One of the most important factors when it comes to building a business and getting customers to trust you is credibility. People want to see evidence that you have some expertise in your field before they feel comfortable trusting you. Your business will grow much faster when people can see that you're an expert in your particular industry. This is how to make your efforts more productive so that you can be a leader in the market you're targeting.
Participate in Forums: There's no better place to meet and talk to people with an interest in your industry than online forums. If you can find forums that are very active and share helpful information with the members, you can build up your reputation as an expert. There are many productive ways to participate on a forum, from answering questions to sending friend requests to suggesting joint ventures. The more active you are, the more people will start to consider you an expert that can be trusted. There's no reason not to take advantage of forums, as these give you the chance to make yourself known as an expert and to make many valuable connections in your field.
Leverage Social Media: Social media happens to be one of the God-send tools for anyone that wants to become an expert in their targeted field. Websites like Twitter and Facebook are a great way to build your follower base, and create a strong impression on the crowds. You can use Twitter for more than sending out short messages, for example; it also gives you the ability to create and manage a brand all your own and build up your list of followers. It gives you the unique ability to interact with your followers on an one-to-many basis, and grow your expertise. When you build your own fan page on Facebook, you can use it to brand yourself and build up a growing fan base. Your page gives you the opportunity to post status updates and messages, and your fans can contribute wall posts as well. You can also keep track of how your page is doing by the statistics that Facebook makes available to you.
While it's possible to make quick progress, you may need some patience when it comes to developing expertise in your field. It doesn't have to take a lifetime, or even years to gain the reputation of an expert, but on the other hand it's not something you can accomplish in a few weeks either. You'll make better progress if you don't think so much about whether you're going to succeed long term but make sure you're doing what's necessary every day to move forward consistently. If you attend to the details of your business and make a little progress every day, the long term goals will take care of themselves. If you take the time to build your credibility, eventually you'll find that everything will become easier as your status as expert grows. Once you know what you're doing, becoming an industry expert isn't a difficult process.