During my vacation on the East Coast last month, I made a call on the President of a research firm who had contacted me and wanted to meet. I was happy to do it… you can only take so many days of sun, fun, beach and cool, refreshing drinks!
As we chatted, I realized that this gentleman was an absolute expert in the area of advanced analytics for research. It came as a complete surprise to me because, until we chatted, I had no way of knowing that he had that level of knowledge. There was no mention of it on his firm’s website, he didn’t have a blog, no Twitter account… no outlet of any kind to showcase that expertise.
In today’s interconnected world of business – and particularly in our small, tightly-knit market research industry – the sharing of knowledge can be (in fact, must be) one of your marketing strategies as you look to build a competitive advantage.
Sharing your knowledge can do several things for your firm:
- It helps to build your credibility in the marketplace
- It enhances your reputation
- It provides real value to your clients and potential clients
- It builds awareness
- It positions you as an expert (particularly if none of your competitors are talking about the same topic)
- It opens the door to speaking and writing opportunities
- It gives you something to write about in your social media outlets
And you don’t need to write a novel. Start small… blog once a week or tweet regularly… then go from there. But do it consistently!
So, what are you good at? What’s your area of expertise? What do you know that others might want to know? When you can answer those questions, you’re ready to start sharing your knowledge to build a competitive advantage.
Speaking of sharing, we just launched our first eBook, Marketing & Sales for the Market Research Firm: Part 1 – The Fundamentals. To download your copy, go to: http://216.245.199.133/~harpethm//ebook/