When authoring a book, there are a lot of benefits that you get as a result. It’s been described as Thud Factor -not just the noise a book makes when landing on a desk, but the impact it creates for you and your business. Some of theses benefits may surprise you.
Here are 10 ways that authoring a book creates Thud Factor:
When someone Googles your name, your book listing will come up on page one of those search results
Many people want to write a book, statistics 80%, and yet very few do statistics a 1%. That immediately sets you apart as a doer, and action taker, and garners you instant respect and credibility
You are seen as an expert
You are seen as credible
You come up in searches based on your topic
Your book can come up in searches alongside industry titans – giving you equal billing and credibility
You have the best business card possible. Take a few of your books to your next in person event, and watch the reaction when you hand someone a copy of your book. Want to have/see thunderous thud factor? Autograph it for them!
Your book provides brand enhancement
You attract better clients – ones who are willing to pay your top fee
You have a great sense of pride and accomplishment
Linkedin is a platform for jobseekers, employees, ceos and entrepreneurs; they all can benefit from using Linkedin to create thought leadership. This can help you elevate your personal brand, grow your engagement and following, and attract new and better opportunities.
Some people think of Linkedin as a place to post a resume style profile. Others use it as a social media platform, posting content and engaging with their connections. However you are using Linked, it is an ideal place to develop and be seen as a thought leader.
From your profile to the articles, posts and newsletters you publish, there are a number of strategies and places in your Linkedin presence that can help you be seen as a thought leader. This applies to those who are job hunting, happy employees, or a business owners or consultant. Linkedin can be used to advance your career and business goals, as well as make new connections, and done right, position you as a thought leader.
Creating thought leadership on Linkedin- expert advice:
“The key to position yourself on LinkedIn as a Thought Leader and expert is not to concentrate on yourself – but on your buyer or audience. In the end, people just won’t care that much about you until they learn more about you. And the quickest way to get people interested in you, is talk about them and how you can help them. As John Jantsch says in his latest book (The Ultimate Marketing Machine), “..promise to solve your customer’s greatest need.”
Your profile, from the background image, to your headline, to the name pronunciation tool, to the video cover story to the content you feature to the About section, to the content you share in posts, should all focus on your customer or client’s greatest needs (or wants) and how you solve for them. Your profile should be buyer-centric – my ME-focused. It’s amazing, the more you talk a about them and give them solutions to their problems, the smarter YOU will appear to be! To see what I mean, just go to www.LinkedIn.com/in/LinkedInExpert
“The very first thing a thought leader should focus on in their LinkedIn profile is not tactical, it’s more energetic! It’s time to shift the energy of your profile from an online resume to a home for your personal brand. Sure, tell us about your past experience, but your resume is all about who you used to be. Your LinkedIn profile, positioned properly, should be shining a light on the person you’re becoming.
Specifically, shift the focus of your writing from a focus on your skills to a focus on the difference you make in the world.”
“You want to be seen as a thought leader and LinkedIn is a great place to do that. On your profile, the best places to do that are your headline, About section, and the Featured section. The About section is where you can really tell your story. Of course, share content consistently that provides value and shows your expertise. Feature this content on your profile.
Finally, get recommendations from other people about your expertise. People are often uncomfortable asking for recommendations. The perfect time to ask is when someone is thanking you for something. That’s the time to say, “You’re welcome. Glad to help. Would you be comfortable saying that on my LinkedIn profile?”
“The most common mistake I see people make with regards to their LinkedIn profile is underutilizing their Headline. The headline is your digital billboard on LinkedIn. Whether you are making a comment, writing a message or InMail, or posting an article, LinkedIn will always display your Name, Your Profile Picture and Your Headline. Don’t make the mistake of leaving it at the standard ‘Job Title, Company Name’ approach. This is what most people do. Give them something more. Show your prospects that you help others just like them and how you do that.
Now beyond that, LinkedIn content is about consistency. LinkedIn’s feed isn’t as ‘viral’ as Facebook or Twitter may be. But the discussion and audience you can build there makes it worthwhile. Because of this, consistent and quality updates are critical. We tell our clients to aim for a daily LinkedIn update during the workweek. Your updates should provide content that is relevant to your prospects. What are the topics they care most about? Provide them value by sharing related content to those topics.
We sometimes describe this as the ‘Oprah’ Effect. Back when Oprah was getting started, she was a great host. But she wasn’t necessarily an expert or specialist in one area. She built her credibility and authority by the guests she brought on. This goodwill built up by introducing her community to information and education led to her becoming not only one of the biggest talk show hosts in the country, but also one of the most trusted authorities in our society.
