“Sales Authority” may sound like a strange term to most people. Especially on a blog about small business marketing and online marketing. However, I was doing a bit of cogitation on what brings in the maximum number of gross sales for most businesses and it all comes down to authority.

Setting yourself apart from the crowd…

If you look at the most successful people in business, the only thing that sets them apart from the “also rans” is the “appearance of authority”. I’m not saying they actually are authorities, but they are masters at giving the appearance of authority. And in most cases, that gets them to a point where they can surround themselves with people who are authorities but don’t have the “chutzpah” to start their own business.

“The rich are different from us…”

If you’ve ever been around people born into wealth and power, they carry it with them as an almost unconscious bearing. It radiates from them and you can feel it when you talk to them or have dealings with them. It wouldn’t even occur to them that they are better than you because they know they are better than you. And when you’re around them, it’s hard not to buy into that nonsense.

You can create that same aura around you by consciously building a sense of authority about yourself on the Internet. That’s why social media is so powerful. Advertising is the art of telling people you’re the expert or the authority or the best brand or product. The idea being that if you tell people something over and over again, they might just start to believe it.

Don’t tell them you’re the authority; be the authority…

With social media, it’s the virtual version of being on tour constantly. People can read your articles, see your videos, find your PowerPoint Presentations, hear your podcasts, read your blog posts, see your comments on other blogs, read your ebooks and newsletters; you are literally blasting the Internet with every kind of communication method imaginable. (Rather than “oh gawd, I’ve seen this stupid TV commercial so many times, mute it or fast forward). This isn’t sales; this isn’t advertising; this is creating authority. No matter how people prefer to communicate, they can find your knowledge. This isn’t telling people you’re the expert. This is proving it.

This kind of overwhelming campaign is how you establish authority. And as you establish authority through social media, you achieve maximum gross sales.

There’s an old saying amongst writers: Show, don’t tell. And that’s what you’re doing here. You aren’t telling people you’re the expert; you’re showing them you are. And that holds a heck of a lot more weight than telling them something through advertising.

Creating sales authority through social media is easier than you think…

I know this kind of campaign sounds overwhelming. In actuality, there are tricks to this that can spread the word and create this kind of overwhelming sense of authority for a lot less money and time than you’d believe. I’m running social media/ link building campaigns for three different companies right now. One is spending $350 per month; one is spending $500 per month; and one is spending $780 per month.

Essentially, they just tell me how many hours per month they want me to dedicate to creating content and spreading it all over the Internet for them. It can also vary depending on how much involvement they want to have. Some companies want their employees to contribute content by blogging or blog commenting and I teach them how to do it fast and efficiently. Most companies actually have a lot more “content” than they realize. What’s more, I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve that makes it easy for the company and employees to create plenty of quality content.

Other firms just want me to grab the reigns and just send them a monthly report on what I’ve accomplished for them in the last month and how it has affected their website traffic. Then they can decide whether they want to hold at the same level or push the gas pedal and really set the world on fire.

What are you doing to “establish authority” through social media?

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