This is something I am writing about from my own experience and have wanted to share for a while (some of you have probably already heard me talk about this).  It is a personal account and one that I hope shows you what can happen and an example to go along with the overall thoughts.

When I first started UKSN I had spotted a gap in the market on LinkedIn for someone to talk about and provide networking opportunities for people who worked in the sports industry.  When it came to expanding upon the group my first thoughts were towards a blog.

I was lucky to have met some great people and, as I was unsure as to my own writing abilities, I was able to call upon them to provide some great content.  What I had created in essence was a sports business blog.

This was great and received around 20-40 hits a day and some articles gained a lot more interest than this.  I had run a couple of networking events and a sports sponsorship event but something wasn’t right.

It didn’t take me too long to see that I was in an already crowded marketplace.  Yes there was a gap on LinkedIn for this type of group and same could be said about events but the blog was different, there was plenty of competition.

Over time I had become more and more interested in social media and how it could be utilised by sports organisations.  My passion has always been sport…from playing all types of sport as a kid to doing a Sports Studies degree and working as an event manager in badminton, table tennis, golf and snooker.

As I had read about many times was that the key is find your passion and go for it (or Crush It as Gary Vaynerchuk would say).  My passions had become two fold, sport and social media.  I had been working on the possibilities that social media could offer with my friend Ed Hartigan and already notched up the running of two ‘Social Media & Sport’ conferences (one in Nottingham and one in London) that were hugely successful.

As summer 2010 approached I made a big decision, one that I feared could kill off the blog and all I had worked towards.  I decided that I would take the site in a new direction and solely write on my chosen passions.

This meant that I had to take the plunge and write nearly everything myself, as I still do.  For me this was a leap in faith that I could actually write some interesting comment and that people may read it and think that I knew what I was on about!  This was probably the hardest part as I am my own worst critic.

For around two months I didn’t look at the analytics for the site as I was sure no-one was reading it anymore and I had killed it off.

So imagine my shock when I saw the numbers showing an upward curve!  It was a really exciting moment and justified the gamble that I had taken.  But what it did show is that people were happy to read about my passion and that this was rubbing off and reaching more people.  Now the site gets around 10,000 hits a month, I have a new look for the website being planned and another conference to be run before Christmas.

By September last year I was writing less as I had started working on the adidas social media account at Carat.  The content was being produced 3 times a week, sometimes even less, and I had the odd guest article from the likes of Sean Walsh (thanks Sean)….. and the numbers continued to go up.

I got the feel for what content was more interesting than others.  Now I add articles that include product info (facebook apps, etc), interviews (I need to do more of these), opinion and breaking news in the industry.  One thing you do learn is that the earlier you can jump onto a story and be one of the ones to break it or explain a situation then that is incredibly shareable.

On the back of this blog I have been asked to contribute to a BBC sport article on twitter and appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live to talk about footballers and Twitter (I was introduced as a Twitter Expert….not something I would ever label myself or anyone else as!).

I am now about to start a new adventure as my time with Carat comes to an end and I start with top London social media agency We Are Social as a Senior Account Manager in mid-September.  Would any of this come about if I had not specialised and focused my time and attention on where my passion was and where the market opportunity lay?  I have my doubts.

If I can pass on anything to people aspiring to make a name for themselves in their chosen area, whether that is in sport or not, then it is;

• Follow your passion – people are attracted to someone who can speak with a passion about their chosen subject.
• Find a need and turn it into a want – this is what a specialism is all about.  If there are other blogs out there on your subject then write articles for them, if not then why not start one yourself.  It’s about getting your name out there and showing people what you can do.
• Be brave – don’t be afraid to try and new direction or strike out on your own and make it happen for yourself.
• Be patient – it isn’t going to happen overnight, I have been running this site for over 18 months now and I could have stopped it when I joined Carat but putting the time and effort in over the long term is where the real value lies.
• Be yourself – don’t try and write about things or pretend to be someone you are not, people will see through it.  Be true to yourself and trust your own instincts.