100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media

June 16, 2008 · Comments

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You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else. – Tyler Durden, Fight Club.

Branding one’s self in an online environment built on entropy and go-baby-go is difficult at best, and impossible if you forget to take your happy pills. To that end, I’ve come up with a quick list of 100 things you might do to help with these efforts. Feel free to add your ideas to the comments section.

If you like this one, please don’t hesitate to stumble, blog, digg, bookmark, and otherwise promote the hell out of this. That’s another tactic, by the way. : )

Listening

  • Build ego searches using Technorati and Google Blogsearch
  • Comment frequently (and meaningfully) on blogs that write about you and your posts
  • Don’t forget the conversations hiding in Twitter (use Summize.com) and Friendfeed. Be sure to stay aware of those.
  • If you can afford it, buy professional listening tools, like Radian6 or others in that category.
  • Use Google Reader to store your ego searches.
  • Use Yahoo! Site Explorer to see who’s linking to your site.
  • Use heat map tools like CrazyEgg to see how people relate to your site.
  • Listen to others in your area of expertise. Learn from them.
  • Listen to thought leaders in other areas, and see how their ideas apply to you.
  • Don’t forget podcasts. Check out iTunes and see who’s talking about your area of interest.
  • Track things like audience/community sentiment (positive/negative) if you want to map effort to results.

Home Base

  • Home base is your blog/website. Not everyone needs a blog. But most people who want to develop a personal brand do.
  • Buy an easy-to-remember, easy-to-spell, content-appropriate domain name if you can. Don’t be TOO clever.
  • A really nice layout doesn’t have to cost a lot, but shows you’re more than a social media dabbler.
  • Your “About” page should be about you AND your business, should the blog be professional in nature. At least, it should be about you.
  • Make sure it’s easy to comment on your site.
  • Make sure it’s easy for people to subscribe to your site’s content.
  • Use easy to read fonts and colors.
  • A site laden with ads is a site that doesn’t cherish its audience. Be thoughtful.
  • Pay attention to which widgets you use in your sidebar. Don’t be frivolous.
  • Load time is key. Test your blog when you make changes, and ensure your load times are reasonable.
  • Register your site with all the top search engines.
  • Claim your site on Technorati.com
  • Use WebsiteGrader.com to make sure your site is well built in Google’s eyes.

Passports

  • Passports are accounts on other social networks and social media platforms. It’s a good idea to build an account on some of these sites to further extend your personal branding.
  • Twitter.com is a must if you have a social media audience. It also connects you to other practitioners.
  • Facebook and/or MySpace are useful social networks where you can build outposts (see next list).
  • Get a Flickr account for photo sharing.
  • Get a YouTube account for video uploading.
  • Get a StumbleUpon.com account for voting.
  • Get a Digg.com account for voting, as well.
  • Get an Upcoming.org account to promote events.
  • Get a del.icio.us account for social bookmarking.
  • Get a Wordpress.com account for its OpenID benefits.
  • Get a LinkedIn account for your professional network.
  • Take a second look at Plaxo. It’s changed for the better.
  • Get a Gmail.com account for use with reader, calendar, docs, and more.

Outposts

  • Build RSS outposts on Facebook. Add Flog Blog, and several other RSS tools.
  • Build a similar outpost on MySpace, if your audience might be there.
  • Make sure your social media is listed in your LinkedIn profile.
  • Add a link to your blog to your email signature file (this is still an outpost).
  • Be sure your social network profiles on all sites has your blog listed, no matter where you have to put it to list it.
  • Make sure your passport accounts (above) point to your blog and sites.
  • Use social networks respectfully to share the best of your content, in a community-appropriate setting.
  • Don’t forget places like YahooGroups, Craigslist, and online forums.
  • Email newsletters with some links to your blog makes for an effective outpost, especially if your audience isn’t especially blog savvy.
  • Podcast content can have links to your URL and might draw awareness back to your content, too.

