Photo by mikebaird.

The term ’social media expert’ has been the subject of a lot of talk and a lot of controversial articles lately. People have written about the different types of social media expert, whether it’s OK to call yourself a social media expert and outlined who they believe are (and are not) experts in social media.

The term has never been more commonly used. This is probably because an entire industry has bubbled up around people creating businesses and services springing from their claimed expertise in social media. There are a lot of good people in this industry and there is a lot of good work being done.

What I’d like to do in this post, though, is get people thinking about whether it is actually possible to be a ’social media expert’. As the title of this post suggest, I believe it isn’t. Here’s why.

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Photo by paintMonkey.

A ‘personal brand’ is in many ways synonymous with your reputation. It refers to the way other people see you. Are you a genius? An expert? Are you trustworthy? What do you represent? What do you stand for? What ideas and notions pop up as soon as someone hears your name?

If you’ve been around for a while you’ve probably already developed a personal brand. People recognize your name, what you’re working on, what you offer and what you’re about. That being said, your personal brand might be a little weak and disjointed. If you’d like to make it stronger, I’m going to help give you the tools by outlining what I believe to be the components of a strong personal brand.

If you don’t feel like you have a personal brand yet, this post will show you how to go about building one. But first, it might be worth talking a little about the value of your personal brand and why we might want to create one in the first place.

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Photo by makelessnoise.

Here’s the most inspiring blog post I’ve read in a really long time: Merlin Mann reflecting on 4 years of 43folders. It really is worth reading all of it, but if you’re too busy now, the general gist is that the productivity niche has largely sold-out, and so have bloggers in many other niches. The general malaise: bloggers writing what they think people want to read in order to get traffic and cash in on it, resulting in a whole lot of unoriginal and shallow content, and even more wasted talent.

When something good happens as the result of an action, we’re inclined to repeat that action. We write a list of ‘50 Firefox Extensions to Help You Do ________’ and get a burst of traffic from StumbleUpon. We assume that kind of content is working for us and that we should bring that formula to our blogs/websites in other ways.

Think about this for a second though: if you use any kind of social media, have you ever voted for content without fully reading it because it seemed like something ‘other people with more time would enjoy’, or ’something that would do well on social media’, or something that you ‘appreciated the idea of’ but didn’t make the time to fully read, watch, or listen to? My next question is: do you think you’re the only one? You’re bringing traffic to the blog and probably revenue, but you’re not bringing it your full attention and understanding. Thousands of other people are doing exactly the same thing.

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Photo by *Dario*

The marketer’s daydream is to ‘evangelize’ products and brands — to create customers who are passionate about what the marketers are trying to sell. When it comes to blogs and websites, having a passionate readership is just as valuable. Read More…

Photo by Sugar Pond

New visitors to your site want to know straight away what your site has to offer them. A prominent link to an ‘About’ page says: “Want to know what this site is about? The answer is right here.”

Usability should be conversational. A new visitor asks, internally: “What is this site about?” Your About page provides a quick and obvious answer. It’s one of the most powerful tools you can use to turn first-time visitors into loyal readers.

Once you have an ‘About’ page, though, the question becomes: what on earth do I put here? Read More…

Photography: Interacting with the art 3192 by vertigonoir

This post is part of the Simple Web series. It’s best enjoyed in light of Part I (an introduction), Part II (how to grip readers), and Part III (how to resonate with them), but will make sense in its own right.

In this post we’ll be looking at ways to encourage readers to interact with your site. I’ll be focusing on three key areas of interaction: subscribing to your feed, commenting, and exploring more deeply. Read More…

What’s the best thing you can give your readers?

Cory Doctorow published his first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, in 2003. He also put the complete electronic text of the book online and encouraged readers to copy and share it. The novel has been downloaded 700,000 times. It has also been through six printing cycles.

Seth Godin’s Unleashing the IdeaVirus followed a similar trajectory. In 2000 he wrote a 197 page eBook on viral ideas and made it as easy to copy and share as possible. As a result, he was offered a book-deal, and the print version of that same book went on to become a bestseller around the world.

Giving something away is a remarkable act, particularly today. Remarkable acts get talked about. The best gifts to give, however, are gifts that can come only from you. If I give all my readers $10, they appreciate the gesture, but the money has nothing of myself in it. It’s not spreading an idea or a message.

If I give my readers an eBook I’ve written, a piece of music I’ve composed, a review, a custom-designed logo, or a fantastic piece of advice, in doing so, I’m giving them something of myself. Read More…

Steve Rubel discusses the way in which our online identities are fragmented in the web 2.0 world. You might be creating and sharing content on various blogs, forums, on Twitter, on Stumble Upon, Digg, Jaiku, the list could go on. It can be confusing to keep track of it, and more confusing for others who’re interested in following your work but find it difficult to track your creations across so many platforms.

I think Steve’s idea of using a tumblelog as a ‘lifestream‘ is a really interesting one. Sure, the coined title is a little cheesy, but being able to aggregate everything you create and like in one place has its attractions. For me, my tumblelog does that. I post links to all my web writing as well as articles, blog posts, pictures and quotes I like, and it’s proving really useful to have all my significant web activities in one place. Adding items takes just a few seconds, so it’s no drain on my time either.

I’ll cut to the chase: a tumblelog is something I think any creator of web content should maintain. Leo Babauta also has 13 additional reasons why you should consider starting one. My tool of choice is Tumblr, but I’m sure there are others. If you decide to take the plunge then I encourage you to link to your tumblelog in the comments section. I’d love to see it!

Photography: Expert Ability by Joe Shlabotnik

Every blog or website should have an easily accessible ‘About’ page. What’s often over-looked is that an ‘About’ page is only a means to an end: establishing credibility.

The most important factor to consider when writing an ‘About’ page is that you show you’re an expert on the topics you write on. In this post, I’ll discuss ways to do just that. Read More…

Photography: An artist’s signature by Slewrate

I have dim memories of the time I spent creating my signature, and looking back on it, I didn’t give the task the attention it deserved. Now the signature I’m stuck with is somewhat jagged and messy, and I’d go back and change it if I could.

Despite its short-comings, it does get one thing right: it’s unique, and like any good signature, can’t be copied.

This week, I want to discuss how signature content is created — content your readers won’t be able to get from anyone else. Read More…