will notice you and will start to respect what you are doing and how you are doing it.

Really get involved with social media: Learning to use social media in the most effective manner will most definitely cause you to stand out as an expert compared with people who are just beginning to launch their businesses. People will start to regard you as someone who really knows what they are talking about and your name will be the first one that they think of when they need help in your area of expertise. Now is the time when you should build up your social media communities with valuable people (as many as possible) with whom you can share a valuable relationship. The more high-quality traffic you are able to drive to your website, the better.

Start a blog: A blog is a phenomenal tool when it comes to positioning yourself as a SME. You blog as much as possible (especially in the beginning) on an assortment of interesting topics in your niche. It won’t be enough to merely contribute a large volume of content. It is also critical that your content is consistently of high quality.

Offer a newsletter: Many influencers in your industry send a newsletter to a large list of people. Your list of newsletter recipients is not just valuable in and of itself. Other valuable things can come from that list, such as leads, prospects, and eventually, clients. You may want to consider offering promotions in your newsletter to entice your readers. That way, you are giving people the opportunity to opt-in and you will be able to build a strong list of people and their contact information. The call-to-action is an important item to have in your newsletter. Remember to tell your readers exactly what you want them to do as a result of the call-to-action.

Conclusion

Although truly achieving success in your position of SME takes some time and consistent effort, it is something that certainly can be achieved. Constant interaction is an important part of achieving that goal and before you know it, people will be considering you the expert that you know you are and they will be turning to you to help them solve their issues. The more respectful other people feel you are, the more they will want to engage with you.

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