Content

  • Create new content regularly. If not daily, then at least three times a week.
  • The more others can use your content, the better they will adopt it.
  • Write brief pieces with lots of visual breaks for people to absorb.
  • Images draw people’s attention. Try to add a graphic per post. (Not sure why this works, but it seems to add some level of attention.)
  • Mix up the kinds of pieces you put on your site. Interviews, how-to, newsish information, and more can help mix and draw more attention.
  • Limit the number of “me too” posts you do in any given month to no more than three. Be original, in other words.
  • The occasional ‘list’ post is usually very good for drawing attention.
  • Write passionately, but be brief (unless you’re writing a list of 100 tips).
  • Consider adding audio and video to the mix. The occasional YouTube video with you as the star adds to your personal branding immensely, especially if you can manage to look comfortable.
  • Brevity rules.

Conversation

  • Commenting on other people’s blogs builds awareness fast.
  • The more valuable your comments, the more it reflects on your ability and your character.
  • Use your listening tools to stay active in pertinent discussions.
  • Try not to brag, ever. Be humble. Not falsely so, but truly, because a lot of what we do isn’t as important as saving lives.
  • Ask questions with your blog posts. Defer to experts. Learn from the conversation.
  • Be confident. Asking for external validation often is a sign of weakness.
  • Good conversations can be across many blogs with links to show the way.
  • Try never to be too defensive. Don’t be a pushover, but be aware of how you present yourself when defending.
  • Disclose anything that might be questionable. Anything, and quickly!
  • Don’t delete critical blog comments. Delete only spam, abrasive language posts, and offensive material. (Have a blog comments policy handy, if you get into the deleting mode.

Community

  • Remember that community and marketplace are two different things.
  • Make your site and your efforts heavily about other people. It comes back.
  • Make it easy for your community to reach you.
  • Contribute to your community’s blogs and projects.
  • Thank people often for their time and attention.
  • Celebrate important information in your community (like birthdays).
  • Be human. Always.
  • Your community knows more than you. Ask them questions often.
  • Apologize when you mess up. Be very sincere.
  • Treat your community like gold. Never subject them to a third party of any kind without their consent.
  • Knowing more about your competitors’ communities is a useful thing, too. Learn who visits, why they visit, and how they interact.
  • Measuring your efforts in building community grows out your brand as a natural extension.

Face to Face

  • Have simple, useful, crisp business cards to share. Always.
  • Be confident in person.
  • Clothes and appearance DO matter. WIsh they didn’t, but they do.
  • Have a very brief introduction / elevator pitch and practice it often.
  • Ask questions of people you meet. Get to know them.
  • Don’t seek business relationships right off. Instead, seek areas of shared interest.
  • Know when to walk away politely.
  • Don’t try to meet everyone in a room. Meet a half dozen or more great new people.
  • Never doubt that you are worth it.
  • If you’re terribly shy, consider finding a “wing man” for events.
  • Doing homework ahead of time (finding people’s most recent blog posts, googling them, etc) helps one feel “in the know.”
  • Make eye contact. It’s MUCH more powerful than you know.

Promotion

  • Use Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us and Google Reader to drive awareness.
  • Promote others even more than you promote yourself
  • Bragging isn’t useful to anyone besides your own ego
  • Linking and promoting others is a nice way to show you care about people
  • Don’t digg/stumble/link every single post. Save it for your very best
  • Another promotional tool: guest blog on other sites
  • Another promotion tool: make videos on YouTube with URL links
  • Another promotion tool: use the status section of LinkedIn and Facebook
  • Try hard not to send too many self-promotional emails. Wrap your self-promotion in something of value to others, instead.
  • Sometimes, just doing really good work is worthy of others promoting you. Try it.

You probably have some great ideas to add to this. I’d love to hear what you want to add, or feel free to blog your own list and add value to the project that way. In any case, I hope this was helpful, and I wish you great success in your efforts to brand yourself and show the world what a rockstar you are.

The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.

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  • All I can say is wow! Thank you so much for taking the time to put together such an informative post. This is really good and helpful for anything an individual desires to promote. I have been trying to figure out which social network to join as there are so many of them and it can get to be an overwhelming task of joining all of them. Again thank you.
  • Chris, this could have been a ten part blog post. It's packed full of good stuff! Hard to think of anything to add.

