Why You Need Street Cred + 23 Ways to Earn It

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Street Cred (n.) short for street credibility: a level of respect in an environment due to experience in or knowledge of issues affecting those environments

How do you establish yourself, your business, blog, and your brand? You need some street creds, yo! Both success and credibility take time and hard work. Once you earn it- others will associate value, quality, and trust with your content and products.

“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful.”-Edward R. Murrow

Here’s how you’ll get it:

Write a bad ass bio. ( 5 Cheat-o-licious Tricks from the vocabuarlian gangster herself, Alexandra Frazen)
Great product photography.
Bloggin’. Make genuine connections & share your genius with the world.
Claim your domain! YourName.com means you have a presence. Presence=credibility.
Post videos. No idea where to start? Vblogging 101 with Mayi Carles.
Engaging Website + Interesting Content
Write Guest Posts! Most if not all online publications are always itching for sparkly new content- How to Ethically + Successfully Pitch to Blogs via Miss Modish
Start a podcast.
Twitter – connect, discover, posse up (see #19)
Use your Twitter favorites as your testimonials. Someone say something nice about you on Twitter? Favorite it.
Facebook Page, Tumblr, Pinterest… all that social media jazz.
Improve your SEO
Collaborate.
Start a newsletter.
Pitch local news. Want to come on and talk about your expertise? Pick up the phone and talk to your local producer. Once you say you’ve been on local news, you are much more likely to book bigger appearances. You’ll rock the interview.
Testimonials. Testimonials. Testimonials and feedback. Share that shiz.
Get a fancy signature… for your emails. Professional looking & personalized- be sure to include who you are, what you do, & where you can connect. I use wisestamp (its Free!)
Write an e-book.
Get involved locally. Share your genius with your own community- host a workshop, DIY, volunteer.
Posse up aka street cred by association. True influence + authority comes from relationships- who are you hangin’ with?
Walkin the walk. Talking the talk – Bottom line, Do what you say your going to & don’t be a poser.
Source it. 1/2 ethics 1/2 homework. Sharing statistics, information, photographs- add a footnote. Anyone can throw information onto the information highway but people can’t argue the facts.
Contribute to About.com or publish a Squidoo lens. This proves you have expertise on a subject. Here’s mine.