Blog

Become a thought leader.  A successful business is made up, not only of the brand of the company, but the brand and reputation of the people that run it. 

Investing time and energy in establishing your personal brand builds credibility and enhances the reputation of not just yourself but your company, too. The most commonly accepted practice to do that today is to establish yourself as a thought leader.

Here are a few tips on generating positive results without a huge time commitment:

Identify your area of expertise. A thought leader is defined as the go-to expert in a particular space. Many entrepreneurs and executives choose to concentrate on areas they have had a lot of past experience in.

Beef up your LinkedIn profile. The question you have to ask yourself is, “Does my LinkedIn profile sell me and my company?” If your profile looks like a resume, you missed the point; your profile needs to look like an SEO landing page for you and your brand.

Follow other thought leaders in your space. We are now in a world where advocate marketing is becoming the most effective form of marketing. A customer or client will believe their friends and recognized experts more than a website and significantly more than a salesperson.

Create, curate and share content. You must share content. You must share good compelling content. A good rule of thumb is to use the 80/20 rule. Create 20 percent original content and curate the remaining 80 percent.

Follow through. When customers call, call back. When customers send you an email, respond.  When customers, influencers, advocates and others connect to you on social media, you need to respond. Favorite their tweets, retweet their comments, comment on their posts and say thank you when you receive nice messages.

To read the entire article, please visit www.entrepreneur.com.