Social Media Tip #7 Protect Your Personal Brand Online
Your Personal Brand is Your Future Online Protect It!
Social media has changed the social landscape. We the people now have a medium to broadcast our voice. We have seen alternative media outlets like We Are Change, Dollar Vigilante, Activist Post and Press for Truth pop up across the internet.
These alternative media outlets are helping to wake the world up. The teams behind these alternative media outlets have chosen to speak out against the tyranny around the world. I applaud the work that they do! The difference between what I do and what these guys do is that they have made a choice to fight with their keyboards. Unless you want to be a journalist and take the associated risks I recommend you let the professionals handle it. Support them and share their content when you feel it is appropriate.
You Must Pick Your Niche for Your Personal Brand.
Most of you are rookies in the social media game. This means that it is time to choose a niche for your personal brand and stick to it. I recommend picking 3-4 topics for your personal brand to talk about. Mine are Panama, Crypto, Precious Metals and Social Media. I have built a highly successful online business by sticking to my core subjects. (If You never intend to build a business online this does not apply to you.)
Those of you who desire to build an online business that utilizes your personal brand, this is for you. Your personal brand is the most valuable thing that you own online. You can take it to any social media platform and build a following. When I came to Steemit, my brand was already established. My Steemit wallet may not be Whale level but my online reputation surely is.
Tips to Protect Your Personal Brand Online.
- Stick to your core subjects when writing, podcasting or making any other kinds of content.
- Do not engage in online shouting matches with trolls. The internet is a permanent record.
- Never attack the reputation of another personal brand.
- Shy away from politics or religion unless that is one of the core subjects of your personal brand.
- Be careful of the company you keep online.
- Be friendly and engaging.
- Follow others when they follow you. Not following others is a tried and true way to appear to be an asshole.
- Maintain your social media channels and keep them up to date.
- Don't be a Troll, it is hard to recover a personal brand once you go down this path.
Issues I Have Had with My Personal Brand and How I Overcame Them.
I have been on social media since 2006. I did not begin building my personal brand until 2011. This means for five years I was making a mess of my personal brand. I shared everything that struck my fancy. I also engaged in many online battles over politics. If I could go back and change it I would.
This is Essentially How I Treated the Internet Circa 2008.
I have to admit that back then I was still a very angry person. I was just learning about the possibilities of escaping my Tax Farm. Like many of you I spent too much time working and not enough time enjoying life. Since then I have adopted the N.A.P. and chosen a more peaceful approach to life.
Now after years of borderline ass hat behavior I found myself in a position where I needed to clean up my act online. I was using my personal brand to build a business online. The first thing I did was refrain from getting into online arguments. I prefer to sit back and let people make fools of themselves. 10 Types of Trolls on Social Media
I also did what I am recommending you do. I narrowed down my subject matter to a few subjects that I care about. This has helped me propel not only my personal brand but also our business brand forward.
Now I also know that people judge me by the people I associate with. Since my personal brand is mature I no longer care what people think. As you see from the sites I mentioned above alternative media is important to me and I consistently share their links. I do not recommend this for anyone who is trying to build an online business. Once again if you have no intention of having an online business then by all means go for it.
I personally receive emails occasionally by very angry followers. These folks don't appreciate the types of content I am sharing or the people I am associating with. This makes me laugh! I have chosen these subjects because they represent my personal brand. Don't change your niche just because someone disagrees with it. You will replace that follower with one that agrees with your position or at least tolerates it.
Go Forward and Build That Personal Brand!
The #1 thing is to stay true to yourself. Don't build a personal brand just to profit from it. Be helpful, kind and engage your followers they will reward you for it.
Good stuff, thanks.
No problem, I am happy to help.
I'm enjoying learning from your posts Randy.. keeping to just a few core topics is what I need to be doing better on my other profile. This one won't be as difficult to do so, haha. Best, Guy
Yup, this is much easier than some of the other posts but just as important. ; )
"Most of you are rookies in the social media game." ?
In anything in life 95% of the people in a given subject are not professionals. This goes for social media as well. I often see people complaining on Steemit and other platforms that they can't compete. Well, you don't get to be a veteran by playing the game for 2 months. It takes years of work for a personal brand to build up recognition. Unless of course you joined Steemit in the early days and got the early adopter award.
Steemit's only been around for a short time, so everyone here has a lot more history before Steemit than afterward. For the most part, the difference between early days and latter days is June and July this year.
I was just inquiring why you declared we were all rookies in social media. I think you underestimate your audience, who mostly by the way, want to get away from the professional social media rawl and just enjoy what were doing.
No complaining here.
As far as business on social media is concerned, my statement stands true. Almost everyone today knows how to use social media. How many do you think know how to use it to make an income?
There are a ton of people that know how to do it, using varying methods. Places like the Warrior Forum are filled with professionals that claim to have the secret to success. For a price, they'll teach you everything you need to know; social media, blogging, backlinking, video marketing, list building, bookmarking, white hat, black hat the list is too long to mention. At those places, the money was in the rookies and selling them the secret.
The problem with feeding that beast, is you'll never be able stop. Once you stop, then so does the cash flow. Before Steemit all that was very relevant. Now though, all you have to do is be yourself, participate and have fun.
Now, Steemit might fail, but it's not highly likely. It's roots are in Bitshares and that's weathered the storm pretty well. Most people here like and support it for better or worse.
wonder if the angry emailer thought about that for a moment and realized that he would be one of the people you were associating with so you can't be all bad LOL
I have had plenty of folks who tried to tell me that I was wrong for having certain associations online. My parents protected me when I was a kid but as an adult I think I can handle it. Some people have some serious issues.
yeah some do .. some know it and others just live in oblivion. There are times I've wanted to move to oblivion :)
I found this article rather interesting.
Nonetheless, I believe you missed the point that glues it all, which is to be consistent, and if not, at least being aware of it. Even the littlest inconsistency between our speech and our deeds leaves unmeasurable traces. Even though we can check the analytics, stats, with quite good precision, it's barely impossible to acknowledge the reach and the sum of the parts.
In my unusual experience, I unwillingly became quite popular in social media, because I founded one of the most active spanish speaking social networks at a young age. Almost 15 years later, with 30 years in my account, I changed a lot, and there are constantly newcomers that dont even know me, that get to form a representation of myself that is completely biased, mostly because I'm not a brand as I lifted from that stage because I didnt want to be so, but theres is still that headless brand arround. And I even could take over, and it is not a negative figure, but I surely would be misunderstood or worst, I could betray my thinking. Still, that "image" keeps growing quite positively. Its really curious. I hop through niches, erring often, really enjoying doing my best until I get bored or find that I could give and enjoy more somewhere else. Thats why I would never stick to whatever number of niches that might be recommended. Still, a good advice from you, but hey, theres always different cases.
TL:DR:
I'm not following your advice, tho its a good one. :P
I talked about consistency in another article. This one was about building and protecting a personal brand. Thank you for stopping by. A successful brand does need a niche to be successful unless of course your brand is about not having a brand. You like that twist?
First off i really enjoy your writing style! Secondly i agree with much of what you said, however, following everyone who follows you is only possible when you can have a multiple feeds, otherwise things just get way too cluttered and you only end up seeing 10% of the posts you want to. And while i love watching my follower number grow, id rather it'd be because they actually want to read my writing, not just because they think followback is a courtesy.