In this exclusive interview, social media expert Euan Semple breaks social media down into easy to understand terms and explains not only why every business should at least have a look at social media but also how they can make a start without the need of employing expensive agencies and IT professionals. Euan explains how most companies are starting to feel pressured to jump head first into social media because everyone is talking about it, although it would be imperative for most businesses to at least investigate social media, throwing too much at it isnt necessarily going to help. Euan also acknowledges that social media can be perceived as being a tool for the younger generation, but that generation is now starting to work within your organisation and with them they will bring the tools which theyre used to using on a day to day basis. This doesnt mean you need to ban social networking sites like Face Book and myspace in your office, it means you need to encourage these staff to use these tools in a manor that can benefit your business and you need to trust them to do this. Euan justifies this by pointing out that they may be more likely to ask their existing peers within that network if they encounter a problem rather than going through the usual time consuming channels. This example is not just limited to the more junior employees; encouraging staff to participate in social media can speed up trouble shooting and enable any solutions found to be shared. Whilst at the BBC, Euan pioneered the use of weblogs, wikis and online forums to enable staff to work more collaboratively across the organisation. Euan also worked on the bbcs award winning leadership programme, gaining experience in how to engage and inspire people with the possibilities of social computing as a business tool. He is now independent advisor on social computing for business, and a well known writer, thinker and public speaker. His unique experience enables him to provide inspiration on this wired-up world of work and strategies for how business can prepare themselves for the challenges and opportunities presented by new technologies

It is interesting how we can read about someone else’s ideas and put our own spin on those ideas and make them uniquely our own.

One of the most worn out books I own is Robert Bly’s How To Become A Recognized Authority In Your Field In 60 Days Or Less. The cover is falling off this little paperback book of wisdom. I have highlighted, bookmarked and notated many of the pages in it. And I keep learning from it.

But I am also spinning out my own ideas using Bly’s work as a starting point.

The genius of Robert Bly’s strategy is that you become successful by giving your knowledge and information away in the form of booklets, ebooks, articles, speeches, workshops, seminars, CDs, DVDs and by writing books.

He says, “Volumes have been written about selling and marketing, especially for entrepreneurs, small businesses and self-employed professionals. But there is one marketing strategy that, if you master it, eliminates the need to do any other type of selling or marketing ever: becoming a guru.”

A “guru,” as Bly uses the term, is not a negative at all. It is what he refers to as a person who has become a recognized authority in his or her field. In other words, rainmaking is marketing your professional practice or business by becoming a known expert.

Here are 11 steps I have come up with, fully given Bob Bly credit for sparking my own ideas, that you can use to become a recognized authority in your own field:

1. Start a blog on your topic. Write at least 2-3 paragraphs a day. Soon you will find that your ideas flow and you will probably be writing much more, but discipline yourself to write at least 2-3 paragraphs a day.
2. Don’t let any perceived technical ignorance keep you from creating a blog. If you can send someone an email, you can start a blog in about 10 minutes if you use Blogger.com.
3. Don’t be embarrassed when the inevitable days come when you write nothing but junk. That’s not the point. Even your worst writing can be rewritten later after time has given you perspective on it. Your only goal at this stage is to be writing out your ideas about your field each day. It is a building process. Besides, at first no one will be reading your blog, so there is nothing to be embarrassed about.
4. For the time being, focus only on blogging every day for two months. Two or three paragraphs a day, every day. Then print out everything you have written. You will pleasantly surprise yourself that some of your material is very good. The rest may need revision and polishing, but it too will be useful.
5. Now take your accumulated writings and start writing articles using this material. Publish some of your articles online at some of the more than 400 article submission sites or article banks on the web. Just do a Google search for “article submission sites” and you will have more than enough places to submit your articles to.
6. Also write some larger articles for offline publications. Get a copy of the Writer’s Market, which is published by Writers Digest Books each year. Don’t attempt to send your articles to the larger publications (yet), for now target trade magazines that service your target clients.
7. These trade magazines are much more flexible and likely to accept articles from unknowns. Most will even pay you a small fee for your articles, so you can now start covering some of your costs.
8. Keep reprints of your articles for marketing purposes. They will make great inserts in your mailings and publicity kits.
9. Keep blogging while you do all this, never let yourself write less than your daily 2-3 paragraphs. Your blogging produces your raw material that can be reworked and recycled into other formats.
10. About the time you are basking in the glow of becoming a published writer, you will have written enough material that can be “morphed” into many useful formats. Your material might comprise a booklet you can send to prospective clients, or you might rework that booklet to be an ebook you can email to anyone who may help you build your business.
11. Within a year, you should have enough material to start thinking about a bigger project like an outline for a workshop or a full-length book. It has been said that a book is the ultimate sales literature. Imagine a client who is trying to choose between you and a competitor. If you are the professional who can give this person a book you have written &well I think we all know how the client will choose.

