The other day I spoke with a colleague and asked a few questions:
- Do you have a social presence?
- What's your personal brand?
- Have you ever Googled the prospect you are about to make a sales call to?
- What kind of online reputation do you have?
If you want to build a strong social presence, invest time in the following:
1. Linkedin.com: Complete your profile. Don't half ass it unless you want people to think you are a half ass person who does just enough to stay under the radar. Don't be that person who does just enough. Go the extra mile on your profile and people will think you go the extra mile in everything else. Be social on Linkedin.com, meaning post Updates and "Like" other people's posts. If you're engaging, you'll grow your social influence and presence. Do a 1-click endorsement on someone's skills/expertise or write a recommendation for someone who has always helped you out.
2. Twitter: It's one of the simplest and mindless social media applications out there. You'll find yourself saying, "What the hell is this? How does this work?" Get started by just Retweeting other people's tweets. If you come across an interesting article, just click on the Twitter icon at the top of the article and you're done. Once you are comfortable with this, start to Tweet your own content. The rest will come with experimentation.
3. Google+: Similar to Facebook but a Google App that I'm sure Google search engines prefer over Facebook. Google rules Search so it only makes sense to build a Google+ social profile that leverages the #1 search engine. Build out your Google+ profile and your be more relevant in Google searches.
4. Naymz: Reminds me of Linkedin.com where you create a profile, add your employment and get recommendations from your peers. It than takes your peers' recomendations, your social influence across Linkedin.com, Twitter, and Facebook to create a Reputation Score. The higher the RepScore the better.
5. Klout: This an interesting site that tracks your social influence across Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, Foursquare, and a few others. Though it's heavily-weighted on Facebook activity, it still provides insight on your social influence and presence. If you are not happy with your score, go back and work on 1-4 listed above.
It takes time to build a social presence but with consistent effort you'll get to the point where the person you have a conference call with, who you have already Googled, decides to do the same thing to you and BOOM you are everywhere on the internet!
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