Build on Your Superpower

05.09.2017 |

Episode #6 of the course How to quickly build your online authority by Vinay Koshy

 

Seth Godin is a blogger, speaker, serial entrepreneur, marketing extraordinaire, and author. Yet, he has a reputation for passionately spreading ideas. It is how he has been able to publish multiple New York Times bestsellers and give a well-received TED talk.

In much the same way, your reputation should be built on your superpower or one quality that you do better than anyone else. It is the one thing that defines you or your brand. This one thing, in effect, also becomes your calling card in that it announces who you are and is what people think about when they refer to you or refer you to others.

While you can talk about your superpower or write about it, nothing is quite as effective as proving your expertise.

When I first started out offering my services, I was quite literally frightened by the sheer scope of what could be done online. I knew I didn’t want to get into paid advertising. However, I was also challenged by the fact that I would need to attract traffic to my site. If I wanted organic growth, I would need to invest in content, which meant I would need to write. I had written before and found that it was well received, so to solve two problems, I decided to focus on writing for the web.

After writing a few posts and discovering that people really enjoyed what I published, I began to realize my superpower was writing science-backed, data-driven, long-form content. This is what I am known for, and I have since grown my offerings from there.

So, showcase your superpower.

 

Where, You Ask?

Perhaps the best location to prove your superpower is your site. But don’t just show it; take it further. Use one or more of the following to get started.

• Use a consistent theme that represents your brand. Even as a writer, making something visually appealing can help stage your work in a favorable way.

• Get testimonials from colleagues, managers, or past clients.

• Include social media links where relevant.

• Show off your education and certifications.

• Show off your superpower by describing the specs or goals for the projects, how you came up with the solution, the tools and methods you used, the obstacles you overcame, lessons and/or skills learned, and the benefits of the result.

• Feature community involvement—point out your participation in groups or organizations.

• Feature how you use your skills to benefit others: Do you run courses, teach a class, or lead webinars? If so, let your audience know.

Here are a few other options for showcasing your superpower (depending on what it is):

GitHub, a repository for open-source coding projects

Coderwall, another place for coders that will pull work from GitHub and Bitbucket

Behance, to showcase your design portfolio

Dribble, an invite-only platform to showcase design portfolios

Contently, a platform for writers to showcase articles

Tomorrow, we will look at how hard it is to get people to respond to your offer and what a better solution would be.

Till then,

Vinay

 

Recommended reading

How to Discover Your Super Powers to Find Meaningful Work

 

Recommended book

Brand Identity Breakthrough: How to Craft Your Company’s Unique Story to Make Your Products Irresistible by Gregory Diehl

 

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