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Last week, I wrote that in the face of the overwhelming amount of social media noise, that startups would be better to establish themselves as "thought leaders" rather than try to maintain the good ol' company blog. It was a post inspired by something Stowe Boyd wrote, and it's an idea I've been stewing on since.

Now, I know better than to make a case for developing a personal brand online. But I do like the idea of situating oneself as a thought leader. I think if I'm to be read and/or believed, it's important to cultivate my reputation vis-a-vis my area(s) of expertise.

But how, exactly, do you do that online?

I remember my qualifying exams when in grad school. These moved me from the category of PhD student to PhD candidate and marked my mastery, in the eyes of the academy (or in the eyes of my committee, at least), of three fields of study. I was an expert (an expert, ABD).

But what licensing body gets to sanction my expertise now?

There's really no external authority that does that for me know (thankfully, if it'd require the same bullshit that comprehensive exams did). Instead, I have to establish my own authority and make arguments for my own expertise. And that's tricky in a number of ways. I mean, who the hell am I?! What the hell do I know?!

Of course, in many ways, my authority is rooted in the authority of the publications for which I write. (I guess that means I'm far more reputable "elsewhere" than I am here on my own blog?) But even when I write on other blogs, I do wonder if I am de facto authoritative, or I'm simply "a writer" rather than "an authority."

I must write, write well, write often on certain subjects, I guess, in order to have some semblance of "authority." But even then...

I guess I'd argue that, at the end of the day, it's up to me - not my publication or my professors - to establish authority, credibility, and expertise. And while it's incredibly liberating not to have someone else decide whether or not I'm worthy to speak to a subject as an expert, it also feels a bit overwhelming to try to navigate/report/editorialize on all these things that were clearly not on my qualifying exams.

Audrey Watters


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Audrey Watters

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