When you establish yourself as an authority to reckon with online, there are some benefits that will come with that. Establishing yourself as credible, resourceful and legitimate source of information is very important for an online trader. Some of the benefits that you will get from gaining online authority include:
– You will be able to generate more sales as a result of quickly gained trust from your customers and the prospects.
– Partnerships and opportunities are very important to the growth of a business; all you have to do is establish some respect among your peers.
– This way you will be able to attract many offline and even online referrals.
– You can easily reduce the startup costs of marketing by getting tractions on ventures on projects in a more efficient manner.
– Authority can turn you into a big source for a certain industry thus causing your website or blog receive lots of traffic.
The creation of authority online is helpful in more than just creating strong ties with the readers, but also pushes the writer to come up with high quality content for it will be associated with his or her name.
Building Authority Online
Authority in whatever field or situation that it is applied can lead to production of some the best desired products that the consumers could ever want. Authority will help you attract traffic, establish ranking and even generate some meaningful conversations. If you are not that much of a leader you can easily change that by reading and mastering the following characteristics:
Content
You can never compromise on quality when it comes to content, you should have a specific way of formatting your content. Also have a specific number of words that will be in each blog. Ensure that the content is aimed at a target audience of a certain age group and from a certain location.
Social
Look at your previous posts on the social media networks that you are apart of, how well are they doing. What number and type of shares do you get, is your post actively used in conversations and how good is your follower base, is it a number of enough people to sustain your business or do you need to increase it.
Links
When you are writing online and you have your own blog/website, you want to make sure that anyone that you attract is able to access you. This is where URLs and hyperlinks come in, use a number of links that is enough to attract attention but not too much to outdo the content written.
Offline
You should also cover bases such as the internal network; engage in speaking with consumers and future prospects. You should also consider sponsorships from big companies or other forms of investors.
Recognition
To appear more credible can get you the authority that you are looking for online. Use of citations and mentions as well as previous consumer’s testimonials can lead to good generation of recognition among consumers and peers in the same industry.
Here are the next steps to getting your business to skyrocket and also building authority online. The following are tips of showing you how you can easily generate authority online:
Content
To establish yourself as an online authority you need to be producing content on a regular basis and make sure that you use it properly. To ensure that your content is helpful and can give you the authority that you are looking for, you need to follow the following tips:
Start a niche focused blog: When you start this form of blog, you will be able to focus on one niche and understand it thoroughly, this will give you all the knowledge you would require being an online authority in that particular niche. Since you will be well versed with the niche you will be able to answer any questions directed your way by any consumer and this could increase your credibility as opposed to someone who is trying to work on four or five niches at the same time.
Optimizing and Updating
For you to be able to become an online authority figure, you need to first put your business in order. Updating your old content and other website information, as well as optimizing your website will give credibility. A business that does not update their website and blogs are rarely used for they are taken to be dormant and the business closed.
Evergreen Content
This is content that is intended to remain relevant for long periods of time, therefore, when writing them quality should be highly considered. For you to come up with the best evergreen articles you need to abide to the following tips:
Know the Audience
When writing this kind of content it is wise to assume that the reader searching for the article is a beginner in that particular field. With that in mind, you will be able to write the article without lots of complicated jargon and make it very easy to understand, yet informative.
Linking Everything
The evergreen content that you come up with will best suit novices, this means that there is room for more improvement and more research to get the article more detailed and advanced. Link them back to your more high level work to ensure that all your work is available no matter where the consumer looks for it from.
Establishing Your Headline
It is wise that you avoid titles that may not generate traffic, making sure that your article is keyword centric and narrowly focused will lead to more traffic and ease of creating your page and URLs.
Lifespan of Your Content
When it comes to evergreen content, some can have a limited lifespan. Knowing which contents have limited lifespan ahead of time will help you come up with the most efficient URL structure that will easily allow opportunities for additional content.
Regular Blogging
To ensure that your content is selling, you need to be in a point where you are always producing and pushing content. Ensure that the quality of the articles that you produce is high and then come up with a calendar that will have you publishing content on a regular basis.
Curate Content
To curate content is to simply come up with information based on content that is already online. Anyone can come up with content but not everyone can come up with effective content. Effective content is one that is made up of opinions, information, humor, news and controversy to produce results and help in the growth of a business both offline and online.
How to Find Content to Curate
For you to start curating you need to first find discover the best content to use. You do not want to spend most of your time online away from your business, you are looking for some good content to work with and be able to blend both your job and your life. Given below are some ways of finding the right content to curate:
LinkedIn News
Through the use of sharing information through the LinkedIn news section, they have been able to provide a platform on which you can easily get great information.
Doing a Google blog search with the industry you are looking for as the topic, you will be able to see the blogs that are consistent on the first Google page. You can use the information from the articles appearing consistently on your Google first page. If you are focusing on a narrow niche, use the title and the name blog at the end.
This is one of the underestimated but yet very useful tool for finding content to curate. You can simply use all the tools offered on this social network, to find content that is great. You can use hashtags, discover users and even trends to find some of the great content of your specific industry.
