This post is part of a series of posts on building blog credibility
Does the blogger actually know what they are talking about?
Some might argue that ‘expertise’ is a little close to ‘experience’ but I see it differently. As I wrote in the last post, I often write in the voice of a ‘fellow traveler’ sharing my experiences but another strategy for building credibility is to write in the voice of ‘the expert’.
I guess to use the analogy of traveling again the expert is the tour guide.
On my firs trip to Europe (mainly in Spain and Portugal but also through Morocco for a week) we had the most amazing guide for two weeks. The amount of knowledge that she had in her head about the countries that we were passing through was staggering. She could (and did) talk for hour after hour about some of the most interesting facts, stories, rumors and histories of places. She’d spent years studying the region and brought the trip alive in a way that fellow travelers could never have done alone.
When she spoke we listened because we knew she was about to tell us something that mattered.
A blogger who is not only experienced in their niche but who is able to speak about it with authority and expertise is another step closer to being seen as a credible blogger.
Take Home Advice – not every blogger can pull the ‘expert’ thing off and I wouldn’t recommend trying unless you do feel you have some mastery over a topic. As I wrote in the previous post, don’t try to pull the wool over your readers eyes if you don’t know something or you might just find yourself exposed as a fraud (and bloggers love to expose a fraud).
IF you have some expertise in an area to share by all means share it. Don’t be shy about it, tell your readers what you know.
Especially effective are posts that not only tell people what you know but also that tell them how to apply it. It’s all very well to be taught a theory but to be taught how to apply it to your life is something that people will value and respect you for.
Lastly – experience and expertise need not be mutually exclusive things. Our tour guide had actually lived for many years in the regions through which we travelled. She not only told us about the region’s history from what she’d studied but from time to time told us about her life there. This blend of real life experience and expertise was a wonderful thing to be exposed to.
