Do you inspire and captivate your social media community?
Are your conversations dynamic, engaging and diverse?
In order to stand out online, you must earn the attention of your audience. And you must do it in a short amount of time.
According to Sally Hogshead, author of “Fascinate,” you have nine seconds to command attention.
However, in a recent study by the National Center for Biotechnology, it seems to be even less than that.
It was found that the average attention span of consumers is a mere eight seconds.
That is four seconds less than it was in the year 2000, and one second less than a goldfish.
Yep, that’s right. A goldfish.
Based on that, it would appear that our attention span is actually devolving. A frightening thought, especially for business and marketing professionals eager to gain the eye of today’s fast-paced consumer.
So how can you “win the moment” (one of my favorite Sally’isms) and be unforgettable?
I was excited to join David Oldenberg and Christine Degraff on the “Online Money Show” to discuss this exact topic.
Below are a few key takeaways on how to build a stellar personal brand, use social media to expand your reach, and define your unique shine.
What exactly is that?
It’s that delicious goodness that only you possess. It’s a shine that leaves an irresistible and wholly indelible mark on everyone you meet.
Being Unforgettable on Social Media
1. Develop a Consistent Look, Feel, and Message
“If you don’t define yourself online…someone else will.”
Defining and consistently sharing your unique message in a way that is both relevant and valuable to your target audience is crucial.
Not only does it create differentiation, but it allows you to share your special skills and talents in a language that speaks directly to your audience.
This means that you develop your online message, voice, look, and feel and then deliver it consistently and without fail. From your website design to social media channels, ensure that each one is synonymous with who you are offline.
Someone who has done an excellent job in building a sensational personal brand is Marie Forleo. Marie’s spunk and feisty personality are seen in her website, social properties, adorable wardrobe (because no girl is complete without one) conversations, content, and even her body language.
It’s all there, consistent from one end of her brand to the next.
Success in personal branding is blending everything in a way that leaves no doubt in the mind of a consumer who you are, no matter which social or online property they land on.
Whether you are an entrepreneur, small business owner, trainer, speaker, or writer, controlling the perception in and around your personal brand is not something you should take lightly.
To better understand what differentiates you from the competition, answer a few questions.
Keys to Differentiation
- What do I love to do every day?
- If I could only do one thing every day, what would it be?
- What are my greatest strengths/weaknesses?
- What do I do better than anyone else?
- What separates me from the competition?
- What pain, need or concern can I solve for my potential client(s)?
2. Build Out a Captivating Social Profile that Converts
Social media profiles are an enormous opportunity to present your story and message in a real and relatable way.
They also speak directly to the search engines, so do your homework and know how potential clients are searching for you when online.
Peg Fitzpatrick, does an excellent job utilizing every bit of the “about” space offered by Google+. Want to rock your social media profiles and bio? I asked Peg for a few tips to get you started.
“Google+ provides you with the most real estate of any social media profile. Be creative and let people know who you are with some smart text, then add links to your blog and other places that you write, followed by links to all your other social media profile.”
As you can see, Peg follows her own advice.
Her bio is full of details that not only make her relatable, accessible, and authentic, but also tell a story to search engines and humans alike.
A few additional ways to Optimize Your Profile:
- Drop the pretense and have a little fun. Write your summary in an authentic way that allows people to understand what you do, what you have to offer and what you are passionate about. Conversations happen when you share interesting facts and tidbits that pull back the veil on who you truly are.
- A professional profile image – Your profile image should be considered a key element to your personal brand. For this reason, it is extremely important that you create consistency from one network to the next by using the same high-quality professional headshot.
- Use relevant keywords in a conversational and organic way. Understand what terms people are searching for when researching your business, niche, product, or service. Work those in to your profile in a way that is conversational and easily scannable. Google is eager to help you tell your story, but without your keywords you could create a situation where consumers have to hunt and peck to find you.
- Get local – As you craft your summary, remember to add your industry specific keywords as well as your location based keywords including city and state.
- Don’t forget your call to action! Never leave the next step or follow-up action to chance. Do you want people to click-through to your website, your latest product or your book? Tell them! Share details that answer the “what’s in it for me question” and a link so the next step is effortless.
3. Find Your “One Thing” and Spread it Like Wildfire
In the 1991 movie City Slickers, Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal) is facing a cross-roads. He’s thirty-nine, fearing a mid-life crisis, and eager to find meaning in his life.
Curly, a gruff cowboy played by Jack Palance, shares a few words of wisdom with Mitch that are as relevant to life as they are to business.
Curly: “Do you know what the secret of life is? One thing, just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean $%@!” Watch it here:
Just as Curly forced Mitch to figure out his “one thing,” I’m going to encourage you to do the same. What is the one thing that pushes you forward in your business, drives you on a daily basis, and gets you up and out of bed?
If you can figure out your “one thing,” everything else will fall into place.
When you are living and working within your sweet spot, that place that challenges, excites and inspires you, anything and everything is possible.
Find that one thing and then live it, breathe it, and shout it from the rooftops – every single day!
Thanks! The post reminded me “consistency is king” – as an Aussie mummy, I think I haven’t put enough effort into consistent imagery, style and publicity. My core product is very unique & I sometimes struggle getting that across quickly enough. I need to hone my “one thing” – thanks for the tips.
Also, as I am in Australia is that possibly why I can’t download your maximiser document?
Thanks!
Great article! I agree that you need to show some of the real you – my fans love that.
This is amazing share. I added it to my buffer already for my twitter timeline.
One thing that might be added to a checklist like this (3A?) is “make sure your blog or website is mobile friendly.”
I really want to read this but when I clicked on the link on my Facebook page I couldn’t read the material because portions of it kept cutting off on my iPhone. I tried opening in Safari – same thing.
BTW, I’m not trying to be sarcastic, but I was at a presentation recently and the speaker really stressed how more and more people are accessing the stuff through their mobile devices rather than on a desktop computer or laptop.
It is frustrating a bit frustrating when I can’t read this on my mobile device and I have to wait to get to a desktop to read it.
Hi John. That’s really strange since my site is responsive. I looked at it on my iPad and through Safari and don’t see what you’re seeing. Very strange.
I completely agree about the importance of mobile. A significant amount of readers are now on mobile devices, so it’s critical to make it easy to read.
Life is diverse and multifaceted. As such, I am not sure whether we will all be able to come up with just one thing. However, starting to seek for this one thing puts us in the right direction. Even if we figure out the two and three things that we care about most, we would have found the secret of our lives.
The process of trying to think about the one thing helps us declutter our life and figure out what is essential, what is that which we cannot live without. What is indeed the secret of our lives.
So true Ying Ying. If we can figure out what we’re passionate about and then do that every day, we are incredibly fortunate. Even two or three things as you said is the secret to finding peace and happiness.
“What pain, need or concern can I solve for my potential client(s)?”
So true, and what they need to know first. Next, they need to know why you’re the best one to solve it…. In 8 seconds. You’re right, you have to grab their attention fast. But that doesn’t mean you have to solve all their issues in that same 8 seconds.
That’s what the next 8 seconds is for! All kidding aside, to succeed, you must use the first 8 seconds to grab their attention, so that you can give them the next thing that will hold it for 8 seconds. Eventually, you’ll have them engaged enough that they’ll stay, but don’t let up, because they’ll leave.
What’s the most important thing about building your personal brand?
It gives you more than 8 fleeting seconds to grab them and keep them around. If your brand’s great, you may double that.
Nice post, Rebekah!
HI Rebekah,
This is a nice post again. I just noticed that it is an old post but felt good that I got a chance to read this post now. I’ve learnt something new in this post to perform well in social media. Consistency matters a lot and just am following it to gain good credibility. I’ll follow the other social media tips as well. Thanks for presenting this nice post.
Sujet trèѕ fascinant !!
That’s great information. Thank you!
Rebekah,
That is so true to focus on your one thing. But what happens when you have developed several different skills? You need to find the one that lights your fire the most, stick with it until you have created some level of success – and then you can branch out to other things. My one thing is helping men and women to create loving relationships by Healing Through Love.
Loved reading your post. Yes, its scary to think that we have merely 8 seconds to capture our audiences’ attention span that is why it is important to stand out. I particularly liked your tip of finding your thing and spreading it like wildfire. I agree that when you have discovered your niche, you should go, promote and make yourself known.
Rebekah thanks for sharing. So happy, at least you’ve giving me the push to customize my twitter background.
My Google+ will actually benefit from your tip as it is of immense benefit to me.
Rebekah, want to ask you what is that one thing you breath in the morning and in the evening?
Rebekah
Hi Rebekah
I think many people ignore the potential of the G+ profile, including me. I did it so long ago. It is always worth a revisit and a clean up. Especially with Peg’s tips in mind.
And finding that one thing that drives you! great idea. What do we get out of bed for in the morning?
ashley
Pick that one thing that you love and be that with every fiber of your being, then make sure your message is consistent across all platforms. So simple and so profound at the same time, Rebekah. I love it.
The world we live in has so many distractions pulling our attention away from our core message, but when we pull our focus in and lean pour our energy into that, its like aiming for and hitting the bulls eye on the target each time.
Hi Rebekah,
You have made some excellent points in this post.So true we need to think exactly what we love and also branding is so important .At the moment I am working with a company who has a branding mascot that gets great attention for them offline and online. It has been very successful for them. Many thank for your advice . Rosemary
Hi Rebekah,
Absolutely a great post today. I see a few things I need to work on and will be doing so moving forward in 2014.
I like Peg Fitzpatrick’s approach to her blogging. I was so scared of Google, fearing I would do something wrong and make life online worse. Because of that, some of my writing is not really me coming out on the paper or screen.
Slowly, I’m learning to not worry about Google so much and just be me.