    I'll be stumbling and bookmarking it for sure. That's what I do to excellent content. :)
  • As always your insight and expertise is always appreciated!
  • That's amazing - there is so much in there, I keep re-reading it - thanks!
  • I'm smiling at the "Clothes and appearance do matter," --even when the shirt is an eight dollar bargain from Walmart?

    But heck, you looked good in it at the SOBCon. :)

    Chris, you never fail to impress me with the stuff you do. I keep telling myself, if Chris can produce so much, you can too!
  • Chris,
    I will print out this post and put it somewhere on the wall - thanks very much for sharing your knowledge and information!

    Ulla
  • All the things you mention are great but are they tools for building personal brand or are they all just part of living an online life?

    One of my biggest turnoffs when meeting someone online is when it looks like they're trying to follow some manual and do all the cliche online things to get their name out there.

    It's not an equation. It's not do these 100 things if you wanna build your personal brand.

    These sites are places that my community/friends live online. If I wanna commune with them... if I wanna stay connected with them, I exist in the spaces.

    Maybe I'm just splitting hairs... but... yeah.
  • Chris, I found the first section immediately valuable, especially the links to Yahoo Site Explorer, CrazyEgg, and Summize - not only for personal branding but for web marketing in general. Thanks!
  • Wow, Chris... once again this is truly amazing and, most importantly, helpful information. As I am currently in the process of my own personal branding exercise, this post could not come at a better time. You have once again shown us that you are a leader among Superheroes!
  • Thanks for the great ideas. I really think that having a lot of social networking accounts is a good way to make sure you are anywhere someone might be looking for you, to actually use all of those accounts might also be good. I like a few sites that allow you to have a lot of different social networking accounts, and then combine the information from all of them into a single page, giving you an overview of what all your friend are doing.

    I really agree that commenting with good informative comments can really get a lot more people to see your personal brand, because the site you are commenting on already is attracting all the viewers. All you have to do is think a little about what your typing.(Yes, might be obvious, but there are people who barely think before commenting)

    Thank you for the great information, I hope to use a lot of it in the future
  • Thanks Chris- v. much appreciated. I like that you put emphasis on the human element of content creation and sharing- I think we tend to forget that there are living, breathing humans on the other ends of these blogs. Nothing can replace actual human interaction, whether it be a meetup in a city, taking a fellow blogger out for drinks, whatever.

    Thx! -Mallory @mallydally
  • Great advice from someone who understands social media.
  • Chris, Thanks for sharing your 100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media. I'm arriving late to the world of social media/networking and have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. This is a great resource to help sort out where to get started. Thanks again.
  • Excellent ideas. I've printed this out and am committing to pursuing five items per day. Thanks for taking the time to share.
  • Its simply a long and great list. I just stumbled randomly to your site and feeling how much useful a stumble is.

    The 100 tips about branding and blogging is great. I have added you to my favorites and will read the rest of the articles later.

    I'm a new blogger from www.tamalanwar.com and I'm on my way to build my authority as a successful blogger and a networker.

    I have seen you are writing 2-3 posts per day. There are 60+ rss readers in my blog, I write daily with at least 1 article. Do you think it is required for me to write more often? Please help.
  • This is like going to Visibility School. Thank you Chris! I like how you balance the technical with the personal.

    :-)
    Nancy Marmolejo
  • Great article! Really enjoyed this one.

    Chris, when you discuss making Facebook an "Outpost," are there any other RSS/etc. tools you recommend besides Flog Blog? Please let me know!

    Thanks.
  • Insightful as usual, Chris. Thanks.

    One question: Under Home Base, you advise to claim your site on Technorati. How do I do this? I went there and looked up "claim" in the FAQ, but couldn't find an intro how-to -- only troubleshooting responses to errors. Help!
  • Marifer
    Excellent, excellent post. I can't believe how many things one can be doing to promote herself/himself ...but most importantly, I think the point behind all these promotions is to listen and learn from others first, and then see how you relate to them, or what things you have in common...before talking about yourself, learn about the other person/community..it'll save everyones time..thanks for all the tips, they were excellent.
  • BRILLIANT! We might have to print this out and post it on the bathroom stall door to give people a chance to absorb it...without too many distractions!