Alltop
You can also search for your relevant industry and categories of the content that you are looking for. Alltop allows submissions and yet still, their directories are very well on point and they offer you the best sites and blogs with the highest quality.
Online Publications
When you are able to find new and relevant content in popular websites and blogs, you stand a better chance of coming across the source of content relevant to you.
Other Curators
If you are new to the field of content curating and you are looking to discover some new content, then you can study the other curators. This is the best form of education in which you observe and imitate. Look for sites that are specifically created for the sole purpose of curating content. Buzzfeed is a good example of such sites in which your can easily find the services of a curator.
How to Curate Content
Content curating is a process in which new content is derived from already used content. There are several ways of learning how to curate content.
Social Bookmarking App
Social bookmarking app such as Reddit, Instapaper, Delicious and Pocket among others is highly recommended when you are reading online. They are simple, able to tag, sharing features and multi-device support app is very useful especially when you do not have time to catch up on whatever is going on at the moment. It helps you save the page and you can easily access it when you are not busy.
IFTTT
Using IFTTT you can easily automate the curation process as much as you possibly can. This is an automatic tool that allows you to use custom recipes to perform some tasks automatically. If you are one of those people who favorite post on twitter to read it later, but always tend to forget, using an IFTTT can help you receive reminders on your Evernote or Google reader.
ShowYou
If you are more into finding information to curate through videos, and then the use of ShowYou has proved to be very informative and entertaining. Other than pulling videos from all your favorite sites, it can also help save videos that have content that you want to curate later.
Google Drive
If you are one of the many people who love having their information arranged in spreadsheets, Google Drive is the best move for your. You can simply input the links and articles manually or just employ the services of the IFTTT explained above.
RSS Reader
Although it is viewed as a dying technology, RSS is still a very good source of great content for curating. Subscribing to RSS feeds that are of your interest industry, will see you receive some informative and great content to work with.
Social
When you are trying to gain some authority, no matter the capacity, you need to be able to connect with people. It would be hard for you to communicate your plans of running for office if you are not comfortable talking to people. You can leverage social media to your own advantage and in gaining authority by doing the following:
Establishing a Social Following
If you are looking to have some major authority online you need to establish some serious social following of followers who are receptive and an engaged audience. There are several ways of enabling you to establish some meaningful social following, they include:
Understanding Why and What you’re Building
Understanding what you are trying to build and why it is necessary to your business is one sure way of coming up with a strong social following. Ensure that your social community is one that is fond of communicating; communication brings about the quick and organic growth of a community.
A Plan
Trying to attack the problem of social media without any sound plan is like going on a suicide mission. It is a very regular occurrence in which we see a businessman start engaging himself with online marketing and then a few months down the line, they just quit with no warning.
Following Etiquette
You should first and foremost know that not all trends are favorable, also learn on when to properly leverage anything that you get. Bad etiquette or manners can see you lose large numbers of visitors in very short spans of time. Find out about a trend before you try and use it to try and gain more visitors, especially from an audience that you know nothing about.
Being Receptive, Caring and Real
If you are looking to expand your number of visitors, you will need to find out how to join their channels. Make it possible for you and your customers to communicate online – answer to their comments, ensure that your answers are pretty helpful and that your comments are genuine.
Sticking to a Schedule
If you want to have a successful social media, you need to plan your schedule such that it is easy to follow. It is common to here of a great idea that cannot be reached due to the fact that the schedule was not followed. The advantage of schedules is that they help plan ahead and this goes a long way in preventing the occurrence of unexpected things.
Customize Your Social Media Pages
Attracting visitors to your website simply by how you have designed it, the content you post and how you handle it in general can be an added advantage towards getting authority. If you decide to use social media marketing, be ready to spend some money on the appearance of your website and blog.
Paid Advertising
You can also take advantage of the paid advertisements. These will gain you some quick recognition in no time. Since all you need for this is money, you can easily move your position further up.
Networking
When you are on social media and you are looking for some credibility in order to come up with some authority, you need to get in touch and connect with some of the big names in the field of your interest. Building of good relationships with such people will see you get exposure to more and more people especially those who follow the ones you have befriended.
Consistent Schedule
When it comes to the acquiring of authority online, you cannot simply do it by just coming and posting one great article or even a video and then disappearing and still hope to gain authority, You will need to be consistent in your endeavor and ensure that you keep your name and products in the mind of the consumer by ensuring you repeatedly post relevant and informative content.
Links
Google has no plans of removing the use of links, not even after they introduce the Author Rank – this is an app made by Google to ensure that an author is credited for the job they do online, so it is imperative that you keep working on your links so as to reap as many benefits as you possibly can, here are some of the ways that links can bring your authority:
– When you are providing guest post on sites that are into the same niche are you are. You just drop in a link in a strategic point to ensure you that the people who come by and agree with your points of the discussion, can find more on your site by following the link.
– You should also be friendly to the editors and journalists in your niche of interest so that you at times get editorial links. Editorial links are very important for they will get you more coverage than you can come up with in your early ages of building authority.
– You can also attract links from other sites and blogs by simply using content marketing – use of content in a creative and consistent manner in the aim of integrating companies with their online strategies.
