[Resolution #1 was posted earlier this week. Be sure to check it out: "2010 Resolution #1: Stop Talking About Social Media"]

Ready for resolution #2?

This one’s really simple to describe, but quite a bit harder to actually execute (for you anyway).

Resolution #2: Become an Expert in Just One Thing Digital

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What does that mean?

Just what it says.

You need to become an expert in one thing (yes, just one) that’s related to digital marketing.

Okay, but what’s an “expert”?

My friends at Merriam-Webster say that expert means “having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience.”

What’s “digital”?

I’ll handle that one…digital means anything related to the computer that you’re using to read this post right now (unless someone printed it for you, in which case you are exempt from this resolution and should start with becoming a “beginner”).

Why is this important?

What I’ve discovered in working with a number of different pharma companies and from my past experience working for a pharma company is that there are very few experts in anything digital at these companies. Adding more experts is going to increase your company’s overall competency in digital marketing. Yes, even if each person is really knowledgeable about only one thing (and still knows everything else to some degree), this still works. In these cases, the experts are responsible for sharing their wisdom and also making themselves available when anyone in the company has a question about your area of expertise.

I’m not suggesting that you become a 24/7 call center on your specific topic. Rather, make it known that you can help out with, say, YouTube, if a team is developing a campaign that leverages this channel. You won’t have your whole schedule tied up answering questions. Trust me.

For you, becoming an expert only increases your value within the company especially if you develop some expertise in a “hot topic” area or one that you can demonstrate can be used to have an immediate impact on sales. For the company, the benefits are pretty obvious. More experts, more quality marketing, more sales.

Now, before you panic and say, “I don’t have the time to invest to become an expert in anything. It takes years of hard work and blah, blah, blah…” Forget that excuse.

Let’s go back to the definition of expert for a moment once again. Expert means “having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience.”

It does not mean being the absolute authority or most knowledgeable person in the world on a specific subject. It means you have a “special skill or knowledge.” So, “expert” might simply mean that you know as much as anyone at your company on the best ways to market using YouTube. “Expert” in YouTube at your company might be quite a bit different than expert at mine, but that’s not the point. You need to be a resource for your company and you also need to build your skills. You can’t rely on outside resources to own this knowledge forever.

By now, I’m hoping you’re with me. You’re ready to become an expert. Let’s also remember this…even if you don’t reach the goal of expert, the journey, as they say, is really the the important part. Everything you learn should help make you better at your job and make your company stronger. “Expert” is a pretty lofty goal, but I figured we should shoot for that instead of “Average,” as in: “May as well call Bob, he’s the Average YouTube guy.” We’re looking for this instead: “We’ve got to get Bob to weigh in on this. He is the YouTube Expert.”

So, what should you become the expert of? It’s totally up to you, but I’m going to give you a few ideas to get you started. What you’ll see from these ideas is that I’m focusing on pretty narrow areas (e.g., YouTube instead of Social Media), simply to make this a more reasonable task. It probably would be hard to become an expert on social media in your spare time, but doing so for YouTube is more manageable. Of course, you don’t need to stop at one area of expertise. You can try two or three to start or simply start with one and when you’re an expert at that, then come back for more.

Some areas of expertise to consider…in no particular order whatsoever:

• YouTube (if only because I used it as an example throughout this post)
• Google Adwords
• Facebook
• SEO
• Email marketing
• CRM
• Website analytics
• Programming languages and capabilities (what each can do and can’t do, not how to program an entire website)
• Blogging
• <insert any social media platform here>
• Bing (yes, there’s a whole other search engine out there)
• Content marketing and syndication
• Digital design principles
• User experience
• Sharepoint (or any other “backend” system your company uses)
• Consumer digital behavior and segmentation

That’s a tiny little list that just popped into my head. I could go on forever.

If you’ve come this far, I’d invite everyone who reads this to do a three things.

1. Add additional ideas for areas of expertise in the comments. That will help everyone out.
2. Add any resources you recommend to start one’s education in a specific area.  That is, where do you go to become an expert in SEO, for example?
3. When you’ve selected your area of expertise, it’s time to share it with the world. This will greatly increase your chances of success, as you’ll feel far more accountable to your goal. How can you share it? Easy…Twitter. Just copy and paste the tweet below or simply click this link and personalize it on Twitter.com. Be sure to change the “XXXXX” or people are going to really get the wrong idea.

The tweet:

I’ve committed to try to become an expert in XXXXX for 2010 Resolution #2 from Dose of Digital. What about you? http://bit.ly/8X9EDE.

If you send a tweet that includes the link above, it’ll show up in the comments of this post automatically.

Possibly related posts (auto-generated):

1. 2010 Resolution #3: Learn 5 Things Your Customers Do Online
2. 2010 Resolution #1: Stop Talking About Social Media
3. Healthcare Marketing New Year’s Resolutions – Part 1