I think people get this from their years in the workforce. When you got a performance review, your boss would usually talk about ways to improve performance, and a lot of times it involved getting a certification, learning a new skill or software, cross-training in another department, etc.

You know what though? If you are a business professional and have some level of expertise, you know more than a lot of people out there! There is someone who would love to know what you know, and in that way, you offer value to them.

Now, I’m not saying that additional training is important. But I think a lot of entrepreneurs use the excuse of wanting to get more training/skill/knowledge/another certification as a way to avoid taking that next big step, stepping up, and really marketing their business and seeing the success they deserve.

“Marketing is more important than mastery”.
-Ali Brown

Marketing is THAT important. And if you’ve been holding back until you get that next level of education, I challenge you to STOP! It might take a major shift in the way you’re currently thinking about your business, but think about it this way: it doesn’t matter how much you know, if nobody knows about you, you’ll be out of business before you know it.

How can you best showcase the expertise you already have?

A quick, easy and low-cost way to get started showcasing that expertise is online marketing. You could write a series of articles on a topic that a lot of people have questions on, or a How-To series. Share little mini-tips regularly on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Use some of this content, and create short videos that you put on YouTube. Fill your blog with all of these different pieces, and you might just be amazed at your own expertise!

Not only does this increase your visibility and get you out of your own head, it helps you get more clients through the Know Like and Trust factor. People will see your expertise, they’ll get to know you, and they begin to trust you. And that is an awesome way to start a new client relationship.

If you’re ready to embrace your current expertise and start marketing yourself online, there are lots of articles here on my blog, and online, to get you started. But if you’d rather have a system to work from to help you generate expert content and increase your visibility, take a look at my Social Media Content Creation Kit. It’s a step-by-step system for quickly creating lots of content for your blog and social media. It lays out a simple strategy for creating a content calendar, generating original ideas for your own content, and quickly distributing it across the web, so you build up the expert presence online that you deserve!

I’ll be presenting on Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Using Blogging to Build Your Online Presence with Rebecca Zwar — 11:00 AM Eastern

With all the other online marketing buzzwords floating around, it’s easy to forget about blogging, or to write it off for the next new thing. Don’t! This presentation shows you why you need a blog now more than ever.

Using Blogging to Build Your Online Presence will cover:

* Why blog?
* Blogging platforms
* Ways to take advantage of multiple streams of content to save time and write less
* Creating a blog that is a strong base for all your other social networking and social media activities
* Promoting your blog

You’ll walk away with a complete understanding of how to best set up your blog. As a bonus you’ll also receive the Blogger’s Rolodex, a complete list of resources and tools to take full advantage of the marketing power a blog can bring to your business, and Blogging 101 and Beyond, a complete guide to using the Wordpress Dashboard.