The goal with your LinkedIn content sharing and posting should be similar. Bring value to your prospects on the topics and interests they have. Don’t ONLY share your branded sales collateral. If you can do that, you’ll build more authority, more trust, and more engagement with your community.”
“Your LinkedIn profile is now more important that your own website because Google will often rank your profile first when people search for your name. Try it yourself, search your name and see if your LinkedIn profile comes up.
Here is a quick tip: Make sure your headline speaks to your target audience. Look at my headline to see how I craft mine on LinkedIn- www.joelinkedin.com to see my profile. Also, you must make it easy for people to reach out, do that by adding a call to action in your ABOUT section. Finally include some examples of you work here like tamilinkedin.com does under roles.”
Todd Herschberg, CEO and Founder Veriscouts – one of the most connected people on Linkedin
“You’ll likely see quite a bit about some traditional approaches to LinkedIn thought leadership: post on a regular basis, share links to content by other thought leaders, be topical, etc. I’ll let you in on a little non-traditional approach: start a group.
Groups are a somewhat underutilized method for establishing yourself as a LinkedIn thought leader. For example, I’m a bit of a foodie, so I started a Foodies group. This gives me an opportunity to post recipes, food reviews, etc on a regular basis to an audience that is specifically interested in exactly the sort of content I create. LinkedIn also allows group owners to “Recommend” one post per week which increases the visibility of that post by notifying all of the 22,000+ group members. In my case, I usually will recommend any reviews that I have written (particularly if they are products produced by group members). This helps amplify the visibility and engagement on not only my content, but also on the group members’ products. This, in turn, encourages other group members to request my review of *their* products – further building my reputation as a thought leader.”
The LinkedIn Profile gives entrepreneurs a tremendous opportunity to establish ourselves as a thought leader. The key is to stop thinking about it like an employee and treating it as a CV. Instead, we can use it as a page that spotlights our personal brand, demonstrates our expertise, and shows our audience all the offers we have for them to solve their problems.
Julbert Abraham, Founder of AGM, LinkedIn Training
Nowadays, everyone wants to be seen as an expert on Social Media. If you are in the B2B space, you may want to be seen as an expert or thought leader in your industry on LinkedIn.
The process to create a LinkedIn profile that positions you as a thought leader can be accomplished with these three tips:
Tip 1 – Develop your LinkedIn marketing plan and strategy. Before you do anything else, you want to make sure that you have clarity on what thought leadership on LinkedIn means to you. How will it benefit your audience? And how you should position your profile to add value to all the traffic you will be receiving on LinkedIn.
Tip 2 – Do a full LinkedIn profile analysis. One of the best ways to do that is to find your Social Selling Index Score (SSI). If you have never heard this term before, it is a free tool that LinkedIn provides that help you analyze 4 key pillars of your LinkedIn account. These 4 pillars add up to a total score of 0-100. This will help you identify where you are on the spectrum. If you are between 0-50, there are a few changes you have to make to your profile. If you are above 50, there may be a few changes you have to make in your overall activities on LinkedIn.
Tip 3 – Update your LinkedIn profile accordingly. This is where you really have to think about how you can add value to your audience. Your profile is not about you, it’s about what value you can add to your audience. It’s your marketing tool, not a resume holder.
With these 3 tips you are able to build your thought leadership profile on LinkedIn, while adding value to your audience.
The Case For Why You Need to Keep Positioning Yourself as an Expert.
This is the second time in my life it’s happened. A stranger asked for my autograph as I stood on the street. I was positioning myself as an expert without even realizing I was doing it.
I’m not a celebrity or a known personality. So why did these passers-by ask for my autograph?
I was a perfect September day and the passers-by were just following their instinct and conditioning.
You see, I was with my client Marya who was about to be featured on NBC to talk about her new book Career X, that we had recently published for her. We thought it would be fun to hire a video crew to document our experience leading up to being on NBC, and both she and I could use the video in our marketing.
So, the passers-by didn’t recognize us or mistake us for celebrities. They just assumed that we were celebrities based on our positioning -the video crew following us signaled to them and made them believe without a doubt that we were celebrities and they were just too bashful to even ask who we were.
They were attracted to us as celebrities – whoever we were.
So why am I telling you this?
