Branding Myself Across the Social Networking Universe

Not being socially networked these days is a little like having to stay indoors while all the neighborhood kids are having a great time in the yard across the street. You peer out the living room window and watch, fascinated as kids from a couple streets over join in. The ice cream truck pulls up and that brings more kids, older this time because they’re the ones with the money, and pretty soon parents that were mowing their lawns or just getting home from work have joined the fun and the whole thing has turned into one big massive block party with people you’ve never seen before cooking burgers and dancing in the street.

It’s a whole lot easier to stay in your air-conditioned room with the curtains closed.  Being social takes energy — a lot of energy — and what if, by putting yourself out there, no one talks to you, no one asks you to sit with them, asks you to dance or if you’d like fries with that Coke?

I’ve tried hard to ignore facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I told myself that these were just faddish ways of wasting more time, and the thought of having my face and profile globally available in the great Internet ether made me kind of queasy.

But as time went on, and more and more people that I respect and emulate began to invite me to LinkIn with them or to write on their facebook wall, the more I began to stare out that window and watch the party going on without me.

I am now fully facebooked and LinkedIn. I twitter regularly. Many clients have asked me to write their profiles for their own social networking endeavors. I can’t yet say that there have been any tangible results (read “new business”) to come from this, but I do feel that my Outlook contacts have suddenly come alive, that I have connected my rather random universe, and — as with business cards and websites — ya just gotta have it, gotta put yourself out there.

What good is a personal brand if no one sees it?

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