The Social Media Swirl

fred@boomtowncio.com (Fred Baiz) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:52:00 +0000

Next week I will appear as a panelist at the Charlotte Direct Marketing Association's April lunch. Topic:"Marketing Yourself in Today's Economy" where my role will be to discuss the use of social media tools to develop and promote your personal brand. These channels are getting a lot of attention (deservedly so) given the rising unemployment rate and instability of the job market. There is also a lot of noise that abounds regarding exactly how to leverage social media when looking for your next opportunity. Whether building a personal or corporate brand, the key to using social media is the quality of your content. Large networks of contacts, friends or followers will only be of value if the people that these mediums connect you with have a reason to regularly consume the content you produce. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are all fabulous if you can use them as a platform to demonstrate your expertise in an area (or that your daily life is really terribly intriguing). Users should mainly view these tools as a new way of getting your message in front of decision makers. The nice part about Web 2.0 is that most of it's free and everyone's invited to the party. The downside is that you won't get past the velvet rope just by showing up. Critical thought, effort, persistence and demonstrable skill will catch and keep the attention of the VIP's you're trying to meet.

My First Post

fred@boomtowncio.com (Fred Baiz) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:11:00 +0000

Okay, so there's no real meat here. Just a test post to get things up and running on boomtowncio.com

Consistently Amazed

The Social Media Swirl

My First Post