Platforms are as important as your ability to do your job and satisfy your clients



Quality is no longer enough to guarantee success. Today, competence is assumed- and there is competition everywhere. To control your destiny, you need a platform.

Platform refers to a process based on a unique message and a way of consistently communicating with your market.

Examples of platforms

There are several types of platforms: articles, blogs, columns, books, interviews, newsletters, podcasts, postcards, speaking, teleseminars, and websites.

The crucial issue is not which type of platform you use, but whether or not you have a unique message and that you consistently enhance and promote it.

Advantages

Platforms offer you:

o A position that visibly differentiates you from your competition.

o An independent "stage" to present from, a way of packaging your expertise in a unique and easily recognizable format.

o Market education. Platforms help you communicate your point of view in a way that creates a "halo of trust" surrounding all your products and services.

o Freedom. You control your destiny, free from dependence or interference.

o Self-improvement. Platforms encourage you to refine your ideas and your ability to express them.

o Networking. Your platform will expand and reinforce a growing referral network.

Prerequisites

Successful platforms require:

o Commitment. You must invest in yourself by mastering the resources needed to create and distribute your message.

o Consistency. Your platform must be constantly visible. You never know when prospects will be ready to buy.

o Efficiency. To achieve constant visibility, your platform must be inexpensive and easy to update with new information.

Steps to success

1. Choose your message.

2. Create a way to distribute it.

3. Promote online with a website you can update by yourself.

1. Message

Your core message should describe your mission, or value proposition, (i.e., how you can help your market). Your goal is to become personally associated with the solution to a widespread problem your target market suffers from.

Your message should reflect your competence as well as well as your values, style, and enthusiasm. Your message will help you identify the appropriate topics and information.

2. Distribution

An effective platform requires a source, or nucleus, that is recycled and expanded.

For many, the starting point is a monthly One-Page Newsletter. Each issue offers enough space to introduce and address just about any topic, educating your market and proving your competence.

Later, you can expand each issue into:

o Articles and columns for publication and syndication, media interviews, etc.

o Presentations, audios, speeches, teleconferences, podcasts, training, workshops.

o Online content and incentives to attract search engine traffic, reward your clients, and build your opt-in e-mail newsletter circulation list.

o Books and e-books. Books are the highest level of a platform. Writing a book becomes practical if prepare each issue of your newsletter so it can be later expanded into a chapter of a book.

3. Website

You must be able to update your website yourself, without waiting for-and paying-someone else to do the work. Websites have to be continually updated. You need to provide new information on a consistent basis. Avoid fancy "art directed" websites; these are usually too inflexible to be easily and continuously updated.

Getting started

Start by analyzing your core competencies, your market, and your competition. Then, determine the best ways to communicate, and expand, it as consistently and efficiently as possible.

Progress typically proceeds best when you work with a mentor, or coach, who will guide you through the process and help you take a fresh look at yourself.