As an entrepreneur or author, you should always be positioning yourself as the expert so that you stand out in your niche. It helps do the following:
Solidifies your expert positioning
Presells prospects on working with you
Creates an enhanced desire to work with you
It sets the expectation that as an expert, they can expect to pay premium pricing to work with you
Even if you are higher priced than your competitors or the highest price in your market, positioning yourself as an expert reduces price resistance and negotiation.
Take a lesson on expert positioning from celebrities like Richard Branson
Here is another example of expert positioning from a true, internationally recognized celebrity – Richard Branson – one of my business heroes.
Doing lead generation on LinkedIn, I noticed something in conversations with my new connections. Following some back-and-forth messages and a few phone conversations, if I believe that a connection might be a fit for my services, I will ask if they’ve ever thought of writing a book. On numerous occasions, I have gotten a sharp response back saying, “I’m already an author.” In one instance, the response was “I’ve written ten books and they are translated in multiple languages.”
I’m human and sometimes I make mistakes, so feeling I had possibly goofed and missed it on their LinkedIn profile when I initially reviewed it, I went back and checked. Nowhere on their LinkedIn profile is there a mention of their book. This always surprises me. For most people, writing a book is something that they’re immensely proud of. It’s a big achievement. And it’s a great expert position piece. So why isn’t it on their profile?
Branson and Gary V recognize the importance of positioning, continually. They both showcase their books in their profile graphic and title description.
Richard Branson takes his positioning even further by including endorsements for his book from other recognizable names – Sheryl Sandberg and Bill Gates. He shows that positioning is an ongoing process, even after you reach celebrity status.
Dan Kennedy, legendary marketer and author stated it well when he said:
“The simple truth is, if you aren’t deliberately, systematically, methodically – or rapidly and dramatically – establishing yourself as a celebrity, at least to your clientele and target market, you’re asleep at the wheel, ignoring what is fuelling the entire economy around you and neglecting development of a measurably valuable asset.”
Want help with your celebrity positioning? Schedule a complimentary strategy session here
Being the best-kept secret in your market is a disservice to you, your clients and the world. Most brands, like my clients, LOVE what they do. They also create great impact in the lives and businesses of those that they work with.
This inspires me and makes me proud.
It also makes me mad…
What? It makes you mad Jane?
I know this applies to some of your companies, my dear, talented readers….
The problem is…..
You may still the best-kept secret…
So… the best-kept secret I want you to meet is YOUR COMPANY! You have a gift, you have a message that needs to be heard. Your brand can make a difference in peoples’ lives, health, wealth…. And so your not being seen enough – that makes me mad – how can your brand share it’s gifts, services and products if the right people don’t know about you?
I want to help you so that more people know about you and what you can offer. Simple mindset shifts, as well as learning more about simple publicity you can do for your business can be both fun and profitable. Often the solution is simpler than you think!
So I have a question – what stops you? Why isn’t your company getting the word out, getting more visibility and reaching more people who want and need you and what you offer?
I have a sneaky suspicion…. As well as how to fix it… and I’ll share with you in an upcoming post. I am also going to be talking about this on Facebook, so please follow me there and like my page so you get notified when I add content or go Live. I’ve also created a new program to help you Magnify Your Message.
Of course, I love to hear from you… Please comment below.
Hear from experts: David Meerman Scott, Michelle Garrett, Lisa Fahoury….
I invited a few experts to share their 2020 PR and Authority Marketing Predictions
on my Flash Briefing – The PR Authority Minute
Our first prediction comes from:
David Meerman Scott is a Business Growth Strategist, entrepreneur, advisor to emerging companies, and bestselling author of 11 books including “Fanocracy” and “The New Rules of Marketing & PR.”
[click_to_tweet tweet=”The decade of the 2020s and the year 2020 is about true human connection – David Meerman Scott @DMScott #2020PRPredictions http://bit.ly/2020PRPredictions ” quote=”The decade of the 2020s and the year 2020 is about true human connection – David Meerman Scott “]
Listen to David’s entire prediction:
Michelle Garrett is a PR consultant and writer whose work regularly appears in PR Daily, Muck Rack, Meltwater and more.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”As trust declines, organizations will need to focus on building and maintaining their reputations – Michelle Garrett @PRisUS #2020PRPredictions #PR #Predictions http://bit.ly/2020PRPredictions” quote=”As trust declines, organizations will need to focus on building and maintaining their reputations – Michelle Garrett”]
Listen to Michelle’s entire prediction:
Lisa Fahoury is a long-time copywriter and chief creative officer at NJ-based content marketing firm Fahoury Ink. [click_to_tweet tweet=”2020 is going to be the tipping point for content overload – Lisa Fahoury @FahouryInk #2020PRPredictions #PR #Predictions #Content http://bit.ly/2020PRPredictions” quote=”2020 is going to be the tipping point for content overload – Lisa Fahoury “]
Listen to Lisa’s entire prediction:
Check back for more expert predictions – soon!
