Your personal marketing tool-kit: Credibility statements and stories
In this blog post, Heather Townsend, co-author of the newly published ‘The Go-To Expert’ and author of the best-selling and award-winning ‘The FT Guide To Business Networking’, explores how your credibility statements and stories, along with headshot from John, are the foundation of your personal marketing tool-kit.
If you have decided to get the best headshot by working with John, then you need to make sure the rest of your social media profile earns its keep. The best social media profiles, in particular your LinkedIn profile, are based on a mixture of credibility statements and stories. In fact, any bio, profile or author credit will be vastly improved by choosing relevant and authoritative credibility statements.
What are credibility statements and stories?
Credibility statements demonstrate expertise, authority and credibility. These could be:
- The length of time you have practised
- The professional qualifications you hold
- Awards, honours, prizes and professional recognition you have received for your expertise
- Who you have worked for
- What other people have said about you, particularly influential people in your industry
- The books and articles you have written
- Your job title, particularly if you are a partner, managing partner or head of a sector team
- The conferences at which you have spoken
- When you have featured in the media; e.g. radio or TV appearances, quotes in the national, trade or local press.
Your Credibility Statements typically are easily memorable, repeatable and normally short statements, which allow anyone talking about you to instantly, convey your credibility.
Credibility Stories illustrate what you do, who you do it for and the results which you help your clients achieve. They are succinct and unlike most stories have no middle. You may have heard them being called war stories or sales stories.
A typical Credibility Story will firstly explain why the client initially hired you and the Pain Points they were suffering before they hired you. Then, the story will include a short statement about the work you did together, before talking about the happy ending for the client, as a result of using your services.
These Credibility Stories can be used in your Networker’s Pitch, in proposals, presentations, sales meetings, your website, articles and your LinkedIn profile. They can be used as the answer to any of these standard questions that you will receive at a networking event:
- How’s business?
- What do you do?
- Got any interesting client work on at the moment?
- What does your firm specialise in?
In summary
Before you write your next bio, speaker’s introduction or update your LinkedIn profile, stop and think. What credibility statements or stories could you use to help increase your impact?
Author Credit
Heather Townsend is the co-author of the newly published ‘‘The Go-To Expert’ and the author of the award-winning and best-selling ‘The FT Guide To Business Networking’. To get a free chapter of the ‘The Go-To Expert’ click here.
