You know by now that you are an authority and you know that you need others to recognize your authority. Now we need to give just a little nudge to the influencers (those people who hold a lot of influence over the masses in your field), so that they will not only recognize your expertise, but begin to associate your field with your name.

Let’s say you are an expert in mountain biking. No, you didn’t take courses in biking, and you never owned a bicycle factory. You simply have been an avid mountain biker over the last 10 years, and that experience has led you to an understanding of the sport that enables you to be considered an expert. You know much about great trails, bike safety, which bikes are best under which conditions, etc. You get questioned often about the topic, as young enthusiasts want your advice.

Now, you decide you want to spread your knowledge worldwide, so you set up a web site to do so. You’ve done your homework, you’ve made the site search engine friendly, you’ve obtained some nice backlinks to the site, and you’ve begun to see some traffic trickling in. You’ve decided that what you really need is to be recognized as an expert, so you tackle the following tasks:

• The “be everywhere” task, in which you participate in as many relevant online mountain biking communities as possible. During this task, you strive to be as helpful as possible, answering questions freely, and being generous with your time in giving advice and tips.
• The “get published” task, in which you write articles for syndication, write guest posts on outdoor enthusiasts blogs, blog frequently on your own blog, and even get published in a few offline publications, such as local newspapers and magazines.
• The “have your voice heard” task, in which you become a guest on podcast stations, and eventually even do guest spots at your local radio station.
• The “have your face seen” task, in which your head shot is your avatar, and that avatar becomes associated with your name in all the places you visit.

After a few months, you realize that you’ve got a pretty solid base of “proof” that you are indeed an expert in mountain biking. You’ve built up a nice collection of articles, blog posts, podcast interviews, etc. that all point to you as being an authority in the topic. The only people who haven’t yet heard of you are the ones you want recognition from the most – the Influencers.

The Influencers are the A-list bloggers, the well-known journalists, and the highly respected publications that reach the masses. If even one Influencer claims you are one of the world’s foremost mountain biking authorities, you can rest assured that it won’t be long before EVERYONE thinks that of you. At that point, every journalist and blogger who has a story about mountain biking will be wanting your comments, your opinions, and your quotes for their stories. And each of those influencers will likely call you an expert, or an authority, or a guru as well. But what if you haven’t been able to get that one Influencer to get the ball rolling? What do you do?

Get their attention (which doesn’t translate into becoming a pest, btw). You can make contact with them, offering your assistance to them in some way. (By giving of yourself to them, rather than asking something OF them, you become an asset and not a liability). You should be doing this whenever it makes sense to do so (again, always keeping in mind that you do NOT want to be a pest or a stalker). There are probably hundreds of influencers you can contact, so you don’t need to make a pest of yourself with any particular one. Make sure that a link to your site or blog is always in your email correspondence with these Influencers. They are curious just like you and I. At least a few of them will certainly click your link just to find out more about you. Simple curiosity can bring you right smack onto their radar. If your correspondence was helpful to them in any way, rather than asking something from them, there’s a very good chance that they will be drawn towards wanting to know more about you.

While you are attempting to get someone’s attention, you should be creating a path that leads straight to you. You see, when a journalist has a story to write about mountain biking, he will probably do the same thing you or I would do if we needed information about a topic we were not already knowledgeable about. We would google it. That journalist might even go so far as to search for “mountain biking expert”, or “mountain biking authority” or “mountain biking guru”. What if your name showed up in the top 10 search results for any of those phrases? How much would you bet that journalist would be trying to find a way to contact you to get your thoughts on his story angle?

You see, you can begin working towards being recognized as a guru in the search results long before the Influencers recognize it. Did your cousin win the local bike rally after you gave him a few pointers? How many social networks does your cousin spend his time in every day? What if he were to link to your site in each of those communities, using “Mountain Biking Guru” as the link text? Did you help your boss decide which bike to buy for his kid for Christmas? Could you persuade your boss to have his kid mention your name when he blogs about how cool his new bike is … using “Dave is an expert in mountain biking” as the link text perhaps? See where I’m going with this? In many areas, it wouldn’t take much to turn a few links into a top 10 ranking for “your specialty guru”.

Now, whether you’ve managed to get the attention of an Influencer or not, you’ll at least get their attention when they google for the experts in your field.

Let’s sum this up:

1. Recognize that you are an expert in whatever you are an expert in.
2. Spread your expertise far and wide using the various tasks described above.
3. Attempt to get the attention of an Influencer (without making a pest out of yourself).
4. Work towards a top 10 ranking for “your topic guru”, “your topic expert”, or “your topic authority”.

We’ve almost come to the final chapter in our journey towards positioning ourselves as authorities within in our niches. There is one final step that you should take, and we’ll cover that next time. Until then, make a list of the top 20 Influencers in your field and begin your journey to Guru-ness.

(from Smash Mouth. "AllStar" Astro Lounge. Interscope Records, 1999.)

Posted on May 9th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Branding