Have you ever been to Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park?

It's quite a fascinating place where literally anyone can bring their "box", stand up on it and start talking. The speakers talk about any topic, some quite passionately and frantically and some will arouse the interest of those passing by and quickly rally a crowd and some are the exact opposite with an audience of zero!

Speaker's Corner is not a topic specific conference with experts on the subject matter, it is just where people turn up and ...talk.

Social Media presents all of us with exactly the same opportunity to discuss our favourite topics as it does for the guys at Hyde Park. If you reckon you have expertise on a topic and you want people to know this then jump on your "box" and start speaking. There's quite a good chance that for your industry sector the "experts" are not publishing online so this represents a colossal opportunity for you to take to the podium - why not?

If you are the expert in your subject matter then beware, maybe someone else is grabbing the limelight online and appearing as the "guru".

Personally I use all of the online platforms to talk about my areas of expertise - I blog about different topics on a weekly basis, I find novel ways of writing about different aspects of Marketing, I share PR tips, I write about Social Media, I share some Personal Experiences and from time to time I even Give Out about things that freak me out!

Once I have done my writing I distribute my blog posts using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and then I start interacting with people who comment on them. I will also jump in and start interacting with other people discussing topics that interest me. Gradually over time, after a lot of persistent and consistent effort you will find that you will build both your reputation and your visibility. I even find at events that I attend many people will recognise me that I have never met and end up coming up and chatting.

What I am experiencing now is that people are asking me to speak at events and write for their publications and popular websites such as All About Business - Maybe I have discovered how to become the "expert"!

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion