I was having a conversation the other day with a friend who was weighing the decision of finding another contract gig or building his business. His business has existed for years but he hasn’t worked a lot to build it up. This is a guy who has a personality that everyone would remember and more passion about his specialty than 95% of people have for their specialties. This is truly passionate guy. I told him to build his online persona and to build his business.
What is an online persona?
Online persona is what I call your identity online. It’s the personality that comes out online through your blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. It is your Dr. Jekyll on the Internet and social media sites. If you invest the time in your profiles and social media accounts your interests, passions, and thoughts will create that persona.
How does that benefit you?
Whether you are seeking employment, a new contract, or building your business your online persona will lead the way. Most people prefer to deal with experts, passionate people, and interesting people. If people find you interesting there is a better chance that they will refer you or possibly hire you. Your online persona is the online “You”. It should show your strengths and your personality so that others can see them.
How do I build it?
Spend the time! In order to craft your online persona it will take time. You need to get accounts on LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook/etc. Make sure that you also have a blog. Then you have to take the time to fill out your profile and create content on your blog. The profiles and the blog content are the foundation.
You now need to get involved. Spend some time tweeting, answering LinkedIn questions, posting content on Facebook, and adding content to your blog. You absolutely need to be yourself. Post links that interest you, tweet the thoughts that you are having, and discuss the things that you know or are learning about on your blog. As you share all of this your online personality will explode. People will see you and you will start building online networks of friends and colleagues.
Get Social!!
Be daring…be creative!
Jeremy
Jeremy Lattimore is a creative problem solving guru in the business technology field. He has been involved in startups and has his MBA. Currently, he’s obsessed with business automation/efficiency and social networks. His current start up venture is Borea Systems and he’s diligently building his Refocusing Technology blog.