The real genius of marketing yourself by becoming a recognized authority is that clients will come to you. As an expert you will be able to charge higher fees than your competition and you will generally work with the best clients.

COPYRIGHT(C)2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

Author: Charles Brown
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable pressure cooker

Rainmaker Days are a new concept from Erudyte following feed back from their clients and the clients from their The Speakers Company subsidiary. 

What was said was that numerous organisations, whilst they enjoyed and learned from speakers who were at the top of their industries, wanted more from the speaker and a closer engagement with the speakers’ experience and expertise to benefit their companies.

Given that that engagement could be consultancy, training, mentoring, tutoring, brain dumping with the CEO or board or other activities it is very hard to describe the offering succinctly.  Equally few board members will admit that their skills and knowledge could be improved on especially within their organisations even when things are not going that well.  Reasons can always be found for why things are as they are but it takes foresight not to mention bravery to ask if things could be (even) better and what it would take to bring that about.

For us one obvious route is to engage with someone who has “been there, done that, had the T shirt” and proved it time and time again on an international stage. 
As an executive you might not want to admit that you had been talking with such a person but if that discussion could be held discreetly, for example under The Chatham House Rule, might great benefits not be possible?

Lets face it your HR or Training department are hardly going to suggest to the boss that he needed upskilling or advice  even if they knew what those skills looked like.

What came out of all this was the realisation that if we selected some of our brightest and best – “The Rainmakers” and allowed them to host a small group (max 16) for a day, (with refreshments of course to keep brains up to speed) in a discreet and secure environment at a fraction of the normal price as an way of engaging with a rainmaker to experience both the process and quality, whether or not it lead to something more long term, this could be an attractive idea.

So was born the “Rainmaker Day” the next one is on 4th February 2010 and the thought leader that day is Gordon Lovell Read.  We have launched a new Rainmaker site (www.rainmakerscompany.com) where you can not only see more details about the Rainmakers but read their thoughts and blogs (feel free to respond or contribute) as well as news feeds relevant to the C-Suite and Boards.

If this sounds too good to miss one can book online at www.erudyte.eventbrite.com or Telephone Chris at Erudyte on 0845 094 1044.

Euan Semple :

Another look back into my blogging past – this time to December 2001

Maybe it’s just me….
I’ve been looking after my youngest daughter (one year old) all day today and we had a great day on our own!

But for some inexplicable reason I ended up in tears, sobbing as I sat on a seat in the bathroom as she played in her bath.

Maybe it was her unconstrained glee at splashing so much that the whole bathroom ended up soaked. Maybe it was the complete trust and optimisim in her eyes which touched a nerve in my own psyche…reminded me of the small child inside of me.

Maybe it was just the feeling of loving someone so much….so much more than myself, so completely and utterly that I forgot myself……

Maybe I cried because of the sadness of holding onto myself so much of the time, protecting myself……maybe I was jealous?