The world is brimming with individuals who want to be visionaries or thought-leaders.
Through the power of social media, content creation, and other digital means of permeation, that goal is unquestionably attainable.
It is not easy, however, and requires heaps of dedication, hard work, and critical thinking. The internet is a noisy place that grows exponentially louder day by day. Breaking through that barrier to get yourself and your ideas noticed is no small undertaking. So how do you ultimately get recognized?
By trusting the experts and following those who came before you. Fanatics Media CEO, Mark Fidelman, took to Blab.im on January 27 to consult with two of today’s leading marketing strategy consultants, Dori Clark and Robbie Kellman Baxter. They helped shed some light on how entrepreneurs and business leaders can get their ideas noticed. Soak up all of their insights in the full version of this conversation below.
Dori Clark is a marketing strategy consultant, speaker, and author of the books “Reinventing You” and “Stand Out” which was named the #1 leadership book of 2015 by Inc. Dori frequently contributes to Time, Harvard Business Review, Entrepreneur, and other publications and has been recognized as a branding expert by Fortune and Inc., one of Forbes “25 Professional Networking Experts to Watch in 2015”, and one of Huffington Post’s “100 Must Follow on Twitter”.
Robbie Kellman Baxter is a keynote speaker, the President of Peninsula Strategies, and author of “The Membership Economy”. Armed with more than two decades of strategy consultation and marketing experience, Robbie has worked with major brands including eBay, Netflix, and Yahoo. Robbie’s insights have been cited by eCommerce Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other large-scale publications.
Here are a few of the highly-useful insights these two had to share.
Question #1: How Do You Become a Thought-Leader?
Dorie:
“One of the most important things you can do in becoming a thought-leader is create a lot of content and share that with people.”
All people really have are their ideas, and others will not be able to discover these concepts or determine if they have any merit unless they are shared. Going public with your views is a necessary step towards becoming a thought-leader. The main challenge that people encounter is time. Everyone is so busy that it is difficult to carve out the time to create a respectable amount of content without running themselves into the ground. As Mark was featured in Dorie’s book, he poses as a prime example of how to accomplish this. Mark’s strategy is to take a piece of content that has been produced and repurpose it in various ways. Create videos, tweets, eBooks, infographics, and really crunch the data surrounding the material to drill even deeper. Another strategy is to leverage existing affiliations in a strategic manner to help gain early credibility, social proof, and respectability.
Robbie:
“You really want to think about, ‘What am I using for discovery and what am I using to build relationships?’”
One of the main points to consider is a platform for discovery, which is how people find out about you who aren’t already in the know. One way to establish this platform is through speaking at conferences and events. Be deliberate in your efforts and be proactive by reaching out and calling people to try and secure these opportunities. Another way to get a speaking gig is through connections who are already on the inside. These people can potentially be leveraged to bring attention to the fact that your speaking can be useful to others in the organization. In Robbie’s case, however, she never just offers to speak but also extends the suggestion of a webinar as this helps to build interest in herself and the event overall. The most important tactic with these engagements is this: “Once you use these other platforms to build awareness, you want to bring them back to your own community.”
Question #2: How Do You Build a Big Community Around Your Brand?
Robbie:
The transaction of getting a member to join a community is the starting line, not the finish line. The more an experience can be curated and the more an individual can be taught how to get the most value from the community, the better the chances that person will help grow the number of members. People can be asked to share their personal stories, encourage others to join, and even be given status within the group. People want to be held in high regard so by asking individuals to take on a leadership role, it provides an incentive to help push that growth.
Dorie:
This is a three step process that is described in Dorie’s book. The first step is to build your network. These people will be your trusted band of advisors who can help guide you. The second step is to build your audience through exposing people to your ideas who have yet to hear them. Step three is to build a community and encourage your audience to talk with each other by establishing a channel where people can connect around a shared interest. This can be a Google or Facebook group, a membership community, or similar outlets. Another component to this is to take the community offline and build in-person relationships. This will facilitate the connection of your community. It can managed through setting up local meetups, conferences, events, etc.
Question #3: Building a Community Involves Getting People to Buy In to Your Story. How Do You Get Folks to be a Part of Your Success Story?
Robbie:
“It’s not so much about getting them to buy into your story, it’s about you tapping into their needs.”
Storytelling is a highly useful tool; especially when it comes to educating people. As far as a community is concerned, the focus really needs to be on the mission of the members and using that mission as a guiding light for the stories. Be sure that the narratives that are crafted touch on your personal experiences in achieving that mission in addition to spotlighting member experiences. Bringing in the stories of community members is extremely relevant to their peers.
Dorie:
“Your story is the ultimate differentiator.”
There is an abundance of leadership coaches, authors, and so forth and the only thing that sets an individual a part is their story and how it has impacted them. Dorie discussed a client of hers who grew up under adverse circumstances and didn’t talk about it much. She encouraged him to share this part of his story which ultimately helped to shape his philosophy and approach.
This is just some of the industry-leading knowledge these two had to share. Check out the full replay and really dig deep into the tactics that will get your ideas noticed.