Extending The Umbrella of Credibility
You need to open your “Umbrella of Credibility.” This umbrella encompasses those who are real experts in your company – the ones who should be leading the charge in upholding your company’s reputation as a leader in its particular field.
Apple is a perfect example of a company who is in need of recovering their own umbrella of credibility. Since Steve Jobs’ passing, they seem to lack that voice of authority, which leads to my point here, and that is that a company should know who it’s experts are. Those experts know more about your product or your service and they should be the ones holding up the banner of authority for your company.
Imagine the CEO of a company who is well-known for their expertise in a particular industry. That CEO turns the spotlight on one of his team members and announces that he is also an authority and people should pay particular attention to him when he speaks. That CEO has now extended the company’s umbrella of credibility and people now feel the same amount of respect for that team member as they felt for the CEO. This tends to wrap the entire organization in credibility and is a primary reason those experts should be the ones blogging.
Take Precautions when Extending that Umbrella
One of the biggest mistakes a company can make is trying to shine a spotlight on someone who isn’t really an expert. For example, representing someone from your marketing department as a subject matter expert could create an element of distrust. That distrust leads potential customers to seek information outside the company’s credibility in the form of reviews or third party observers. They don’t understand why there is silence from the CEO or other’s within the company who should be sharing their expert knowledge.
I do think there is a tendency for business owners to worry that placing their experts in the role of actual spokesperson might be a mistake. That person might up and leave and go to work for the competition; however, I believe the risk is one worth taking.
If you have a superstar employee in your company who really knows their stuff, putting them out front as the “voice” of your company is a much safer gamble than complete silence. These people didn’t become experts from being a wallflower and most of them have the ability to sit down and discuss a subject easily which is why they should be the ones blogging for your company. They possess that credibility your company needs and here at Shortcut Blogging the entire process is focused on putting your experts out there where their voices can be heard. Our interview process shines the spotlight on their area of expertise in a very simple format.
How to Get Started
If you want to learn more about our interview process and how your company can further develop its umbrella of credibility, contact us and click on the “How it Works” tab.
If you have concerns about what you could possibly write about, go through our free outline exercise and find out how easy it really can be. You will be rewarded with 64 ideas of subject matter that require little to no research and from there, you sign up with us, get interviewed, and let the blog posts start rolling out.