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Two Hot Tools for Becoming an Instant Expert

Written by: Keith Ferrazzi

Article Overview: The Internet offers so many opportunities to build and enhance your personal brand. There's no better way to let potential employers and anyone else know before you walk through the door that you're something special. Of course, to be a real expert on anything, the first prerequisite is deep familiarity and facility with your subject matter. But after that, it's all about finding ways to show people your expertise.

Two Hot Tools for Becoming an Instant Expert

The Internet offers so many opportunities to build and enhance your personal brand. There's no better way to let potential employers and anyone else know before you walk through the door that you're something special. Of course, to be a real expert on anything, the first prerequisite is deep familiarity and facility with your subject matter. But after that, it's all about finding ways to show people your expertise.

Chances are you've already heard you should have a blog, a LinkedIn account, and - of course! - a Keith Ferrazzi Community profile. But here are a couple of tools you might not have heard about yet that can help you up your expert profile.

1. Google Knols: This online, constantly evolving encyclopedia is much like Wikipedia, but brings in a social networking dimension and has a stronger focus on authorship. You sign up for a profile and start contributing "knols," units of knowledge, on topics in your field. (I could see this getting addictive!!) Your entries are rated by users, and the degree to which you respond to user feedback helps determine the relevancy and rating of your knol. Read this Best Practices for Writing Knols to get a better picture of what a knol should look like and how the system works.

Google Knols is brand new, so it's hard to say whether it will take off. But the upside is that many topics are still untouched and there's plenty of room to define yourself as the king of your hill. Plus, because it's a Google product, you can bet on quick indexing and high-ranking searches so that all your hard work gets seen.

2. Peter Shankman's Help A Reporter Out (HARO): This twice-daily email list connects journalists looking for sources with experts who can help them out. In other words, if a writer from the Baltimore Sun needs a request for an expert on the history of Tour de France, he sends it into Peter. If it turns out that you are just such a historian - voila! You contact him, give a witty-yet-erudite quote, and get exposure in a major newspaper. Meanwhile, the journo doesn't have to make ten phone calls to track you down. It's one of those great ideas that you wonder why no one thought of until now. That's probably why it grew organically in a matter of months from an impromptu Facebook group into an email list 23,000 strong. Check it out - but don't abuse it. Don't "stretch" the subject area that you're qualified to speak on because you're over eager to get in print.

Hope you enjoy these tools. If you're already already writing knols - very impressive! - post the links in this discussion Forum to share them with KF Community. I'd love a temperature check on whether Google's idea is catching on.

Warmest,
Keith

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Article Tags: authorship, baltimore sun, community profile, email list, expert profile, familiarity, google, history of tour de france, hot tools, keith ferrazzi, knol, knols, personal brand, peter shankman, plenty of room, prerequisite, relevancy, social networking, tour de france, wikipedia



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