One of the most powerful steps that your organization can take is putting a public, personal face on your brand. It’s a great way to build a connection with your audience and to promote your brand through a wide range of opportunities.
Subject matter experts are highly effective “public faces” for organizations. In speaking to the media and to groups, they both personalize your brand and establish a public understanding of the expertise that is the foundation of your organization, helping to build confidence and a wider awareness in your team’s capabilities. At Fryed Egg Productions, we understand the innate value of experts and work with our clients to prepare their experts to be individual brands that strengthen your larger brand.
Here’s how.
Identify your experts
When identifying who your organization’s subject matter experts truly are, you should ask yourself the key questions, “Who do we want representing us and why?” This starts, of course, with expertise – who are the genuine experts in areas that are important strategically to your organization? Who has intricate knowledge in a topic or topics that are most critical to burnishing the reputation of your organization and its capabilities in key areas? Once you are clear on the expertise question, you want to examine other factors that might determine if someone is a great representative of your organization, such as their demeanor and public speaking ability. The strategic importance of their expertise is a critical question. What’s the upside to putting your expert in the spotlight? If their subject is important to your organization, then the work of promoting them is worth it.
Develop their credentials and brand
Subject matter experts won’t be built out of thin air. They will already have the background and knowledge to be an expert before your organization helps to promote them publicly that way. However, your organization can create a runway for establishing their expertise in the public eye through owned media efforts, taking advantage of your own channels to feature them. This establishes crucial credentials and begins to establish their personal brand. Among the more effective ways to take this step, case studies, e-books, blog posts and video interviews are all excellent methods for giving your expert an opportunity to shine. These can take a range of formats and approaches. For instance, written items can be authored by the expert or feature them as a quoted expert, or a Q&A with an expert on an important, compelling topic can attract a lot of readers or viewers. These materials can be featured and promoted in a number of ways, including on your own website and via social media.
Media training
For your expert to truly be effective, they need to be comfortable and proficient as a speaker. Media training is an excellent way to prepare them. Through media training, your experts can learn the art of speaking clearly and concisely with their audience in mind. Experts will learn how to speak naturally to the media, so that they bring their own personality to every interview, while also delivering key messages that will resonate. They will polish their personal presentation as a speaker to ensure that they are creating the best possible impression, while speaking with the confidence and assurance that their expertise should allow. Media training not only involves preparing your expert to speak to reporters, but it also encompasses preparing them to speak to in-person audiences at events.
Pitch media and book appearances
Once your experts are ready for the spotlight, it’s time to get them out there. Look for strategic opportunities to get your expert speaking to audiences that are important to you. For media, that can mean proactively reaching out to producers, editors and reporters who cover beat areas that align with your expert’s subject area of interest, perhaps arranging initial introductory conversations. At Fryed Egg Productions, we have extensive experience building relationships for subject matter experts with media members. We also specialize in pitching experts to carefully selected media members when there is breaking news or ongoing trends that are a great match for their background. In addition, we can help pitch experts to in-person audiences at an array of events where they can help promote your organization through their expertise, such as at trade shows, conferences and the meetings of local organizations.
At Fryed Egg, we can work with you to build the profiles of your experts and create invaluable content that will strengthen your brand and help your customers. If you want to see if Fryed Egg is the right agency for your marketing needs, contact us at (813) 478-0494 or [email protected] or visit www.fryedegg.com.