What are you Building Authority in?

Since the internet has become the primary place for people to search for and find out more about products and services - authority has become the cornerstone of every company's existence online. Brands and organisations have looked to build authority in relevant spaces to stand out from their competition.

When you were looking to make a purchase decision a few decades ago, let's say to get your kitchen remodelled, you'd speak to a couple of providers and ask them a few questions on how they're going to undertake the task. More often than not, you'd choose the one you're most comfortable with.

The one you're most comfortable with is the one that meets your price point, and makes you feel that they have the right expertise and ability to remodel your kitchen. Bundled into one - that "expertise and ability" - is authority.

The sum total of your ability and expertise in a particular field, is your authority.

With the rise of public social media, companies took their authority online. Instead of talking to people in their stores or trying to directly market to them, they began creating content to establish authority in a particular space.

If you think about business insights, one of the first brands that comes to mind is Bloomberg. Similarly for economic insights, a brand that comes to mind is the Economist. If you think about high quality luxury clothing that doesn't burst your wallet, you'll probably think of Mr Porter. And marketers, if you think about SEO, you'll probably at some point think about Moz.

These are a few companies that have successfully established themselves as an authority in a space that's relevant to the core of their business.

As an extension, individuals today too - are looking to build their authority online. If you think about the wonders of space, you'll think about Neil deGrasse Tyson, if you think about video gamers, you'll think of Pewdiepie. More specifically, if you think about the future of mobile and digital - you'll think of Benedict Evans.

All of these individuals possess a specific ability, and the right expertise - in their field of choosing, to be an authority. If tomorrow Pewdiepie says that a particular game is not worth playing because it offers nothing original, the likelihood of you not buying it skyrockets. If Benedict Evans says that the iPhone X is still an unfinished product and will take another year for Apple to correct, you'll hold-off on buying it.

Over the last couple of months, the rising popularity of LinkedIn has given a rise to a huge number of people trying to build their own authority. And while this is a great sign, it's also begun to beg the question - what are you building authority in? And how are you going about doing so?

There are a couple of common traps that we fall into.

Chasing Engagement Won't Lead to Authority, Only to Impressions

One of the biggest mistakes when it comes to building authority, is thinking that by getting engagement on your content, you're building authority on what's on your profile or your job title. That's not how it works, and I wish it were that easy.

You build authority on the back of the nature of your content. So, if you're someone that works in venture capital, and all of your content is going to be flaky stuff telling people to follow their dreams, you're not building authority in venture capitalism, start-ups or how to scale a company on a budget.

In order to do that, you're going to have to give actual advice and insight on how entrepreneurs should structure their finances, hire people, manage cash flow and look at their bottom line.

Getting 1,000 likes on a "motivating" piece of content that talks about how one of your people, or someone that you supposedly met, overcame the troubles of life isn't going to help you do that. It's only going to lead to empty impressions and engagement that amount to nothing.

Authority is Easier Broken than Built

This is key. It takes a lot of time, investment and convincing to actually build your authority in something. And the amount of time it takes to break that authority - is an incredibly small fraction of the former.

On every social network, there are "hacks" to get more reach.

With Facebook, you could post click-bait titles such as, "You'll never believe what happened..." and people would click the articles to read through them, only to find that they're a waste of time.

Similarly on LinkedIn, "double spaced" posts that have appeared over the last few months (because the algorithm pushes them more than any other content) - and they have been met with a huge negative backlash, and for good reason.

The above is an example of one of those double-spaced posts everyone is talking about. Now the first thing that crosses your mind when you see this is, who the hell talks like this?

There's a very simple rule to stick by when you're creating text-only content, and that is - create based on the way you'd have a conversation with someone. Is that how you talk to someone face to face? And if this is what you're building authority in - stories about hiring people and giving people chances, if you're being honest and true to yourself, you'll probably have five stories a year - tops.

That doesn't scale well if you're looking at continually building authority, and looking to add value to your connections and network with your updates.

Predictably, with such content, here's the kind of responses you get.

And that's an incredibly small sample of all of the other comments that are on that post, as well as on many other pieces of content that have been formatted in this way. It's not easy to read, it actually makes for a far more broken way of telling a story. It's not to help people follow a story, it actually restricts you from making a complex point, or an insightful one - which should be the purpose of building authority.

