Social media allows introverts and extroverts an equal platform to broadcast their personal industry and functional expertise. From the comfortable environment of your own home or office, a café, or with your peers at an industry event, you can optimize your expertise and strengthen your personal brand.
It’s up to you how you go about this; you own your own rights to your social media activity. You can be overt. You can be passive. You can be rigorous. You can be fearless. You can author your own messages. You can share valuable information written by others. You can be engaging. You can make constructive comments. But you can also ruin your personal brand.
Right now in November 2015, I am observing someone in my own network who is making very controversial and ill-informed comments, which I know will come back to bite him in the years to come. This is not the kind of attention anyone wants.
If you have a significant social media presence, you have in front of you a wealth of connections whose posts you can share and make comments on. Alternatively, you can author your own posts on the LinkedIn Pulse platform, which instantly gives you a potential audience of 400 million.
You can also get attention in a quieter way that is less time consuming. Social media engagement can be simply a “Like.” Twitter’s new “Like” button is in the shape of a heart, while Facebook and LinkedIn both use the “thumbs up” icon.
Even a quick and simple “Like” shows the other person that you’ve seen and appreciated their words, and reminds them you’re there. They may even choose to click on your profile to see what you’re up to, and who knows where that could lead?
Whatever you post on social media, be mindful of the audience and the message you are sending. One negative or ill-thought comment can come back to haunt you, and it can take tremendous effort to clean up this digital dirt and rebuild a positive web presence.
Leave a Reply