Personal Branding and the Expert Status: Why You Shouldn’t Call Yourself an Expert

The ‘Expert’ status is one associated with voluminous knowledge and razorsharp insight concerning a certain topic. It is one associated with prodigious depth and an enormity of breadth.

The expert understands a subject thoroughly, as if it was a toy within the palm of ones hand. After all, he or she has studied it deeply and knows how it works better than most people.

This status is also a stairway to wealth or fame. Experts are sought after in all industries for the unique and extraordinary service they can provide. Academics are the favorites of journalists who need sound-bites for their stories. Experts provide consultation with big companies who need them to certify risky projects or ventures.

Experts attract followers interested in absorbing their knowledge. They also sell products better than most others because of transference: their erudition increases the attractiveness of any product by making it legitimate and credible.

Why You Shouldn’t Call Yourself an Expert

My experience with websites and personal branding has taught me very clearly that you shouldn’t label yourself as an expert on any topic until many others have publicly called you one. My reasoning behind this is quite simple. Let me explain.

Social status is best obtained when conferred upon by others who have a stronger reputation or reach. Their authority status allows their words and recommendations to carry weight and ideally, any public status you are looking from should come from them as they are the best branding channel.

The second best way to obtain an expert status is through the diverse opinion of the masses, who proclaim you as one, either because they are following the actions of another peer or because they feel that your actions resonate well with their perceptions of what an expert should be.

I have seen newbies and relatively new bloggers brand themselves as affiliate marketing experts or experienced entrepreneurs who have been making lots of money online for the past few years. Their ‘expert’ status is self-initiated and displayed through a vociferous About page detailing their numerous achievements.

Seasoned industry types don’t like arrogant, upstart players unless you have the full ability to backup your claims. And if you don’t, your reputation will take a hit and no one will want to work with you or support your ventures.

You Can’t Fool Everyone With Your Antics

People are not stupid. If you’re an online entrepreneur making 5 figures a month, why does your current blog still have 200 subscribers after 6 months? Surely you know how to market it or yourself better. Sometimes your achievements are best demonstrated by your content and not the shadowy websites you hide under.

Some marketers or bloggers flaunt their income and use it as a form of social proof to support their expert status. Most of the time, the figures posted are unverifiable and even basic Adsense earning screenshots can be easily manipulated. And they continue to write articles that are factually incorrect and theoretically unsound.

They claim to help you achieve your goals yet most of their posts try to sell you something or are strategically written to demonstrate their existing wealth or imaginary reach. You have become a cog in their wheel of success and probably will have nothing to show for all your support in the end but wasted time.

Just another head on their email list, another hit in their stats metric.

Brandishing the ‘Expert’ Label can Harm You

When you start to brand yourself in the blogosphere or in the internet marketing world as an expert, there can be harmful effects. The savvy and knowledgeable ones who got into the field earlier will see you as what you really are when you write on topics you don’t understand in full but pretend to have mastered.

They will not vouch for you and sooner or later, the newbies who have gradually learned the craft by reading widely will start to spot the flaws in your arguments and the weakness in your knowledge on a specific topic. You can’t keep fooling them forever by bribing them with giveaways.

I personally see a few bloggers writing about SEO and affiliate marketing when they don’t know it well enough. It’s fine if you acknowledge that you may not have the whole gist on a topic but when you begin to overpromise benefits and claim the impossible in return for recognition, it’ll start to irritate some people.

This is probably a reason why I specifically do not link to some blogs because I feel they are doing a disservice to readers who are genuinely looking for an accurate analysis or balanced review on a specific topic or product.

Sometimes humility goes a long way in this blogging/marketing business. People naturally prefer working with and supporting humble people, instead of ones who blow their own horn at every chance they get.

The Rich Jerk strategy may work initially but it is still a novelty that people move beyond very quickly. In the end its all about going the distance and you need to have it takes to be truly successful and wealthy in the long run.

Don’t fake being an expert, become one.

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