What are your 2020 PR Predictions? Share them in the comments below
Maybe you have, but you dismissed the idea because you don’t think of yourself as a writer.
Or maybe you’ve even gone so far as to walk up to a shelf in a bookstore and clear out space where your book would go, if you ever got around to writing it.
Even if neither scenario applies to you, the bottom line is this…
Writing a book can help grow your business; in fact, it can be the biggest leverage point in that yields the fastest results.
In fact, 63% of business owners who wrote a book reported that it had a “very strong” or “strong” influence on their ability to attract new customers.
How Writing a Book Can Grow Your Business
Let’s look at some of the surprising ways that writing a book can help kick your business growth into high gear.
WRITING A BOOK GIVES YOU INSTANT CREDIBILITY
The first benefit of writing a book that’s related to your business is that it gives you instant credibility – in the same way that an experienced PR person can help you by getting you access to opportunities you might not otherwise have.
How?
• While self-publishing is very common today, that wasn’t always the case. It used to be fairly difficult to get a book published. Potential clients will be impressed when they see that you’re a published author.
• A well-written book about a topic that’s relevant to your target audience demonstrates that you are someone knowledgeable – someone they can trust.
Today’s consumers tend to search for companies and people before they do business with them. When a potential customer sees your book on Amazon when they Google you, they’ll know that you are an authority in your industry.
WRITING A BOOK GETS YOU FREE EXPOSURE
When you’re trying to grow a business, it can be a struggle to get people to notice you – particularly if you’re in a competitive industry. That barrier is greatly reduced when you write a book. It’s standard practice for newspapers, industry publications, and even television shows to review books and interview their authors.
Instead of trying to cajole influencers to talk about you, your book can convince them to approach you – or at least help you open the door when you approach them. WRITING A BOOK RAISES YOUR ONLINE PROFILE
If you know anything at all about online marketing, you know that regardless of your industry, you’re in competition with many other companies and websites for the attention of your target audience.
How can you stand out from the crowd?
When you’re the author of a book that speaks to the needs and problems of your target audience, it’s like standing on a stage while your competitors are milling around in the theater. Your book puts you in a position to command attention and respect, and will also come up in search results for your topic.
Just as a PR person can make sure that people know your name, a published book can help raise your profile and increase your visibility online.
When you list your book for sale, whether it’s on your own website, on Amazon, or even on social media sites like Facebook, you automatically increase the chances that people in your target audience will notice your online footprint instead of your competitor’s. This can even improve your SEO as various sites and publications link back to your company’s website. WRITING A BOOK ALLOWS YOU TO CHARGE MORE
The final benefit – and one that business owners love – is that the cache of having written a book allows them to raise their prices.
Why?
Think of it this way. Every commodity that sells, whether it’s a product or a service, is subject to the law of supply and demand. The higher the demand is, the lower the supply tends to be…
And the more you can charge for whatever you’re selling.
The author of an authoritative book is likely to be in demand. As you gain visibility and credibility, the number of people who want to work with you will inevitably increase. And when that happens, you can raise your prices. You might even decide to offer high-end consulting services as a way of capitalizing on your notoriety as an author.
When Should You Start Writing?
If you had the money to hire a PR person, you’d want to do it as soon as possible, right?
The same goes for writing your book. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer, you know that you have specialized knowledge just by virtue of being a business owner. Your experience and expertise can be working for you 24 hours a day in a published book.
The average non-fiction book that sells on Amazon is only about 10,000 words long. If you wrote only 500 words a day, you could have a completed first draft in less than a month.
You have the expertise. All you need is to carve out a little bit of time and write it.
And as soon as your book is published, it can start working for you – bringing you the credibility, publicity, and success you deserve.
I am just back from an amazing 4 days at the Speaker Empire event learning how to grow your business as a speaker or author. I picked up lots of tips and inspiration and it got me to thinking…
In the United States, a favorite food staple is peanut butter and jelly. You rarely see one without the other. They just make each other better then they are on their own.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Books are to speaking, as peanut butter is to jelly” quote=”Books are to speaking, as peanut butter is to jelly”]
One of the best ways to grow your business is as a speaker or author, and best when you are both, as they are the peanut butter to each other’s jelly, they can give you exposure and expert positioning. Together, as both a speaker and an author, you make a bigger, better impression.
