Blogging For Fame, Credibility and Authority
This is the third post in my series about blogging for business. In the first instalment I talked about how blogs can help your business profit and in the previous article I showed the ways blogs boost your website traffic. Now I am going to talk about using a blog to generate more fame, credibility and authority.
First of all, what is “fame”?
I would define fame as being a situation where lots of people recognise you.
Society seems a little obsessed with fame. Fame for fames sake. The cult of celebrity where someone is famous just because. Famous for being famous.
This isn’t what I am talking about!
There are many business roles that require a professional make a “name” for themselves. Consultants, trainers, coaches, authors, speakers, etc. Famous here means being well-known in your niche or industry, and in a good way. You don’t need to be Brad or Angelina, in fact you don’t need to be known by thousands or even hundreds.
Just being known by the right people will achieve what you need.
In the past this was much more difficult to do. Even people with the best ideas and knowledge had to work way harder to get known. Now with the power of blogs the barriers have come down, the hardest part is competing with everyone else doing the same thing and demonstrating your expertise and value.
So how famous do you need to be?
Your first job is to identify who you need to be visible to, who they listen to and respect, what they are interested in, what they need, where they hang out and what you can do for them.
You will find that instead of having to impress a ton of people you only need to identify a small number of people who will then influence the rest. Much more focused task but not necessarily easier. Persuading those influencers can mean finding intermediate influencers, friends of friends as it were. This is all about networking, a topic we will cover later.
Once you have your influencers in your target you have to demonstrate you have what they need in order to get them on your side.
Demonstrate your experience, knowledge and ideas in your posts. Share your tips and paint pictures of what is possible. This isn’t about giving away your whole bag of tricks but you must provide value. Each article is like a free sample, when people try you out and find your stuff is good then you build trust and through trust and demonstrated value comes testimonials, referrals, higher profile and credibility.
People are lazy and risk-averse. If someone they already trusts recommends you, via links or word of mouth, that is usually enough for them to place some trust in you. Reward that trust and the whole thing builds. One referral follows another and the sheeple effect kicks in, links follow links, the rich get richer, your fame, credibility and authority builds.
This is social proof at work. You are the go-to person because everybody says so. Everybody says so because … everybody says so 
You become a self-reinforcing authority. As you gain links you rise in Google, people link to the top results rather than research, which builds more authority and gains you more links. Before you know it you are top spot and can’t be toppled. Just be warned it is a steep hill to climb but so easy to roll back down on your ass. Reward trust and it builds, do anything to break that trust and the whole house of cards comes crashing down around your ears. Be kind to people on the way up …
As I said before, networking is crucial. This is what we will look at next - using blogs in professional networking - you have to work the net to net the work!
Posted on May 09th, 2007 by Chris Garrett in Marketing
Great series Chris, I am finding it very useful. I think blogging for business is probably the hardest blogging you can do.
I’m absolutely delighted to learn the term “sheeple effect” - Google shows it’s been around a while, but it’s new to me: Perfect.
Nice post Chris, fame and respect are not something to be sought out. Rather, they are the results of putting out good quality work. It’s cause and effect, fame and respect are simply the affect or symptoms of high quality work - your can’t obtain them without first doing the work…
Chris,
You’re doing a terrific job with this series. Between the magnetic headlines and the substance underneath, this is a marketing/influencing Ph.D. in application.
Keep writing…
Chris,
Again another great post from you. We are talking about the value creation. Value creation for your readers and for yourself. Retaining such value is a tough task and needs a lot of effort after you see people are already connected to you - through the value chain. Networking may be quick but keeping it tight requires relentless consistency.
I love reading your posts.
Rajesh Shakya
As a corporate copywriter who is set to launch a company blog, this series has been especially useful to me, Chris. Keep up the good work, and I’ll keep reading for more great tips on successful blogging.
Yeah, good stuff Chris.
i’ve started blogging for some time… and my first goal is to become recognised as a professional in my line of work.
but i want to do that under my nickname. i wouldn’t want to share my personal life….
so my question is: can you become famous under a nickname?
webee
[is a design blog]
@Jack - stuff that is worthwhile is often difficult
@Jen - cool, huh?
@Mark - maybe but you can certainly channel your efforts into areas that work
@Steve - thanks
@Rajesh - agreed, inconsistency damages trust, leads people to think you are faking
@Adam - do keep reading and let me know if anything doesn’t make sense
@Jim - thanks
@webee - it’s certainly possible (sting, madonna, prince, etc
) but you are setting the trust bar a lot higher. You don’t have to share *everything* about your personal life …
@webee, I looked at your blog and it feels to me that you’re going the right way to establish yourself as a friendly and credible source of information.
I totally agree with Chris that it’s a steep hill to climb to build that relationship of trust, if you’re blogging under a pseudonym - but if you consistently deliver real value to your readers, and respect them, you should ultimately be able to get there: just a lot slower!
I love what you say “Every post is like a free sample” best I have heard yet. Cant wait to hear about networking. Will you through in a little how to promote as well or is that the same thing?
Great tips as usual Chris! You’re so right about just needing to be important to that small influential group of people who will do the leg work to make you “famous” within your niche.
Very good post, I like the advice about influencing the small group of important people. It reminds me of how Seth Godin talks about influencing the “sneezers”.
I am loving this series.
This is a great series of posts, keep up the good work!
I’ve been an employed software engineer for waaaay to long. A while back I set up a website offering freelance work and have one or two clients. There has been no word-of-mouth from these clients to new prospects and I have found it hard to get new business. I’m still employed full-time so it’s not a problem money-wise but I’d like to “got it alone” at some point. After reading this series, adding a blog to the site seems look a good way to gain traffic and hopefully a higher profile. Cheers for putting this series up and looking forward to plenty more like it.
hi and thanks both to chris and Jen. for your answers.
i understand your point about gaining the trust of your readers. and that it is easier if you show faith to receive faith.
i’m gonna think again about this…
thanks again,
webee
[is a design blog]
Thats the fist step that should be taken, but people monetize first. There is one big reason for that. Bloggers show up their earnings and people are too much attracted towards it. They think Blogging can bring them money like a fast food. Thats the biggest myth. Before any blogger how up their earnings they should say why i earned so much…nobody does.
Even people who show up the earnings fof other bloggers they dont do it either. First show why and then how cfollows.