How to use social media to establish yourself as an expert

Do you know how to establish yourself as an expert? Many business owners are trying to become known. They aspire to be considered as experts or thought leaders in their industry. Thought leaders are informed opinion leaders. Go-to experts in their field. By establishing yourself as someone worth paying attention to in your niche or industry and being positioned as a thought leader your business will gain credibility and visibility. This helps you build your personal brand.

Thought leaders are trusted, they have a strong reputation and great relationships with their community and clients.

Ideally, we’re seeking a situation where people view you personally as a brand in your own right. Think of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, most people know who they are and what they are famous for without having to say their business names.

How do you use social media to establish yourself as an expert?

This process will not be quick. It’s certainly not an overnight transformation. It will take months, if not years, to establish your expert status. However, it will be worth it and if you’re successful, the financial rewards will more than exceed the time you’ve invested.

Ways to establish yourself as an expert 

Know your niche

Establish yourself as an expert #1 – It’s so important for you to define your niche. What area do you have skills and expertise in? What’s your passion? You need to ensure you stay well informed. Understanding deeply the issues and information in your niche. This will involve research and staying abreast of the latest trends.

Know your audience

Establish yourself as an expert #2 – A deep understanding of your audience is vital to this (and many other business processes). Now isn’t the time to gloss over these details, happy because ‘mums’ are your target audience…. This is not specific enough. You will need to know specifically what type of mums you’re aiming at. After all, I’m a mum and my mum is a mum, but we have VERY different likes, dislikes and personal circumstances.

So get clear on where your target audience spend their time and money? Which social network has their heart? Which conversations online do they join in with? What keeps them up at night? What do they worry about? What’s important to them? What solutions are they willing to pay for? How much will they pay? You also need to know who your main competitors are? What are their products/content like? How can you improve on those or differentiate?

Dig deep and get to know your customers or the type of customers you want to attract. By doing this work and being aware of all of this information you will know how to use social media to attract your ideal customers. My mum has very different social media habits than I do. If you stopped at ‘mums’ being your target audiience you wouldn’t know how to attract either of us with certainty.

You physically won’t be able to be in all the places all the time and so knowing the 2 or 3 platforms you will focus on will really help you prioritise and get the best return on investment.

Share your story

Establish yourself as an expert #3 – People can copy most parts of your business and message. They might not intend to do this, but they could. The one thing no-one can replicate is your story. This is vital for your brand and the differentiation of that brand. Hone your story so it makes sense to your ideal audience. Share it with honesty and show your personality. By sharing your story you’re sharing why you do what you do, what led you there and helps people to get to know you on a deeper level. Perhaps finding points of resonance with what you’ve said. People trust other people more than they trust brands, so stepping up in your business to be the focal point is a winning strategy.

Create valuable content specifically for your ideal audience

Establish yourself as an expert #4 – Now you now know exactly what your ideal readers/customers want. What they need to ease their current pain, so you can create high value content to help them. Provide most of that content for free and vary the mediums you use to reach as many people. You can create blog posts, social media posts, challenges, eBooks, cheat sheets, guides and countless other types.

Use social media to both answer questions and give value right there on the platform, but also to drive traffic back to high quality blog posts, that your audience will appreciate. Use your social media channels to chat with your target audience to find out more about their struggles and to see what they think of your products and/or services.

Be social on social media

Establish yourself as an expert #5 – Social media is meant to have a social element. Although these platforms are used a lot for promotion, you should still use them to connect. If you’re helpful and genuine (i.e not ramming your product or service down people’s throats, you’ll make great connections. Who will be more likely to come back to you when they wish to take things further.

Facebook groups can be a great place to add value and be able to position yourself as the go-to expert. LinkedIn might also be worth checking out too. You could also join Tribes or group boards on Pinterest, to get your content out there more. Social media platforms allow you to show your expertise to a large, captive audience. You can do this by posting relevant and interesting comments, or by sharing articles that relate to your field.

Focus on connection not conversion

Establish yourself as an expert #6 – Focus on the quality of the content you produce and of the connections you make. As you know about your audience, you can create content specifically for a certain platform. If you can make a personal connection with them, they’re far more likely to convert into a lifelong fan or a customer.

Speak at events

Establish yourself as an expert #7 – One of the best ways to demonstrate your expertise, to gain instant exposure and also cash in on the assumed authority bias is to speak at an event. You can clearly show your knowledge and give people a taste of what it’s like to work with you. But you also gain instant credibility from being a ‘speaker’ and being associated with the hosting event. People assume you must be knowledgeable, trustworthy if you’ve been chosen to be a speaker.

Connect with influencers, even your competition!

Establish yourself as an expert #8 –‘ A rising tide lifts all boats’. If you’re confident in your ability you cannot lose anything by connecting with your peers. You can gain insights, have new ideas and you might even be able to collaborate and so gaining exposure to their audience too.

Get in the media

Establish yourself as an expert #9 – There are journalists seeking stories and comments every day. By being featured in the media or by commenting on a story as an expert you are consolidating your expert status with authority and gaining exposure to new eyes too.  Using services like HARO, Source Bottle or even just looking up #haro #journorequest can highlight potential opportunities for you to leverage the media.

Cohesive branding

Establish yourself as an expert #10 – You want to project a cohesive, professional and confident image. So ensure all of your content, downloads, graphics etc have the same design aesthetic. Embrace your brand voice and persona, but keep it consistent.

Be the unique you

Establish yourself as an expert #11 – You MUST show your true personality to attract your idea fans. If you hide in the shadows, you will attract people who ultimately aren’t a good fit for you.

Consistency is key

Establish yourself as an expert #12 – Consistency is vitally important. You can only build relationships by showing up consistently. Your audience will expect you and your content and sporadic appearances make this connection and the associated trust much harder to create. Staying active on social media is so important, this will give people confidence and there can be no trust without confidence.

Social media is a key way to establish yourself as a thought leader. As you can see none of these strategies are quick, but you can add to this perception of you every day you show up.  Are you going to start today?