Have a great day. Monna
Hi Rebekah,
Thanks for these details to optimize our social profiles. I am slowly but surely aligning all of the platforms. I am going to Google+ right now because I was not aware that we could provide extensive information about us, plus add call-to-actions? Very curious.
Hey Rebekah! Wow what an Awesome Post! You have a boat load of great information here. i love how you go into detail on how to go about writing your Bio!
Great video too!! I am going to go back and read this before sharing,, Thanks Chery :))
Thanks for this informative post. Have read the book, The One Thing, and am trying to put it into practice for my business. Just learning Google+ and it seems to be quite good.
Google+ is really an amazing tool on so many levels. I’m glad you’re enjoying your time over there!
Hi Rebekah,
I enjoyed the article, these points only seem obvious when we’ve been reminded of them, otherwise it’s easy to overlook or forget how important the details are.
The content I produce is in the form of a livestream. I used to stream on Twitch.tv (it’s primarily for video games, so someone plays a game and has a webcam in the corner and they talk while playing).
I’ve garnered up to 4,000 concurrent viewers. Unfortunately my personality, while engaging, was in conflict with the interests of the site and I was banned from this website for non-gaming content (going to buy a donut, sleeping on stream, etc).
I’m very sarcastic – my question for you is primarily concerning the controversy associated with my demeanor/attitude. It’s my personality that attracts people, it’s also what gets me into trouble – what do I do if the platform like Twitch.tv that I rely on, and need because there’s no competition for Twitch for gaming/livestreaming – how do I spread myself like wildfire, how do I push further if there’s resistance to my mature content?
Here’s a YouTube video, it’s a story I’m telling. A user of my chat asked a crude question, and I responded because part of my uniqueness is that I am very open and honest about who I am, and I’m comfortable with myself and I think people respect this. Here’s the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsHoiJtaqQQ
Sorry if my explanation is a bit all over the place, I’m scatter brained. Any suggestions for an aspiring Internet personality figure like myself, who is being pushed away because my content is controversial, despite it being proven to attract a very decent amount of attention.
-Andrew
Great info, read, inspiration, and most of all…motivation. Thanks Rebehah
Thanks Murray! Glad you enjoyed it!
Once again thank you for the great tips, Rebekah! Right now my focus is on branding and optimizing my social account especially my G+. Finding that one thing might take time as I’m more of a jack of all trades. Still learning. 🙂
Great post! I have to work with my social media skills. After reading your post make me evaluate all the things I have done, and the ones I haven’t put on practice yet.
Evaluation is a good thing Remy! It’s important to take the time to understand what we’re doing, what we’re not, and where we need to make changes within our strategy and plan.
Thanks Rebeka for another excellent post. I will assign this e-reading to my Social Media Marketing students.
I have also added you to my Personal Branding Toplist in Twitter lists and to my Feedly category for Personal Branding.
Thank you Denny! I appreciate you sharing with your students. Hope it helps get the point across!
Hi Rebekah!
I just love that video clip! It says it all. Find that one thing. Then go out and just do it. Many of us have different passions, some even juggle different businesses. I find that if you follow just one thing, magic happens.
Being ourselves on social media is the only way to do it. I just love it when I run across Peg. Her picture says a thousand words. It is followed by her up beat candid content. This is what makes one stick out of the crowd!
I do find that those that are too serious on line tend to loose audience appreciation. Everyone has a sense of humor, or an edge. We do have to share that on our blogs, products, and all across the social networks.
Excellent advice as usual my friend!
-Donna
That is so true Donna! We all have a personality that includes passions, humor, and in my case…a sometimes rather offbeat sense of humor at that!
Taking that and infusing it into all that we do online is imperative!
Amazing post! I had no idea that I could optimize my Google+ page, that’s definitely something I’ll do tomorrow, thank you so much 🙂
They are simple little tweaks Alex, but well worth making!
Hi Rebekah,
Great tips! I like the idea that we must define our own online brand image or someone else will. That’s absolutely true and I have seen the +ve impact of that effort in my own branding. And, of course, examples of people you mentioned is a great eye opener. There has to be a consistency in ways we come across on social media sites and the more consistent we are, the better branding we get.
Oh yes, and I need to focus on my G+ optimization again. It has been a while since I didn’t look there. Thank you for this reminder 🙂
All three points you shared are very practical and time tested. Thank you for sharing!
Regards,
Kumar
It’s always good to circle back around and double-check all social properties to ensure each one is consistent. I love your blog Kumar and the way your personality shines through. You’ve done a great job!
Thank you Rebekah! Appreciate your compliments and glad to know that you think I am doing okay with my blog.
But you know what, I do have make some changes. Last week was crazy and this week, that is my goal. I have to review some of those things and kind of rearrange a few parts of my profile especially on Google+.
Have a successful new week!
Regards,
Kumar
I appreciate the tips for optimizing a social media profile, I will have to re-evaluate mine.