    But a question (you did recommend this)- when posting comments on other blogs, where is the line between outrageous and acceptable self-promotion?
  • @Andy - blog networks, feedheads, simply rss, to name a few. There are TONS, and maybe I'm not using the right ones.

    @Tamal - it might just be that you need to make more folks aware of your content. Start there, and if you still don't see a pickup, consider your posts and whether they're helpful. Go through my 100 and see how you score.

    @Mark - you have to get an account and log in, and then there's a whole section in Blogger Central that involves "manage my blogs." That's where you do that.

    @Deafmom - but it's how you ROCK the $8 shirt that matters. : )
  • Chris, so much inspiration -- and so much to do -- all in one post. Thank you!

    (Since I've been lazy lately, I'll dedicate today's post on my blog to you.:-)
  • Excellent stuff. Thank you.

    I've been looking for a good RSS parser for Facebook for a lone time. Thanks for the Flog Blog recommendation, it works perfect.

    @Mark, I believe Technorati uses pinging to link to blogs. I use Wordpress and you set it up to ping Technorati's ping link every time you have an update.
  • Thanks for the follow-up on Technorati, Chris.

    I have to give a shout out to Flog Blog for Facebook, too. It doesn't seem to be plagued by the update issues of many other apps. In fact, I chose that one over other blog/RSS apps because it had virtually no negative reviews.
  • This is the best list yet! It is even better than the Search Engine Strategies conference one on Social Media Marketing. I need to do a workshop on Social Media Marketing soon and this will help me organize my talk.
  • Ed
    Wow! Great advice here for _any_ branding effort, orgs as well as personal.
  • Bravo!
    A perfect post about it... and going on my permanent read-every-couple-of-weeks list.

    I'd like to download your brain someday - but until then, thank you for doing it for us like this every so often! :)

    Wow.
  • Brogan! This is seriously the best list of it's kind I've ever seen; it's like a step-by-step get-your-shit-together guide in list form.
  • a lot of new as well as reinforced practices in this list. I will be implementing a lot of these immediately.

    it would be cool to have a "Chris Brogan Brain Download Pack" but this is almost just as good :D

    Thanks for sharing!
  • Meg
    I think a lot of this is just good common sense -- respect, energy, veracity and not just good communicating, but good *listening* skills should be at the heart of any social media or branding strategy.

    Nicely done, The Brogan.
  • Nice post. And thanks for encouraging folks to take a second look at Plaxo. Much appreciated. (I head up marketing there.)
  • Excellent post. It's a relief to see I'm already doing many of these tips, and will work on the others.
  • Holy cow. Might take me a week to explore all these tools. Thanks for a super compilation.
  • Thanks so much for this - lots of great things for me to go and explore and hopefully work into my efforts at promoting my business with social media!
  • What more can be said...so, thanks for the great list. Now, time to start executing on these suggestions.
  • what are GREAT article man - will be tweeting this...

    i'm @successfool on there!
  • Hoorah!

    Thats all that comes to mind in the way of something to add, very well sumarized. A+
  • Branding IS important! Thanks for this. I posted a podcast interview with Lea Alcantara on the topic of BRANDING FOR DESIGNERS. I hope you find it on-point! {the link is up there.}
  • Thank you! This is an amazingly exhaustive and concise list for anyone wanting to explore, use and promote social media. My professional focus on social media is for enterprise apps, but I am rapidly making use of this for myself. It can overwhelming to wade through all the options but your tactics are a great guide to use and learn from.
  • How very timely and relevant, thank you, Chris! When we meet again, some meal (breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner) with great coffee or good wine - or hopefully both! is on me.
  • What can I say? You rock.
  • Brilliant post, Chris. This is essentially Social Media Strategy 101 in one post. This does not even apply to only individuals, this is how corporate entities should also manage their presence on the Web, especially if they want to remain relevant and streamlined and not be seen as stuffy old fools talking down to the unwashed masses through corporate PR.
  • Excellent list, Chris.

    I find it more about the channels for personal branding than building your personal brand, but that's maybe the purpose, so it's okay.

