When you think about social media, is your first impression about the technology or about people?
If your first thought is about the technology, whether it be Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn or whatever, it all started with a person’s thought. If you thought about a person or people, whether it be Gary Vaynerchuk or Chris Brogan or Dan Schawbel or whomever, they began with an early thought about a passion.
It does not matter which you thought of first, but what does matter is how they differentiated themselves in this particular space. And you know what, all of you reading this know the technology or have an idea who they are. Now that is personal branding.
Your personal branding is about your passion. Sure, what you do will impact your personal brand but you can work to change that. If you find that your job is defining your personal brand but your job is not how you want to be identified, do something about it. Side projects help to steer this work. When you know what you love, make it known. Here are four simple steps to help guide you:
Identify your passion
Simply put, figure out what you love to do. If you are going to communicate about something you don’t love, it will show through to the other person. Do you love marketing? Finance? Architecture? Personal branding? If you aren’t sure, take the time now to identify exactly what this is to you. Want to learn more about passion? Read Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk.
Learn the passion
There is always something new to learn about whatever it is you love. I don’t care if you are Albert Einstein, keep reading and learning and interacting. Get better at what you do and share it with others. If you are solely resting on your laurels, someone else just passed you by.
Promote the passion
There is a thin line between self promotion and spamming your network. It is a tactful approach to put the word out and link people back to your material without being invasive or overpowering. It is important to put your information out there into a blog and then linked to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning or whatever site you choose. Maybe you will even create a vlog and post it on YouTube. Put the word out and have your friends and connections help!
Live the passion
Now is your chance to do this everyday, which shouldn’t be difficult since it is you! Make your mark each day online and share your thoughts and engage with your friends, followers and your network. By “reminding” everyone of what you love and your expertise, it will help to enhance or refine your personal brand. Read Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith to learn more.
— helpful tip — You don’t always have to promote your own content. Sharing content from other thought leaders will also enhance your personal brand. Reading other valuable content and directing your friends/followers to it will increase your network and have others wanting to join your network to get in on the action.
All of these steps take time, do not expect radical change overnight. You will need to work to highlight your skills and knowledge but it is completely worth it with the connections you will make.
You are worth the time and effort to reinforce your personal brand. Don’t take it for granted and don’t expect someone else to do it for you.
Go get it!
Photo credit to CDLI
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Keith McIlvaine manages the recruiting social media strategy for a Fortune 500 company and is an avid networker. He is a social media advisor, coach, speaker, blogger and an all around fanatic. Connect with Keith on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. (The statements posted on this site are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer)