– You can also add value to blogs by just making some helpful and meaningful comments from time to time. Having people recognize you for the quality and consistent contribution to such conversations creates curiosity which ends up with the readers looking for the source.
– Engage your followers in small games where they can win an embeddable badge when they achieve a certain score. This keeps your visitors motivated and always eager to participate.
Offline
Online strategies are not the only ways that you can use to build authority, there is quite a number of things that you can do offline that can result in the growth of your online authority. Things such as building relationships and even social sharing that happen among such relationships can assist in authority building. Some of the offline strategies include:
– When you find a group of people discussing topics that are in line with your niche of interest, you can join them and contribute towards the conversation. This way you will be able to get hold of both online and offline followers who will then be a part of the growing authority you are trying to build online.
– Throwing small parties or cocktail hours right before a meeting are other effective ways of gaining authority. When people are relaxed and feeling free, it is easier to get to them and make them see some points in your line of view, you will easily connect to people when they are having cocktails or in a party unlike if you were in an office.
– You can also sponsor someone else’s conference, this way you will be able to meet with all the vital and important people who show up. You will be in a good position to converse with them and even get them to follow you on social media if they are interested in the niche industry that you work on.
– You can also gain some recognition by running a charity event, this way you get to connect with a large group of professionals from the niche you are fascinated by and you also help the less fortunate.
– You can also engage in hosting meet ups where you invite speakers who specialize in the same field as the one that you work in. This is bound to create some buzz in the industry and you will be the center of attention for sometime – this is very imperative for it will bring you more traffic in a very short duration of time.
Recognition
One of the most efficient and easiest way of gaining authority online is by having lots of recognition from sources that matter. If you are then able to ensure that the recognition holds, you will be in a great position to garner all the authority you want online. Here are some of the simple and yet effective ways to achieve this:
– You can do this by first visiting sites such as LinkedIn and Angie’s List and collecting all the endorsements you can simply get. The better your followers know you, the more they are going to endorse you on the LinkedIn and the more recognition you will rake up. This feature has not been on LinkedIn for a long time but for the short time that it has been around, it has raised the standards of people on the site.
– If you are on sites such as Trustpilot, Yelp or any other of the like, you can gain some recognition by earning positive testimonials and reviews from some of your past and present consumers. These reviews and testimonials are what give you some credibility and this leads to you gaining some recognition online.
– When you find some online competitions on the niche of your interest, make sure that you submit some content in order to win the prizes. Even when you do not win anything you still get your name out there and a chance for people to recognize you. It is even better when you win the competition.
– The best way of all is to become an industry source providing editors with soundbites and quotes to use for their articles. This is a sure way to gain some recognition and provided you keep your end of the deal, the editors will get your recognized in many places than you had estimated.
– Ensuring that everyone who visits your page or profile knows exactly who you are, make sure that you post all your certifications and degrees in your bio. The better people think they know you, the more they will be willing to support and even believe things you say online.
Mobile Phones
The thing about mobile phones is that they are now being used by almost everyone in the world. If as a blogger ore a social media marketer, have a website or blog that is on a platform that is not accessible by the phone you need to think again.
There are whispers about Google locking out and penalizing all those with websites that cannot be accessed via the smart phones. A very large percentage of people access online information through their phones and as an online marketer you should capitalize on that. If you are looking to create some serious authority online, you need to be accessible on all platforms with ease.
This form of marketing is one in which ads appear on Smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. Since all mobile devices offer different and function on different media platforms, you should find a way to customize and format your ads that they are compatible with all the platforms available.
The use of mobile devices is here to stay and for a person looking to get some authority online, you should always know where the tide is going.
Some of the ways that you can use the mobile marketing strategy to get authority online include:
In-game Mobile Marketing
this involves the popping up of ads or even banners in the games advertising for a certain company. They can also appear in between loading pages, they are effective since the user cannot avoid viewing them.
Location-based Marketing
These are very effective ways of advertising in which the mobile ads are designed and set to appear only when the mobile user is in a certain geographical region. Some businesses like the idea of the consumer getting an alert of their ads only when they are close to their business’ operations area.
Mobile Image Ads
These are image ads specifically designed to appear on mobile devices in order to create awareness about something, Using images ads on mobile devices is quite a clever way since most people use their mobile devices to log on into the internet.
QR Codes
These are codes that you scan with your mobile device and it takes you to a location that is attached to the codes. This takes you to places that you have no idea of and in a way expands your knowledge and recognition online.
App-based Marketing
You have read that 80% of the time spent on mobile devices goes on game app, you do not have to create your own game to get the recognition you need. There are apps that are free online and are designed to put your add in a third party’s game. Apps such as Facebook has very many ads integrated in its feeds that most of the time the user does not realize when they are viewing an advert.
Mobile Search Ads
These are similar to the ones that you will find online of Google, only that these are designed to be compatible with a phone to the extent that you can just press and option on the screen and directly contact the business.
SMS
When you are using the mobile platform to reach your customers, you will also get their phone numbers in the process and you can send them messages about products that you think they might be interested in.
That is the last point in the process of creating some authority online.
Best of luck! 🙂