Being An Expert
March 4th, 2009 by Michelle Moore
Anyone who’s worked around me long enough has probably heard about my “aha” moment (to steal a phrase from a television ad) where I realized just how little effort it takes to become an expert. In the age of social media, it’s not only easy to be an expert, it’s essential to be an expert. Otherwise, no one will listen to you.
I once worked on the sales floor and as a manager for Radio Shack, where I was “certified” in three areas – Cell Phones, Video Equipment, and Computers. This was back around 1991 when I, in fact, owned one of Tandy’s top-of-the-line IMB Compatible computers, which I had begun to modify by adding a 40 mb hard drive and a mouse. (yeah, you should laugh – that’s pretty funny). I accumulated a loyal customer following during my tenure at Radio Shack because I used the same products myself. I didn’t “sell” them, I described my own experience with them – what worked and what didn’t, advised and steered customers away from poor decisions, and explained some of the factors affecting their choices in plain English.
The day came that I was tired of retail and I decided to take an offer to work as a technician at a local computer repair shop. I was actually sort of nervous. Who was I to claim I could fix a computer problem? Nevermind that between myself and my friends and neighbors, I fixed computer problems almost daily anyway. By now I had two computers and one was a “hoss” of a machine by the standards of the time, tricked out with every peripheral you could buy, 120 mb hard drive, 4mb of RAM, and packed full of software advancements like Stacker and Windows for Workgroups. But I hadn’t been to tech school. I hadn’t been to college. I didn’t have anything hanging on the wall that said I was qualified to claim I could fix a computer.
That never really mattered…
What Makes An Expert?
I went to work and did what I always did – applied plain old logic to computer diagnosis. “When did your video start acting up?” Yesterday. “What were you doing when it happened.” Trying to print a picture I just scanned out of a book. “So, is the scanner new?” Yes. “When did you install it.” Yesterday. “Have you uninstalled it to see if that caused your problem?” Oh, ya know I never thought of that… let me go home and try it out.
Ok so this was not hard to do. I didn’t make any money off that problem. But that customer came back to me, specifically, every time they had anything computer related to discuss (or buy) – as far as they were concerned, I was the computer expert and I was more interested in helping them out than in making money. That gave me a special sort of credibility.
All it takes to be an expert is
- sound like you know what you’re talking about
- be right enough of the time that people respect your opinion
This is the definitive case of “talk the talk, walk the walk.” You don’t need a certificate if you are correct. You don’t have to hold a degree to have an expert opinion if you’ve been there, done that, and paid attention. When it comes to some technologies, the experts don’t have degrees because the technology is too new.
A couple of friends of mine have taken this talk of being experts to heart and demonstrated how easy it is to make yourself into “someone” on the internet. Go to Google and look up Kalin Dudley or Shawn Livengood and you’ll see what I mean.
Two months ago, the only relevant result for Kalin Dudley that pertained to the guy himself, was a post about a high school basketball game from 1997. Now he pretty much owns page one under his name because he’s posted intelligent, thoughful comments on other blogs, often pointing out potential shortcomings in other people’s paid ad strategies. His own blog only contains one article at the time of this writing but he’s made enough worthwhile observations around the web on good websites that his comments are all indexed.
Shawn Livengood had a little more of a start than Kalin did and he spends more of his time posting on his own blog than Kalin does. Shawn is extremely analytical and uses a lot of facts and figures to emphasize the meaning of the test results he writes about. He obviously knows his stuff. He’s also guest-posted on some other blogs, which adds to his street-cred.
Why Be An Expert?
This isn’t about an ego-trip. This is about being an expert. Today, either of these analysts can tell a potential client (or employer), “to learn more about how I think, what I do, and my philosophy for online marketing, Google me.”
Can you say that and be assured that first, the right “you” will come up, and second, what’s written there is something you want people to read?
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