    Keep up the good work. It brings us back again and again :)
  • id2mario
    Chris, this is a brilliant post. My only comment is that is very important to determine how one wants to be perceived by other people before starting, this will allow to establish a long term personal branding strategy and more importantly it will help to communicate consistently the image no matter how many channels or new tools appear.

    My sincere congratulations, this is very good stuff. Thank you.
  • Probably one of (maybe the best) posts I've seen on personal branding. So much info to go through, I'll definitely have to bookmark this entry; just to process everything you covered.
  • Thanks Chris:

    Some wonderful information to process.

    Can you suggest a place in the world with more than 24 hours to utilize these social networking tools effectively?

    As a Certified Personal Branding Strategist and Career Management Professional for the $100K executive, I actively encourage my clients to use some if not all these resources you have suggested.
  • Chris, you've done it again with another awesome post. If quality and quantity met, fell in love and had a baby, it would be you. Thanks for sharing so much with us!
  • @Martin Buckland - could you tell me how one certifies for personal branding strategy? I'm not being an ass. Just curious.
  • chris_in_canada
    Yeah, that caught my eye also. I googled it, and found an organization called Reach that certifies for this, you can find them at http://www.reachcc.com/.

    I
  • Excellent post! It’s nice to know I’m already doing some of these tips,I will start work on the others.
    Thanks for Great topic!
  • Chris, as always another fabulous post/pointers! I'm always learning from you!!
  • Katybeth
    I am always amazed at how willing you are to "give away" what you know...and I guess that's the example..."I'm a nice guy getting ahead...so here is how can I help you get ahead."

    So many of my friends are trying to start businesses or grow a business and I love sharing your information with them. Right now, I am all over the place, trying to find my focus and information like this is really helpful!
  • Chris you are a content machine. You never cease to amaze me, great post.
  • What's interesting about this post is that you cleverly broke up 100 ways of personal branding without it looking like 100 ways. In other words, you broke them up into categories and gave short, succinct tips, making it easier on the eyes. Brilliant!

    Well, to be honest with you, you covered pretty much everything that I could think of so I think we're pretty well set here.

    I do want to say that three things jumped out at me. Eye contact when meeting someone in person is incredibly, incredibly important. Nothing is more distasteful than when someone you are talking to has shifty eyes, always looking for the "next best thing." ACK!

    The second is your appearance. I mean, at least be presentable. You don't have to wear a suit and tie or a dress but at least be clean, right?

    And the third that I liked a lot was the importance of promoting others. Most people will trip over themselves to return the favor if given the opportunity.

    As usual, you crafted a very important message for all of us. Thank you for your efforts!
  • Great post, Chris. I wish I'd seen it before I sent out my e-Newsletter this morning, I'd have added the link to it in my very short list of important SM resources. I learn so much from you...how can I not share?
  • Wow!! Excellent list. Might need some explanation for beginners but that's what future posts are for or other folks to investigate and write about. Thanx.
  • Mathew Koeneker
    Wow, I truly appreciate the time and effort that was out into that post. PASS!
  • As so many others have said this is a truly terrific post, I have cross-linked to it in my blog on the Computer Weekly site here in the UK, http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/it-collabor... , more of this Chris, please !
  • Chris, this is an incredible list! It took me an hour to work my way through it because I kept pausing on items, thinking about them, checking links to services I haven't tried yet. This is a keeper for sure. Thanks so much for the effort you put into gathering these gems and your wisdom together for us.
  • Chris - thank you, thank you, thank you! Got this link via Twitter and since I am just starting out in the blog world (wrote my first post this week!) your article clarifies how all the social sites can used effectively. I'll come back to this list often!
  • this post is probably the most useful tool I've seen yet for a person beginning to understand how social networking is such an effective tool to promote a brand.
  • What a list! Thanks for the all hard work you put into this!
  • wowzer! Now this is brilliant. Great stuff- and especially the outposts part. Blog on!
  • karim
    Wow! Seems like I am a laggard when it comes to creating an online personal brand.

    a quick question for you Chris (or anyone else) - it seems like there are literally hundreds of web apps out there. which ones are the most important to use to begin and which ones should i graduate to?

    maybe we can create a list of web applications that people should use first? kinda like grade 1-9, high school, college, etc....

    kk
  • Chris, I'm looking forward to your twebinars, and generally appreciate your posts and tweets, but I have to say this list is a bit ridiculous....
  • Excellent and right on the ball. But there is so much to do - you just about have to live online. I find myself often getting further and further away from my prime task of producing music and video that I've turned into something that has to build, design, maintain websites, blogs, social media sites, video sharing sites - all of this becomes a distraction.

