Personal Branding Tip: Follow the Experts

As a newly grad or student, you aren’t quite an expert yet in your field, right? You need to follow the experts who inspired you to get involved with your industry in the first place. These are the thought leaders, the influencers, the researchers, and the public figures that represent where you want to be in 10 or 20-years with your career.

What do these people do every day? What do they publish? Do you read everything they release? You should! The information age has provided us with a never-ending slew of content that you can be consuming every single day, many times for free. You have nothing to lose by following the experts intently and absorbing every piece of information they are releasing to you.

Don’t Just Follow Them – Invest in Them

I am suggesting that you go beyond just following these experts. Go online and find their:

• Blogs
• Profiles
• Contributor profiles
• Videos
• Social media profiles

Look for people who are successful in your field and examine what they are doing. Ask yourself these questions:

• What topics are they writing about?
• What trends are they writing about?
• What platforms are they using to disseminate their information?
• What are their recent projects? Who are they partnering with?
• Who are THEIR mentors? Who do these people look up to?
• Who are their friends? This is a great way to find even more experts to follow in your industry.

With this information, attempt to imitate them. I am not saying copy them or plagiarize them. Never do that. I am suggesting that you look for people who are successful and examine what they are doing. You will want to use their example for your life so you can start to position yourself as an expert in the same field.

Mentorship Arrangements

Many times, these experts will take on mentees that are eager to learn about them and their content. Be sure to look up any expert programs that are related to these experts. They may also host private Facebook or LinkedIn Groups whereby you can get even closer to them and their information. Everyone wants to give back when they get to the top – it may be easier than you think to get in closely with these people. Remember: in building a personal brand, your goal is to stand out. You can’t rise to the top without considering who is already at the top. It’s merely doing your due diligence to study these people and see what they are doing/saying. Every single expert in the world had experts that came before them and inspired them.