A post in our ongoing irregular series on experts and expertise.
How carefully do you read written material? We’re asking for a very good reason, which we’ll get to in a few sentences.
Are you the kind of reader who reads every word, or the kind who just skims? When skimming, do you skim exclusively, or do you stop and carefully read passages that get your attention? Do you re-read some or all of an article, to better understand what the author is trying to convey, or do you just plow through to the end? When you’re finished, do you remember specific phrases or sentences from a piece, or do you summarize and paraphrase, and remember your own version? Or do you remember little or nothing of what you just read?
Why did we ask that first question: How carefully do you read written material?
Because if you are a careful reader, you’ll realize one very important thing about the post that preceded this one. We titled it “What is ‘expert’ content?” which is an implicit promise that before we’re through we’ll answer that question. But we never did. Instead, we shifted the focus toward discussing what defines an expert, and then shifted yet again to briefly explain two types of expertise (epistemic and performative).
We cheated you!
Or did we?
You started reading that article expecting a definition of “expert content.” Did we give you one? On the one hand, we gave you a useful description of two broad categories of expertise, with examples. We also cited a little research, and in a paragraph toward the end described how all of this comes together in the writing approach we use.
On the other hand, although much was implied we didn’t explicitly plant a flag at the top of a mountain of words and call it “Expert Content.” We explained, if only in summary, that our team members are expert writers with a solid understanding of how to compose posts for maximum effectiveness. We also pointed out that our writers continually add to their base of knowledge, especially when working for a particular client. They research the topic (and related topics), dig into and understand the details, keep tabs on what a client’s competitors are up to, and generally accumulate more specialized knowledge all the time. Applying that knowledge through a specific, targeted piece of writing for a client generates expert content.
What else might you have learned from that post? Again, if you’re a careful reader, you might have recognized a few tricks we used in its composition, as well as some of the many things it accomplished. We made decisions about tone, formality, and structure (on large and small levels) to make the post work well with a particular target audience. We did a few things to establish authority, at the same time that we indulged in a little flattery of the reader. We played with the rhythm, offered advice and counter-advice, provided useful information…and we acknowledged our own imperfection.
We believe that most readers came away with a slightly improved understanding of experts and expertise (and expert content), even though we didn’t beat them over the head with any of the ideas we were hoping to convey.
Of course, there was no reason to beat the reader over the head: You already have your own idea of what “expert” means, don’t you? You’re not really here looking for an explanation; you’re here to learn more about how to use expertise in your business.
In one sense, an expert is simply a person who knows more about a particular subject than another person. That’s a very low bar, but on a practical level this is often how we recognize and value expertise on a day-to-day basis. Expertise, looked at in this way, has no fixed criteria. There’s no red line that separates an expert from a non-expert, except that the expert knows “more” than the non-expert. There’s also no upper limit to expertise, or any fixed ratio of knowledge: it’s impossible to say, for instance, that one expert has two units of “expertness” while another has six and another has ten.
We still haven’t explicitly defined what we mean by expert content, but don’t worry: we won’t leave you hanging again. At this point, though, do we really need to define it? It should be clear that expert content, in the context of the services we offer, is about the production of posts and articles on your web site that answer the questions your visitors are asking. The expert content we can produce for your site will do that, using titles, headings, key words, and key phrases that your potential customers are likely to search for. That content will do far more than leverage those special strings, however, because it will explain what your customers want to know, in clear and creative ways. Even better for you, we don’t take credit for that content: we might write it, but it’s there to showcase your expertise. As time goes on and we help you develop a library of content, the evidence for your expertise grows—and with it, the ability of your site to capture more traffic. And more business.
There’s a lot more about expertise and how it works that we’ll share with you over time. Subscribe to receive notifications of new posts. One of our upcoming articles will discuss how even experts can make mistakes when it comes to transmitting what they know to others.
Put your special expertise on display by getting in touch with Waltham WordWorks to learn how we can help you affordably showcase your business or industry knowledge to attract new clients (and strengthen the relationship with your existing ones).
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