APU Careers Careers & Learning

Five Ways to Share What You Know

By Jill Kurtz
Director of Public Relations for APUS
Online Career Tips Guest Contributor

One of the best ways to gain and demonstrate your professional credibility is to share what you know online. The more contributions attributed to you, the more likely you are to be visible to someone researching a topic related to your area of expertise.

Here are five easy ways to share what you know:

1. Use LinkedIn. Every professional should create a LinkedIn profile. Follow the prompts and make your profile as complete as possible. New features are added regularly; make sure you continue to add to your presence. Use your status to post thoughts related to timely topics in your field as well as links to interesting posts by others. Add professionals that you know to your network. “Like” and comment on the content posted by others.

2. Be an active social media commenter. Look for opportunities to comment on the blog posts authored by others. (Start by commenting on this post!) Let the author and readers know if you agree or disagree with the content, and add more information. Include a link to something you have published on the topic, if relevant.

3. Become a contributor. There are many blogs (like this one) that welcome contributors. Find one that is relevant to your area of expertise or location and become a regular contributor. This blog is an example of a topical blog. Patch is an example of location based news/blog sites. When you find a site that is a good fit for the information you have to share, look for guidelines on how to contribute. Getting published is often a matter of following the right procedure.

4. Serve as a source. Is there a reporter who regularly covers your area of expertise? Introduce yourself. Let him or her know who you are, what you know, and how to reach you. Share links to material you have published that will illustrate what you can contribute. List yourself as a source in places reporters look, like helpareporterout.com, or Policy Studies Yearbook.

5. Start a blog. If you want to contribute to your profession more often than any of these other options allow, consider starting your own blog. Services like Blogger and WordPress make establishing a blog easy and free. It will be up to you to do the ongoing work to post content that makes your blog a place that readers will frequent and that has influence on your area of expertise.

 

About Jill:

Jill Kurtz is director of public relations for American Public University System. She has more than 25 years of experience in strategic communications and public relations. She holds the Accredited in Public Relations (APR) professional credential and earned a B.A. in Communication from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

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