Stirling Cox has a great post at the SmartBlog on Leadership titled “Why experts beat Google every time.” He makes the point that experts can give you information and knowledge that you won’t find with a Google search.
That’s true and it’s also important. If you want to add value to your book or blog posts, tapping the experts and what they know can do the trick.
Cox gives you four ways to connect with experts. The only problem remaining is how to identify experts you can contact. Here are five suggestions.
Experts write books.
Click over to Amazon and see who’s written books about your topic. You can also learn something about the expert and his or her ideas from the reviews.
Experts give speeches.
Find conference agendas and look at the speakers. This usually works best as a two step process. First find a trade or professional organization in the right interest area that also sponsors a conference or convention. Then check out the speakers they’ve used in the past as well as the ones for upcoming conferences.
Experts often work at universities.
Here’s another two step. Search for university programs in your area of interest. Then identify the faculty who develop and teach the courses.
Experts often work for consulting firms.
Consulting firms usually have extensive web sites and blogs as well as a collection of white papers and research reports. Tap the documents and the experts.
Experts promote themselves.
Experts are often on social media. Check them all, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. You can learn a lot about their expertise from their tweets and posts.
It’s not experts or Google.
The magic is in the mix. Google can lead you to the expertise that lives in books, blog posts, research reports and white papers. It can also help you find experts.