3 Ways to Build Your Personal Brand and Increase Visibility for Your Professional Expertise  

Becoming a thought leader unfortunately doesn’t miraculously happen overnight. It has to be earned. The good news? With expertise in your field and a desire to roll up your sleeves and get down to business, it’s 100% attainable.

So what exactly is a thought leader?

Thought leaders are informed opinion leaders and key authorities on a particular topic. For example, on the CBS Evening News, inevitably, whenever a medical topic is making the day’s headlines, they introduce John Lapook, M.D., their Chief Medical Correspondent. In fact, he’s much more than a news correspondent: he has day jobs as a professor, internist and gastroenterologist – and he has lofty degrees, graduating with honors from Yale and an M.D. from Columbia University.

Dr. LaPook is a classic thought leader. He has the skills and experience to earn him the ‘street cred’ he needs for viewers to be 100% onboard when he tells them they need to get a flu shot, and soon. People believe what he has to say, and trust his opinions.

Even if you aren’t an Ivy-educated physician or rocket scientist, you can still become a thought leader by following three key steps: (1) Build a platform/brand, (2) Generate buzz, and (3) Get out there.

Building a Brand
Before a hiring manager conducts job interviews, they often Google the candidates to learn more about them. And before attending a conference, attendees may Google the speakers to decide which ones pique their interest enough to make them want to sign up to attend their sessions. For these reasons and for the purpose of building your personal brand in general, it’s crucial to have a strong online and social presence – places where people can learn the totality of your brand.

Ideally, as you start building your brand, you set up not only a modern and current website, but also a visible presence on key social media platforms where people will go to look for more information about you and see what you have to say. It’s never a bad idea to have a website, a LinkedIn profile, a Twitter and Facebook presence, as well as a presence on any other social apps that your target audience uses. All that said, what matters most is that you professionally showcase your brand.

Case in point: if someone says they’re a brilliant publicist and they consult for top clients, if they have a poorly-designed skeleton website that looks like it might have been slapped together in the 1990’s, they’re not going to come across as believable. Similarly, on their Twitter and Facebook accounts, if they don’t have professional headshots, clear contact information, or informative tweets and posts, they’re going to have a really hard time growing their client list.

A good policy is to keep in mind comes from the Russian proverb “Doveryai, no proveryai,” which U.S. President Ronald Reagan made famous during his presidency. Translated, it means “Trust but verify.” Everyone will try to verify that what you say about yourself is the truth, so exert your best effort to make sure they arrive at the right answer.

Building Buzz
The next step is building buzz. This is the foundation – the what, where and how you communicate your expertise and demonstrate your gravitas. There are challenges to building a name, but they’re not insurmountable.

The world is an increasingly more content-rich place. Break through the noise by finding places where people in your industry communicate – conferences, online organizations, LinkedIn groups, and more. Get published in a magazine, write a book, or start a blog. Promote your work with your peers and on social media. Offer yourself as a resource for journalists. (A key resource for getting introduced to journalists and offering up your services as a thought leader is “Help a Reporter Out.” You can register on the site and reporters can contact you when your expertise is relevant to an article on which they’re working.)

Get Your Thought Leadership On!
After this, if you have the passion and desire to speak at conferences and events, the next step is to start booking those speaking engagements. While not everyone is born to be a public speaker, there’s one simple key – practice and repetition.

The rewards for putting in the effort are well worth it. The satisfaction of giving a good speech or publishing a book are nice of course, but there are monetary rewards as well. A beginner speaker could earn $250-$1000 for a speakership, but the payout curve goes up quickly for good, engaging speakers. Envision yourself on a stage commanding a speakership fee of $25,000! Or imagine getting that book deal with a five or six figure advance. All are possible outcomes from putting the right amount of energy into achieving your thought leadership potential!

So use the thought leadership basics here to whet your appetite and give it a try.