From Consumer to Contributor

“The key to developing your professional reputation is to move from being a consumer of others’ insights to a contributor to others’ learning”.

Building a reputation as a resource to others in your current or perspective field takes time and effort, but is not a complicated endeavor.  It is simply a matter of developing a brand (how you want to be known), developing a plan for coherent communication and taking small consistent actions to contribute to others’ learning.

We covered developing a brand in Part 1:“Build a Brand Workshop” and coherent communication of that brand in Part 2: “Maximize the Media”.  For this final installment in this series we will discuss the small consistent actions you can take to develop the personal/professional brand reputation you seek.

The essential question is how do you create consistent value for others in your field or audience? The goal is to provide both value and be consistent, but if you can only do one, err on the side of consistency.  You may judge something you have to contribute as lacking “high value”, but it may be extremely helpful to someone else. You have to eliminate your inner-critic as a barrier to action.

Part 3:  Consumer to Contributor

Actively helping others is the essential action in earning recognition as a leader. The key to developing your professional reputation is to move from being a consumer of others’ insights to a contributor to others’ learning.

Consider committing to one or more of these actions:

• Be an active member of your profession or field’s on-line community forums (if you cannot locate any, use your LinkedIn network):
  • Set a goal to post a question or resource on the on-line community at least once a month (or once every two weeks – depending on the level of activity in the on-line community)
    • Example question Post: I have been working on ______ how have you found the best way to deal with _____?
    • Example resource Post: I have been working on _____ and found this very helpful. Take a look ad let me know what you think.
  • Set a goal to respond to someone else’s post or questions at least once a week
• Commit to sharing an article you found useful on social media (insert shameless plug – you are reading one now).
  • Adding your own comments prior to re-posting is a great way to demonstrate you are engaging with the content
• Create micro-content based on the context of your brand
  • No matter how basic your content – there is someone that knows less than you and can benefit from you sharing what you know
  • Here are a couple of ideas for quick videos or short blog (or even social media) posts
    • Basic vocabulary in your field, marketed toward beginners
    • Review an article or on-line resource and provide your perspective/commentary on what it means for your field
    • What your learned this week (or what you are currently learning)
      • Don’t undersell even your basic analysis/reflection – it can go a long way in encouraging others

Taking consistent action with an eye toward helping others is what separates those who want to be viewed as leaders in their field and those who are regarded as leaders in their field. So what’s holding you back form giving back?

Is it really more important to be consistent than to feel like you are providing value?  Am I overselling your ability to contribute regardless of your experience level? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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