Social Media & Personal Branding from the Eyes of a Millennial
Social Media TwitterPublished July 27, 2009 at 9:03 pm 5 CommentsEarlier today, before my breakfast of Excedrin and Coffee (keeps me slender), I remembered a brief convo I had with @animal about Personal Branding. I said most of it is common sense – everything else is “smoke and mirrors”. While it may be common sense to me, I’m sure there are plenty of people who either a.) don’t know that you can use the Internet to market yourself or b.) could care less (the satisfied with stat-quo crowd).
Not to discredit my original assessment, I still feel that there are FOUR basics that everyone can use to increase exposure to their “Personal Brand”. This is not only vital for job seekers, but also for existing employees who are trying to network within their field or perhaps attract new business to their organization.
We will get to LinkedIn later, settle down. Facebook is more interactive [than LI] and gives you more of a canvas to really let your personality show. While I already have 700 people from college and high school on Facebook, I am now using it to build relationships with people I have tweeted with on Twitter. I guess that is the tip here – expand your network; Facebook can be used for more than looking at pictures of your ex.
Make sure you change your Facebook URL if you haven’t done so already! Mine is facebook.com/adamelliotfields. This makes it easy to send to people after you have had a good conversation with them.
Common sense: Make your Facebook profile PG-13. Don’t be a square, but don’t make your interests something like this: “beers, blunts, blondes lol”. Remember- you want people to be attracted to your personality first; this opens the door to further conversations about your skills that pay the bills.
Put down your pens and paper, there isn’t really a whole lot to say about LinkedIn. Let’s go over the obvious: create a profile and add people! Recruiters are using LinkedIn just as much as the other job boards, wink wink.
My first tip here is to join groups based on your interests and then network with people through that group. Simple as that. Also, for the love of God, put your damn email address in your profile. If you are concerned with spam, create an email address likeadam.fields.linkedin@gmail.com, just make sure you check it! I went a step beyond and posted my Twitter name, so you would have to be a complete idiot to not be able to get a hold of me. Facebook = personality, LinkedIn = skills.
Blog
You don’t need to buy a domain and a web designer (although having @smalps as my BFFL really helps). Try blogspot, wordpress, or tumblr. I personally like TwitBlogs.com because it is SO user friendly and seamlessly integrates with my Twitter profile.
Write about anything that is on your mind. Seriously, just be cool and let your personality come through. If you write about an article that is industry-specific, you can definitely get some attention to the professional side of your personal brand that way.
Just have fun with it though, don’t worry too much about the design and SEO at first. If you are a boring person, have a few drinks and then blog. Your blog could even be about getting buzzed and blogging (this could be big…)! Make your blog URL the default URL in your Twitter profile, and make sure you integrate it with your Facebook and LinkedIn pages (they have apps for that).
Duh. Create a Twitter profile, add people, post links to cool articles, videos, songs, whatever. ReTweet people you want to get to know better.
Look at Twitter as a party (not a frat party, but like an upscale-apartment party where everyone is wearing designer jeans and drinking wine). Don’t be a soulless sales-person and hand your biz card out to everyone and move on. Instead, spend time to get to know a few people. Use TweetDeck and create a group called “Friends” (or Homies, Peeps, Brothas From Otha Mothas, etc.). This is your “Buddy List”; use it to keep track of the people you interact with on the regular. Twitter is going to be the medium you use to attract people to your Facebook, LinkedIn, and Blog pages.
Well, that’s it. This approach has allowed me to build relationships with some pretty cool people! I just got into Twitter in the spring, and went from not getting it, to being a self proclaimed master. In a few months, you can increase your network and create a name for yourself in cyberspace.
AWESOME Adam!!!! Gonna put you on my new blogroll
“If you are a boring person, have a few drinks and then blog”
I saw that you mentioned me right up front so even the people who don’t read the article get to see my name. But then I read on, and on, and I didn’t see my name again. What gives?
PS: Blogs are not for everyone. Requires too much ongoing activity. Surprisingly the same might be true of the Twitter.
But this is a good readable intro.
For they looked in the future
And what did they see
They saw an iron road running from sea to sea
I’m at Starbucks listening to the Railroad Trilogy by Gordon Lightfoot.
It’s about the 19th century highway. Canada was based on the railroad.
Thanks for the plug!! Great read. I want to see more of this personality on your own blog haha.
Karla – Thank you so much for the comments, the blogroll, and the Twitter props. You are a cool chica
Animal – I mention you in the last paragraph in my latest article (hasn’t gone live yet). It will create balance (there is a great disturbance in The Force).
Paul – Once I get some sick articles under my belt, we will buy some WooThemes together and slap them on http://www.adamelliotfields.com. In the meantime, I will keep guest blogging so I have a large network of blogs to link to me. There are 2 famous Adam Fieldses so its gonna be hard to be #1 on Google, but we will be ruthless and destroy them.
Absolutely phenomenal work Adam! Not only do you know what to say, but you actually know how to say it-which is really key! So happy for you!!!