Success comes in many shapes and sizes, and each person gets to define that for them, personally. One person might see 5,000 Facebook friends as successful, while another would scoff at it as a trivial accomplishment.
However you define success, there are essential things you must do and important things you should not do as well. Read on, and learn to make your mark in social media.
Find your Voice
Whatever you’re searching for online, you can find, and that’s a huge problem for the vast majority of individuals looking for their breakout moment. You have to separate yourself from the pack. There is a fine line between doing everything and limiting yourself to just one thing. You have to find a mix that satisfies your potential readers but lets you stand out from the crowd.
Why is your cooking show different than the hundreds of other cooking shows on the web? Do your meals only include the meat from exotic animals? Do you only cook using the microwave? Do you speak in a foreign language? Can you make every meal in less than 10 minutes?
It’s this type of unique approach that has to be marketed and constantly promoted to grab potential audience members who are interested in your angle.
Yell it from the Mountains
Successful people: be they business executive, world-class skier, mommy blogger, artist, or writer, they all have one thing in common: they’re self-promoters. Call it confidence, call it bravado, call it bragging, but being a shameless self-promoter is almost always the difference between having a following and not.
The “build it they will come” mentality only works in the movies. If your readers or viewers, listeners or subscribes, and your potential long-term followers don’t believe you, aren’t motivated by you, and just can’t buy into what you’re telling them, then chances are high they’re going to find it somewhere else, and from someone else. Bottom line: be confident.
Know your Head from a Hole in the Ground
You have to bring a unique perspective, and you definitely have to bring it with confidence, but if your information and points of view are wrong, what good are they?
If you are trying to convince your audience that you can teach them how make more money than anyone else in the international currency markets, you better have a proven track record of success. Then you need to show the results to your audience. If you’ve got verifiable information that will help set you apart from the crowd, share that with confidence to get people to jump onto your bandwagon.
Tie it all Together
In the era of online “everything,” limiting yourself to one social media outlet just doesn’t make sense. For the same reason book publishers provide books in hardcover, paperback, and in audio versions. You should be using as many social media outlets as you can manage, and using them in conjunction with each other.
Using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn together will not only get your information out to the widest audience possible, it’s also the right approach for attracting a diverse audience. Everyone has their preferred social media outlet, and assuming that just because you have the Facebook angle covered that you’ve got all of your bases covered is a big mistake, and it’s one your competition isn’t making.
Additionally, people who use all three of these services may use them for different reasons. Facebook has a very social feel to it, while Twitter is very effective for micro-bursts of information. LinkedIn is traditionally used for professional networking. Twitter users may not use Facebook as their news and information sources, while the LinkedIn professionals may only use Facebook for socializing.
Don’t limit yourself. Everything is in play in the online world. Your competition understands this and isn’t making the mistake of ignoring one or more, or preferring one method over the other. Give yourself every advantage to make your mark using social media, and chances are you’re well on your way to reaching your goals.
SeanTR is a student-of-life that spends his time exploring new cultures, new technologies, and connecting with others. When he’s not traveling or prospecting his next destination you can find him contributing to ATTSavings or @SeanTR
