Watch a morning television program or read a lifestyle website and chances are you’ll stumble upon some kind of expert. Wedding experts, style experts, home improvement gurus, fitness experts – all ready at a moment’s notice to a spew out advice on any and every available talk show couch that can accommodate their know-it-all behinds. Riveting segments ranging from what to wear to holiday parties to how to buy a lawnmower just would not be the same without these denizens of crucial knowledge. We tease, but there’s something timeless about the self-appointed guru. In fact, it’s become a recurring media archetype with roots dating back to Ann Landers and Helpful Hints from Héloise. So we wondered: Aren’t all of us experts in something?
The great thing about being an expert in your field is that experience is really the only requirement. We searched high and low for some university degree program that anoints a person expert status and couldn’t find one. If you sell computers day-in and day-out, as far as we can tell that qualifies you as a computer expert. Our knowledge amassed over time in our profession can provide others with much-needed information; therefore, we can position ourselves as experts. Marketing ourselves in this manner not only helps people out but can promote our businesses, as well.
We recently combed over a fashion blog that had an interview with “style expert Cynthia Rowley.” Rowley is not only an expert – she has a very popular line of clothing, accessories, fragrances and home decor. Rowley’s somewhat of a branding goddess and undoubtedly knows every time she dispenses fashion-fairy-godmother advice out of the goodness of her heart, her brand stays on the tongues of fashion fans.
Like Rowley, we all have something were tops in and advice that can help someone. How-to blogs or contributing to radio shows or websites are ways to publicly establish our expert status. By positioning ourselves as experts in our field, we can create PR for our brand, products and services while maybe even doing a good thing.
So, brilliant readers, what are you experts in?
Experience is key to attaining “expert” status, agreed. You have to be passionate about your specialty in order to attain the knowledge required for such a title.