But most importantly, it only reduces whatever authority and respect you've built.

Tom Goodwin is an individual I admire and respect. He's constantly thinking out of the box when it comes to digital transformation and marketing in the new age. His content is always insightful, always worth a read, and he always offers a strong point of view that makes you stop and think about the way you're doing things.

And in a way that only Tom can do, he summarises this double-spaced post craziness.

If you don't chase engagement, you won't fall in the trap of creating content in a way that "hacks the algorithm" and gets your content in front of additional eyeballs.

If your content is truly insightful, truly worth it and actually worth peoples' time - it will find its way into their feed.

Believe in the power of networking, in the power of sharing and social media, in the power of people pushing better ideas to their connections and being truly inspired by the context and meat of what you have to say.

The toughest question to ask yourself is - if you took away the "hack" that you used to get into someone's feed, is your content really worth it? And the next question to ask yourself - do you really need to post every single day if you have nothing of value to add to your network?

Double-spaced content on LinkedIn is the same thing as click-bait on Facebook. Which takes us to the next point.

A Flash in the Pan

BuzzFeed's an incredibly popular website. It's a place where you can (or could) find incredibly engaging listicles, little GIF-based articles that are pretty relatable and the company found a pretty interesting way to get people "up to speed" with the news by giving them the main points in a mildly-funny content format.

However, it's not as popular as it used to be in 2015.

Here's a Google Trends search comparing BuzzFeed to an incredibly respected news source, the Guardian.

BuzzFeed's core competence is... nothing special. And they realised this a few years ago, which is why they've spun off a portion of their website into a solid news reporting section, and have hired people from reputable news organisations to be a part of it.

You see, BuzzFeed's core offering wasn't something that was a unique proposition that couldn't be replicated. Upworthy, Viralnova, PlayBuzz and countless other websites - they could all play the BuzzFeed game, and they did.

Tons of copycat websites popped up, because the ability to create content like BuzzFeed does - isn't exactly hard to do, primarily because most of it was curated content and the cost of replicating is incredibly low.

Compare it's popularity to the Guardian, a reputable source of news, information and insights. BuzzFeed's "interest level" went up in 2015 (at the core of clickbait mania) and since then, has predictably begun to dip. For the Guardian however - it's a nice flat line and trends higher than BuzzFeed on average.

Replicating what the Guardian does isn't exactly easy - it takes a skilled journalist with a gut for asking the right questions, a brain that has been trained in a certain way, probing the right territories and delivering the right insights in an engaging format.

That's a skill that takes years and years to hone.

Guardian's reporters have the right expertise, and the right ability - to help make the newspaper an actual authority in news.

It's something that BuzzFeed's trying to do, by essentially... hiring the right reporters and journalists.

Think of building your own authority the same way. The only way you're going to do it, is by delivering insights on something you're an expert at, and have the ability in. Conjuring fake stories, stealing ideas from people and spreading them as your own, hacking the algorithm to get impressions - it's all the short game and you're only borrowing temporary authority that amounts to nothing.

You'll get found out if you haven't already.

The trouble is, playing the long game takes time and patience, and that's not something everyone is built for. Just ask yourself - meaningless short term results that amount to nothing, or long term gains that amount to everything? The answer is easy.

Stand for something unique. Truly work hard at delivering something of value, and over time - you will be a real authority.

In summary:

• Find an area in which you have the ability, as well as the expertise to deliver constant insights, fresh ideas, and commentary in.
• Building authority takes time. You don't become an authority in a subject in six months, or two years, sometimes not even ten.
• Constantly challenge the status quo and how things are done. Try something new, report the results, deliver value.
• Practice what you preach. This is critical.
• 1,000 likes is easy. 10,000 likes is easy. 25,000 pageviews is easy. 400 comments is easy. It's never about vanity metrics. It's about value. If you don't know how to measure that, you're not ready to be an authority.
• Listen to what people have to say. Take note of the comments. Disagreements are vital to change and improvement. Welcome them instead of ignoring them.
• Be honest to your network and the people you're trying to influence. Let this be the pillar on which your authority stands.