    Yet it all needs to be done - thanks Chris Brogan for this resourceful article - and thanks for not breaking it up into lots of smaller posts with a zillion ads.

    Chris Loft
    www.radiocurly.com
  • chris, that was an amazing and detailed list. Wow
  • Thank you Chris, I'm converted! Hallelujah! This is a classic post that had me taking action on my personal brand and completing assignments while I read through it. You rock, really, you do.
  • Great post.

    I love that within the promotion you focus on adding value. I also love that you focus on participation. I just wrote an entire post apologizing to the world for my lack of participation until recently. If I had followed your advice a year ago I would already have an established readership.
    I guess it's like a diet...you always say you'll start but put it off.
    This post is extremely helpful to make that commitment.
  • Brett Pohlman
    Awesome post Chris! I am a PR student at Auburn University. This list is the most comprehensive list that I have some across about how to brand yourself in Social Media.

    As a graduating senior with social media aspirations, I know how important it is to project a positive online personal brand.

    Thank You again. These are great ideas that I can incorporate as I am building my personal brand online.
  • Another promotional tool: SlideShare;
    http://www.slideshare.net/lcenten/personall-bra...
    :)
  • Hello, nice blog cya around
  • I've been speaking on personal branding (I call it "Personal Positioning") since 1996.

    This is the best list of its kind I've ever seen.

    I've bookmarked and will share this far and wide.
  • is it only me or social websites taken over?
  • This is a brilliant post and very helpful. I found myself pausing to jot down a few notes. You've just earned a new subscriber.

    Cheers,
    Stephanie
    http://heystephanie.com
  • Chris this is certainly Viral Marketing Content for sure:
    "100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media", We are
    feeling a sense of "awe" because it is just awesome.Great Illustration of thinking of others as more important than
    ones own self. Zig Ziglar had it right "Help Enough other
    People get what they want and You can have anything You
    desire. Be Blessed always...Peace! God Is Love, God is
    Good, God Is One. Chris, Everyone have a Great Day.
  • I'll add to the chorus here... :-) Love how you emphasize good manners as well as good promotion. Thanks!
  • This is a great list. Thanks so much Chris. I have been doing many of these things, but I admit, there were a few tools in here I didn't know about. Any advice on how I grow www.AskAFloorGuy.com?
  • jonson roth
    What?!! A list of 100 and no bloody numbers? So how do I say, "yeah, love #Y," without having to count down/ up to that point.
  • My teacher, Robert French, showed my class this list and I was trully amazed. I have printed out the list and will get started on it as soon as possible. Thanks!
  • Thanks Chris,
    I'm relatively new to the social media and need all the help I can get. This article is packed full of knowledge from the first to last words. It’s going to take quite a while to digest all the information. I wish I would have written it.
  • You can use everyzing's search features at http://search.everyzing.com/ for ego podcast searches as everyzing searches through podcasts using speech recognition.
  • you frog go steven sun all ocean go cube sea white
  • stevenimmons
    Excellent list and I definitely found some new ideas to look into. I guess I would add that connections on Social sites can be made on almost any subject. I would suggest utilising music services such as iLike and LastFM, sharing pictures (Flickr etc.) and the usage of associated groups.

    When you think about personal branding, take a little care in terms of professional presentation, but don't lose sight of 'who you are' and stay genuine, multi-dimensional and human :-)
  • Some solid stuff here, Chris. Nice one.
  • Chris -

    Golden.

    My Fav 3:

    Be Human
    Be Confident
    Brevity Rules.


    Eric
  • This list is great.
    Looks like a lot of work.
    I would love some more general tips about branding and personal branding, even before going online.
    I have a main job at 5min.com, and I write two blogs, one in Hebrew and one in English. What part should I brand? All of them? Brand myself as a whole?
  • Holy Banannas Brogman,

    There must be 100 comments as it took me forever to get to the comment box on my blackberry wheelie sittin at the WashTub Car Wash. I think you need a name like Scobleizer - maybe Brogman does it - just throwing it out there.

