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One of the things I often suggest to professionals as a costless and effective way of marketing themselves is to get quoted in industry, local or national media. When that happens you then should make sure your target market knows about it. It is a promotional opportunity, and one which helps position you as a professional and as a thinker or opinion-shaper in your profession. It is part of becoming a recognised expert.
It usually comes at a price however.
That “price” is that you must be willing to be a target.
You have to be prepared to be disagreed with, and perhaps even attacked. Often unfairly attacked. Accept that as the price of building a reputation and putting forward different thinking.
No matter how thoughtful your opinion, or insightful and wise you are, there will be mockers and and those who are just downright disagreeable. The critics don’t matter though, and they shouldn’t stop you putting yourself out there if you do have good insight and thinking, and opinions which will help others shape their thinking. Who was it who famously said “no statue was ever put up for a critic”?
You must be willing to be a target therefore if you want to use media and interviews as a method of establishing or building your reputation and professional expertise.
My reason for outlining what might be obvious to many is that it is apparently not obvious to all. Too often the targeting is unexpected, and makes aspiring experts question themselves. It shouldn’t, as the world has always been this way of course. Pretty much every good and new idea or thought has at first been ridiculed.
A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea — Mark Twain
To be a genuine thought leader to your peers and target market it is necessary to be willing to be ridiculed…to be a target. To achieve the status of recognised expert in your chosen arena you have to be willing to express some challenging, or innovative, or insightful opinions that others may not yet be ready for.
It is simply part of the journey to becoming a recognised expert.
Embrace the challenge.