Personal branding using social media platforms is not easy, especially if you are active on Twitter and have your own blog. Almost everyone else you know is NOT trying to define, enhance, and articulate their value to others online; consequently, that is exactly why YOU need to be doing it!
If you look around at your peers, compare yourself to them, and aspire to copy what they are doing, you will by definition become mediocre. That has never been a good choice, but it is an even worse choice in these hypercompetitive times we live. Why aspire to be just like everyone else when you can choose to be excellent?
Excellence is simple, but not easy. To be excellent you simply have to be willing to DO something your peers are not willing to do. With personal branding that means running an active blog and showing up regularly on Twitter – and that is not easy. But I can tell you from experience that it is extremely rewarding. Starting this blog and meeting incredible people on Twitter has been one of the best decisions I have made for myself in the last 10 years.
My colleagues and friends think I’m nuts, but I don’t care. The same thing will happen to you when you start your blog. When your friends make fun of you for blogging – and many of them will – understand that what they want you to do is to STOP doing something they are not willing to do. You are differentiating yourself, and that makes them uncomforatble because they don’t want to admit to themselves that you have chosen a different path than they have.
Don’t listen to them. Do what you know needs to be done, choose the path of excellence, and don’t look back.
Related Posts:
Excellence is a form of deviance
The primary barriers to success are self-imposed
You should follow me on twitter here.
Thank you so much! I appreciate your posts, as always. I am willing to be excellent, I am willing to be deviant, I am willing to be different and do what my peers are not. I have taken much heat already for being different and now I am ready to be EXCELLENT. I appreciate your posts, advice, content, information. Thank you. You are the first blog I follow daily. I am learning so much from you. I love the length of your posts and the length of the videos. I also love how you integrate both text and video.
I look forward to much more, plus I will be having fun browsing your archives.
Thank you again,
Kristen Lynnette
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
December 6th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Welcome, Kristen, and thanks for the kind words! As we are deviant, we have to remain purposeful. Being different for the sake of being different is not the goal, but purposeful deviance. Please feel free to comment more in the future. Thanks! Bret
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“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
December 6th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
When do I get to that last one? Thanks, Tele! Bret
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Thank you for the reminder to remain purposeful in my deviance. One thing I have learned here from you is to develop a strong purpose. So, I have been consciously focusing on the purpose I wish to serve. Thanks again!
Kristen
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
December 6th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Be encouraged and stay with it, even if it is three steps forward and two steps back. Thanks! Bret
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Brett, fwiw, I don’t think you’re nuts; I think you’re one of the few who get it.
I often think about your story of (part of) the reason why you got started blogging, etc. when the State legislature mandated a pay cut and you realized you couldn’t- and shouldn’t – rely on the University for your future. I’m surprised that more management faculty haven’t looked around to see themselves being squeezed by online universities, adjunct staffing, and even their own institutions undercutting the value of their intellectual property, and started to think that they might get out there and craft the future. When my colleagues ask me what management faculty should be doing, I send them to *your* blog.
It may be lonely out in front, but the view sure is exciting, isn’t it!
cv
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
December 8th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
I appreciate the kind words, CV. It is actually VERY exciting to think of all the possibilities that are opening up. I have met some GREAT people in a very short time through my blog, and we are already talking about how to collaborate. I’m glad to keep company with folks like you. Are you organizing a session for AOM next year? Thanks! Bret
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[...] From Bret Simmons: Personal Branding: The Motivation to Do Something Different “If you look around at your peers, compare yourself to them, and aspire to copy what they are doing, you will by definition become mediocre. That has never been a good choice, but it is an even worse choice in these hypercompetitive times we live. Why aspire to be just like everyone else when you can choose to be excellent?” [...]
A friend of mine is teaching a business class at a university in the spring and we were talking about the importance of personal branding yet how resistant her students in the past have been to the idea. I told her I would share some current posts on the topic and this one is a perfect one to start with!
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
December 10th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I can tell you from experience they are VERY resistant! I taught one to about 30 this summer and all but a few have shut down the sites I showed them how to create. I am teaching another one to 40 in a few weeks – so we will see. I am convinced it is both smart and essential. Thanks, Susan! Bret
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[...] Personal Branding: The Motivation To Do Something Different [...]