Take a look at your Twitter feed for one minute and you will notice that some of the hottest topics today are “social media” and “personal branding”. Everyone and their grandmothers are looking to promote themselves or their products through social media channels these days. The problem is the majority of these people tweet a few times, create a new Facebook Page and get discouraged when only their friends support the cause. There is a better way!
Just add another hot trend to the equation, “systematization”, and organize your efforts to maximize your results (to learn more about systematization read The 4-Hour Work Week). If you have a great story to tell and a systematized approach to spreading your story, you can use social media to build that dynamic brand that will propel you to the next level. Here are some simple yet powerful steps you can take:
Who Are You and What Is Your Story?
You will find lasting success in social media if and only if…you are authentic and you have a great story to tell. So before you start your social media journey make a promise to yourself.
One: Always be authentic. Never shove information down your follower’s throats…just assume they don’t eat SPAM.
Two: Focus on adding value to your community. Everyone has a story that is worth telling. That may sound cliché but it’s true. You may not be the CEO of your company but you can bet that there is someone out there that would love to hear how you got your job! Focus on giving out great content, links, advice, and help and watch your community grow!
Set Up Home Base
Without a home base your social media efforts will equate to trying to fill a water bottle with a fire hose. You will push out great content with nowhere to funnel your followers to. So create your own personal branded WordPress blog and create a clear-cut focus around your personal interest or expertise. Make sure to direct everything back to home base. From your Twitter account to your blog comments everything should be pointed back to your blog where people who show interest in what you do or say find out how interesting you really are.
Use The Big Guns: Engage on Facebook and Twitter
Public is the new default! Millions of people have access to most of your media on the web. Instead of fighting Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of the social web on this embrace it, better yet engage!
Facebook will give you the opportunity to tap into much of your personal network. Many feel like Facebook is for your friends that don’t want to be marketed to. Instead you can look at it as a platform where you can share your interests and passions with your friends (blog links, videos, quotes). Most likely your friends will like what you have to say and be eager to spread your message through Facebook.
Twitter is a whole new world. A world in which the question “What’s Happening?” has opened up an incredible amount of unforeseen opportunities. Out of the social web, Twitter is arguably the best tool that facilitates conversations between people. Twitter is almost completely open, meaning you can ignite a conversation with anyone from Ashton Kutcher to Joe the Plumber. Use Twitter to your full advantage by showcasing your web personality. For example, since you’re a young entrepreneur, following young entrepreneurs will help you connect with the audience you want to engage. Start tweeting some quality links, photos, insights and most importantly @tweet interesting people and start conversations.
Put on Your Suit and Tie
Professional social networks like Linkedin and Brazen Careerist can give you all types of exposure to more professional networks. By establishing your professional prowess on these networks you can dive into unfiltered business engagements (hard to do on Facebook and Twitter). One great feature is that you can cross promote your social media accounts by linking up your Twitter with these websites. Last but not least, make sure to link up your blog to your professional profiles (Brazen might even feature your blog posts).
Flip Yourself
That may have come off wrong. What I mean is that broadcasting yourself through entertaining and educational videos can go far beyond text. Regular blog posts can capture only so much. The more you record yourself on video the more access your community has to your real personality and passions. This can be a huge asset in building your personal brand. Start uploading you videos to YouTube or Vimeo and embed those videos back on your blog. If you are not too bad on the eyes and give good video content, you may become the next iJustine or Gary V!
Blog Simple Blog Communal
Platforms like Tumblr and Posterous are somewhat of new comers to the game but extremely powerful tools. Tumblr focuses on community blogging and can spread content through the social sphere with little effort. Essential Tumblr is a Twitter without a 140 character cap. When it comes to Posterous the ease of use is ridiculous! Just send an email to post@posterous.com and before you know it you have yourself a blog post which can be syndicated on your Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube accounts and much more!
Conclusion
Creating a systematized approach with social media tools can be one of the most rewarding and straight forwards things your can do to cultivate your personal brand. Don’t over indulge in the technology behind the tools; instead know who you are, know how you want to tell the world, leverage the most important social media platforms and link everything back to your blog. And never forget to be yourself and share your passion!
