Carving a path in an overloaded world
Image via Jeff Cain of http://shedresearch.net/.
“If you want something done right, do it yourself.” That’s the age-old adage, and in a perfect world where you had an infinite amount of time and energy, that would be your ideal option in all matters. Whether it’s in matters of health, environment, law, politics, technology, business, or entertainment, you didn’t spend a lifetime cultivating your expertise so that someone who mastered SEO, got an early scoop, or attached their name to a major news outlet could influence the opinions of your target audience. But the amount of time and money it would take to simply do all that communication yourself makes that an untenable and unsustainable solution for the long-term.
And to be honest, in the vast majority of cases, it’s not a good expenditure of your energy. With hundreds of thousands of sources on the internet generating new, original content every day, how can you stand out? How can you avoid being just another voice lost among the chorus?
The key might not be in shouting louder, but in blazing the best trail.
Rather than just seeing, sharing and commenting on the same couple of articles that everyone else is reading, what if you could carve your own path?
All that expertise you have means that you know what the important aspects of the current newsworthy topics are, how they fit in to the greater scheme of your field, and what impacts they bring about. Remember that it’s a social world out there, and you do yourself a service every time you embrace the legitimate and positive contributions of others in your niche area of expertise. Instead of firing off an article of your own creation every time an new topic arises, what if you could choose from a selection of nuanced articles to share? You’d choose not necessarily the most popular or common, but those that were the highest quality, the most relevant, and — most of all — the most valuable to your audience.
Expertise isn’t only about being informed and intelligent in your communication, it’s also a developed, discerning eye that can spot the diamonds-in-the-rough, enabling you to elevate the stories that deserve the most attention. You’re working hard to inform your target audience, build trust, and establish yourself as a thought leader, but are you getting a maximal return on your investments of time-and-effort? Don’t try to fight the ever-growing fields of content, but recognize that the cream-of-the-crop is there, just waiting for you to pick it. So embrace your expertise, and deliver your audience only the best of what’s out there.
-Ethan