    Fantastic Chris! Might I suggest this post be the editorial outline to your book, "Brogman's Social Media Best Practices".

    I have a friend Steve Harper that has a great strategy that he's packaged into a book that he calls, "The Ripple". I think his url is www.rippleon.com (I'll have to verify that later).

    This post is timely for me to as I preare to launch my new blog for soccer players. So, here's a quick list to add to yours Brogman:

    1. Focus your energy in helping people. Be a mench (sp?) as Guy Kawaski suggests (The Art of Start is another great book.
    2. Connect with people off-line and online in areas that are completely out of your realm of interests. It's amazing what you can learn and the great people you will meet.
    3. Get involved in great causes that help people and really commit yourself to 1-2 causes. Promote the hell out of these causes - it's just karma.
    4. Create your own collective intelligence arsenal/advisory group. People that you can go to for help and knowledge. Be willing to offer your expertise to them for FREE. Pay It Forward eh.
    5. Help and Old Lady the next time you see one. Get involved in a child's life and be their mentor.
    6. Someone Fill In Six.
    7. It's all about people. Be open to others ideas - let them flourish and create a positive environment in their own way. Be quick to put out negative fires.

    Hope I was not rendundant and added some value to the discussion.

    Cheers,

    Jason Cronkhite
  • Correction to my previous comment, here is the address to Steve Harper's site Ripple Centeral: http://www.ripplecentral.com/ .
  • Wow, excellent post Chris! I like how you included tips for face-to-face, personal interaction as well.

    Don't forget that it's important to take time to build your communities in the various networks you belong to. Visit the profiles of those who have visited yours (this is a regular practice of mine on Stumbleupon) and add them as friends if you share interests.
  • I really learned a lot from this post. So much that I just had to bookmark it! I especially liked the part where you said to promote others more than yourself. Leaving insightful comments on other blogs not only keeps the conversation going, but shows the blogger you're interested (and actually read) the post, and encourages them to visit you as well.

    One resource that I can't live without is browsershots.org. This site allows you to test your blog in all kinds of browsers to make sure it operates correctly after an update. It's really hard to code for IE 6 or earlier, and if your site doesn't load in those browsers correctly, you'll miss out on a good audience.
  • Pam Robertson
    Chris I know you have received a plethora of compliments about this post already, but thank you SO much for sharing it here. Holy smokes -- not just great information but going to deeper reaches than anything else I have come across.
    Thanks a million.
  • First off, this is an amazing article. I have used most of these methods to promote and brand myself on the web. These are all great ideas to promote yourself using someone elses services who is in control of what you do. What if you could have your own personal professional websites with your own domain in which you could control and manage your entire online presence? At Brand-Yourself.com we are advocating that everyone creates their own online presence by having a central area to control their online image. For actionable tips to strengthen your personal brand online, check the Brand-Yourself blog at http://blog.brand-yourself.com.
  • I agree, excellent post, full of great ideas and all in one handy place! I immediately had this one emailed to me to reread! :-)
  • I am really happy to have found your blog Chris. The checklist you provide is so comprehensive so a BIG Thank You from me...
  • Wow, I'm in the process of putting together a training manual for my team and will use some of your tips! Thank you for giving so much value here.
  • Do you have any suggestions for a blogzine? There's new content on my site twice a week, but I don't know if I can do more than that for now. Survey results come out on Tuesday and a column on Friday. New issues are every other week (i.e. five or more posts at the same time). Suggestions?
  • Chris - great post. I didn't realize how many of your 100 list I had been doing already, but it's always nice to have reminders. I especially liked the tactics about community and I agree with all of them.

    Tom
  • Great post. I'd like to just add that it's too easy to get lost in the blogosphere and online. Be sure to occasionally take the conversation offline as well.
  • Wow! Where to start? I'm pleased to read about your emphasis on taking the high road. It's too easy in the anonymous Internet to be mean. It's community, after all.
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