You DO know that Twitter is more than just a place to post where you’re going for lunch – Right?
If you’re not using Social Media to connect with people who are doing what you’re doing, you need to hook up right now. And if you’re not doing anything…well…don’t just think about it…
Do it.
Whether you’re a CEO or a pizza chef, a stay-at-home parent or a world traveler, you have a character and peculiar tastes, you have a unique set of skills, and you must have an interesting assortment of life experiences. (What you are most interested in makes you most interesting!) If you have a desire to share something with other folks out there, there ARE people looking for someone just like You. They want you to share your experience because they have similar interests and, like you, they want to see more about that thing they love!
So there really is no excuse not to start doing what you love Right Now – even part time. And social media is the direct route to the world that can be yours.
The key to success in breaking into (or developing) your online community (and, I’ll venture, any-other-old-time) is to Be Yourself. Or, as Gary Vaynerchuk says, “Be Authentic.”
Gary will
Watch this.
Who ARE you?
Some people spend so much time working and living that when they stop to think about it, they couldn’t describe themselves “in a paragraph or less”. I find it interesting that most teens (perhaps especially girls) spend a whole lot of time looking at other people, or magazines, and trying on personas and thinking: I hate this, I love this, I AM this. Somehow, after age Twenty-or-so, we might begin to forget who we are, or maybe who we wannabe.
Anyway, if you don’t yet KNOW what you love, you should do a little soul searching. Start with Edward W. Smith’s manila envelope technique. Do some online quizzes – not just the ones that claim to identify which city you should live in or which Star Wars character you’re most like, but begin to ask yourself the kinds of questions you used to ask when you were ten, like “what’s my favorite color?” (Decorate your space with it and you’ll possibly see some increased productivity, or a decrease in stress.) And maybe visit Anne Lamott’s article on Oprah’s website and follow some links from there….
Well, I’ve heard few more empowering speeches about putting your Unique-ness to good use than Seth Godin’s TED talk on the Tribes We Lead. You should watch it. It’s tribes, he says, that can change our world! That’s pretty heady stuff. But…
Your goal might not be to Change the World, just to get out in it a little more. You might want to promote your personal line of Coca-Cola-can sculptures or tin foil hats. So here are a few links to guide you along the way to stardom, or at least to making associations of some kind, on the www:
Chris Brogan will set you on your way into Networking-through-Social-Media via his guidelines to personal branding and his blog Start From Nothing 2011.
Other Need-to-Reads are Chris Brooks’ article on developing appealing content and finding people who will want to see it, and anything you can find by Chris Brogan, Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Mari Smith, Chris Garrett or Chris Guillebeau.
So, go on, Do it… get out there and
+O
