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"As an expert in your niche, you get all kinds of special treatment from others that respect you and acknowledge your experience and wisdom in your area of specialty.\r\n\r\nAs an expert, you can leverage your knowledge to network with the right people and ultimately become an expert source for stories that publications are writing, bringing in tons of inbound PR inquiries. You can get press without having to announce something new at your company, but instead, by sharing your thoughts about a subject you are truly passionate about and have a lot of experience in.\r\n\r\nHere are a few ways you can position yourself as an expert, getting the respect you deserve and press that you won\u2019t have to hustle for:\r\n1: Write a blog\r\nYou can author a blog in your niche (let\u2019s say it is marketing), writing highly opinionated thoughts on what\u2019s going on in the industry, what\u2019s happening with Google and search, evaluating new technologies that are shaping the marketing landscape, etc.\r\n\r\nIf you\u2019re publishing worthwhile thoughts, people will read them and soon enough, after a few really killer posts, people will begin contacting you wanting to hear your expert thoughts on marketing.\r\n2. Do speaking engagements:\r\nIf you have some credibility behind you and have a decent network, you can volunteer to speak at events and conferences for free. Now\u2019s the time to practice those public speaking skills and really\u00A0show you know what you\u2019re talking about.\r\n\r\nWhen you\u2019ve spoken at events, you\u2019re a more credible professional, because rather than being a faceless author behind a blog or a faceless worker behind an email, you\u2019re an intellectual being that stood up in front of a crowd who (mostly)\u00A0listened to every word you said.\r\n3. Show your cards\r\nTalk about the success you\u2019ve had. If you\u2019re an expert in e-commerce solutions, let the world know about the big clients you\u2019ve helped; the revenue you\u2019ve made from the contracts you signed; the number of clients you\u2019ve managed, and more. If you\u2019ve accomplished anything incredible, that makes you worthy of being called an expert.\r\n4. Write guest posts on influential blogs\r\nIf you don\u2019t have time to author your own blog - and even if you already write your own blog - publishing some of your work on well-regarded, influential blogs can earn you a lot of respect. It\u2019s not always easy to publish stories on these very selective blogs. With such high readerships, you\u2019ll put yourself in front of plenty of people who will want to connect with you, asking you to be an expert source for their stories or blog posts.\r\n5. Always accept interviews:\r\nThis way, when an interview is published on you, no matter how small the publication, you get to show that people want to hear from you, creating social proof around the fact that you\u2019re a recognized expert. You also show you are accessible, which is valuable for anyone else that wants to connect with you for their publication. No one likes to waste time chasing leads for a story - that\u2019s just annoying and inefficient.\r\n6. Author an e-book or a published book:\r\nBuild some authority when you become the author of an e-book, or better yet, a printed piece of literature. Published authors and e-book writers are given a ton of respect because to write such works takes quite a bit of time, commitment, effort, research and smarts. The fact that you've accomplished something as notable as authoring an e-book, or a published book, gives others the impression that you are quite\u00A0knowledgeable\u00A0about the topic you wrote about and that you're a worthy source to turn to for information about said topic.\r\n7. Create a class or webinar series:\r\nBecome a teacher for other great minds in the industry, who will at some point be talking to the press about their experiences and if you had a strong enough impact in their careers and professional growth, you can be sure they'll refer anyone looking for experts in that specific niche to talk to you. Also, you will get a lot of credibility in your industry if you execute a successful class or webinar series that is chock-full of rich information and brings in a lot of participants, giving you almost as much respect as someone with a PhD, so whenever someone else in the industry knows someone in the media looking for expert sources, you're probably going to get a call.\r\n\r\nI\u2019d love to hear in the comments if you have any tips for ways to gain 'expert' status, and on using that status to get press. If you have any interesting anecdotes too, please share!"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/04/11/how-to-position-yourself-as-an-expert-and-get-press/>