Technology is enabling a global shift in social power. Decades ago, the typical teenager could be a consumer of entertainment and pop culture, but had zero influence. Now, through a YouTube channel or a SoundCloud account, a teen can create, share, and promote content instantly. Any individual teen can be heard by millions of people, at any time, in any corner of the globe. We have transitioned from a time when the masses were passive recipients of ideas to a time when they are the creators and promoters of their own ideas. Furthermore, teens and others have discovered that their ideas are often as good or better than the ideas promoted by traditional media companies.

In a similar fashion, ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft have shifted power away from transportation institutions and into the hands of individual vehicle owners. Airbnb has shifted power away from hospitality institutions and into the hands of property owners. Amazon has harnessed consumer spending, enabled individuals to have online storefronts, and decimated the shopping mall. Bloggers have killed the newspapers. Open-source software has placed unprecedented power in the hands of individual software developers. Self-publishing is encroaching on traditional printing processes. And now peer-to-peer financing is chipping away at the oldest of the power institutions, the bank.

Subject matter experts are also subject to shifts in power, for better or worse. In one sense an expert is a cog in the institutional wheel, where power is diminishing. The corporate SME is now just one voice in a sea of diverse sentiments, and in many industries, these experts are automatically doubted, questioned, or rejected. Increasingly, expertise is met with opposition and, at times, hostility. Twenty years ago, being called an expert was a compliment. Now, not as much. The word expert is often used sarcastically, or worse, with skepticism. As the corporation goes, so goes the corporate SME.

But SMEs can advance their perspectives in the same fashion as others these days. The tools afforded the teenagers are the same ones available to the SMEs. This does not mean that SMEs should publish songs about their craft on Spotify (please don’t), but it does mean that they can become outspoken and independent advocates for their causes. Experts needn’t sit back and watch as the power shifts from old centralized institutions to the new decentralized masses. They can and should be leading contributors to the conversation wherever that conversation occurs. Just because power is shifting doesn’t mean it must depart from the experts. Great SMEs retain and strengthen their influence in spite of the technology changes that challenge them.