A year ago, I was completely “anti-social media”.  Yes, I am willing to openly admit to that shortcoming.  Sure, I frequented a forum or two on various interests—anonymously—not willing to contribute.  However, my reasons were strictly based on watching “To Catch a Predator” on Dateline NBC, having teenage children, and online personal sites.   You see, I had only really looked at the bad side of social media.  Of course, EVERYTHING nowadays can be exploited for bad but when you have children, the natural parental instinct goes into effect (even if you are technically savvy with capabilities to block sites from your children).  Not only that, but I associated social media as a way and means for people to “hook up” sort of like match.com or some other type of online personals.  Therefore, with these two factors added to my already pigeon-holed perception of any type of information technology outside of Information Security, I was completely stymied!

Social media is so important to establishing yourself.  I’m willing to go so far as to say that it is absolutely necessary for you to use social media as a means of personal branding.  It goes so much further than your resume, the “About Us” section to your website, or a cover letter.  I like to compare it to three-dimensionality—you see and learn more about me AND my knowledge set from various perspectives.  No one should proclaim to know it all.  Yes, we have our niches and our expertise areas.  However, social media isn’t just about claiming your expertise.  It’s about putting YOUR own spin and flavor to your niche, expertise, and what you know.

This is definitely old news to a lot of the social media and personal branding experts out there now.  But for those of us who have finally caught wind of this form of expression, it is by far a whole new exciting world!  The one thing I can say is that it truly matters to be personable and just being yourself.  I will finish out this post with a tweet I had posted earlier today,

“Personal branding is simple:  It’s you instinctively!  Your personal brand is instinctively YOU!”