As an author, you are more attractive to conference and event planners, so it’s easier to get speaking opportunities. As a speaker, you can get in front of new audiences, wow them with your message, and sell your books and services with your speech. As a speaker without a book, you are leaving money on the table.
Nowadays it can take 5-12 touches before someone becomes a client. When you present to an audience, you immediately have expert positioning and authority, however they may not be ready to buy a big-ticket service from you. Your book is a great way to get them to buy something from you that at a price point that doesn’t require approval from corporate or their partner. Your book continues to give them an experience of you and your philosophy and methodology, and can move them closer to becoming a client.
One of the amazing things I discovered, is that once you commit to writing a book, you can start getting speaking opportunities. I have been interviewed on podcasts and been invited to speak at events based solely on announcing my forthcoming book. So your book can make getting visibility and attracting ideal clients much easier, even before its completely written!
I’ll be sharing some of the tips I picked up at Speaking Empire, as well as tips on how you can build buzz, write and promote your book… via Facebook Live. Please like my page so that you will get notified when I am broadcasting.
If you have any questions or topics you’d like to see my cover, please comment below.
How Thinking Big Can Be Bad For Building Authority
Think big. Create a big hairy audacious goal BHAG. You have all been encouraged to do that. The truth is that thinking big can hurt you in the short term when it comes to everything from building authority, seeking publicity to book reviews and more.
It’s great to create that big hairy audacious goal and to think big, however if it’s not put in perspective it can actually hurt you when it comes to achieving some of your goals, especially when those goals involve third parties such as building authority, getting media coverage, being a radio show guest or getting book reviews.
Prospects sometimes come to me stating their desire to be featured in Entrepreneur magazine, The New York Times or in the ultimate outlet – Oprah magazine. Those are great goals, however, sometimes you have to start out in the minor league, before the majors take notice of you.
Let’s take a page from Oprah’s path to success
Oprah didn’t start out as a nationally recognized, incredibly popular talk show host. She started out part time at a local black radio station in Tennessee. From there she went to another local station as both the youngest news anchor and the first black female news anchor at Nashville’s WLAC-TV. It wasn’t until 2 jobs later that she was discovered by a Chicago station that invited her to come work on a talk show, which soon lead to what we all know as The Oprah Winfrey show.
We might never have heard of Oprah if she only had her sights set on getting hired directly on a major network show, and wouldn’t consider anything less. Instead she began part time, at a local station and kept stepping up into bigger and more visible roles.
It’s important to not to overlook local or smaller opportunities because they often lead to other opportunities. You may be missing out if you’re overlooking opportunities, and holding out exclusively to land the big one first.
Starting smaller offers multiple benefits
By starting smaller or with lesser known media outlets, you get to do a few positive things:
Have an easier time getting opportunities – local media likes local stories, and there is often less competition seeking them
You can practice and polish your skills – better to flub in your small town paper than in The New York Times….
Larger media outlets, producers and book reviewers often scan local media or smaller blogs for story ideas.
The media mentions or reviews you receive are great content to fill your media room or press kit with
For the big win that you’re looking for, it just may not be the first publicity or place you get quoted.
Oprah got her break as an anchor on the news, because she was willing to work at a small local station.
So when it comes to getting publicity, being a guest on a podcast, getting your book reviewed and many other desirable situations, having some experience, even if it’s not from the top network or leading company counts.
Describing what journalists look for in a source, Dawn Reiss, freelance journalist /writer for various national outlets said,
“A lot of the major outlets will do a Google search on people to see where else they’ve been published.”
So being published, somewhere, counts. If you steadily and consistently build your authority and showcase it properly online, those big opportunities will come.
What opportunities are you overlooking because you think they are too small or insignificant?
Listen to our new podcast – The Self Publishing Blueprint
I was a perfect September day and the passers-by were just following their instinct and conditioning.
Being the best-kept secret in your market is a disservice to you, your clients and the world. Most brands, like my clients, LOVE what they do. They also create great impact in the lives and businesses of those that they work with.
Related content: 
I am just back from an amazing 4 days at the Speaker Empire event learning how to grow your business as a speaker or author. I picked up lots of tips and inspiration and it got me to thinking…
