Day 21 - Reputation Building Is Personal Marketing
As I take 90 days out of my life to build my reputation online (my Zero to Hero Experiment), I'm finding a lot of interchangeable words and phrase:
- Social Media
- Personal Marketing
- Career Planning
- Social Marketing
- Online Networking
- Social Networking
- Personal Branding
- Online Marketing.
Bottom line, all of these aim to make a brand out of you that you can leverage, exploit and gain influence from.
The online world is powerful - there are so many incredible platforms, networks, tools and applications that you can use to advertise yourself, share your messages and do your business. Here's what I'm learning:
- It takes time to get familiar with the various 'social media' avenues. You've got to be patient and committed. You've got to want to! In the past I've probably used 5% of what any given social networking site or platform can do. That's not using it well. On Twitter, Ecademy and LinkedIn I'm probbly up to 50%. Beyond that I dare not invest into any other networks until I've mastered those!
- You've got to contribute. Even if you're just a portal or conduit for the thoughts and ideas of others, you've got to get stuck in! It's still a relationship game. Trust, confidence, contribution, relationships - these are the currency of online social and business networking.
- It helps if you're at least a little different. There are thousands of people that do what you do. Some will be better. Some will be a lot worse. You've got to be discernably different and better, else why would anybody choose you or follow you?