Do you grow anytime you have the opportunity, your digital footprint? Do you check (we say “google”) your name, references to follow your daily traces on the web? Are you aware of what’s going on with you, what others tell about you?
I don’t mean to be obsessed with the “me” inside you, but nothing else than “growing you” in the digital landscape. There’s some rules that worth to be known, to survive if you only want to emerge from the bulk…
#1: be yourself online as “in real life”. There’s no double profile but one. The same as “IRL”. It’s nothing but other ways to express yourself in different medias, but nothing in content is different.
#2: respect the “KISS” rule (Keep It Shortly Simple) or my “3S” advise: Short, Sharp, Smart. Short words, more than sentences. Sharp to cut boring bios. Smart, avoiding the mainstream bullshit that anyone reads everywhere.
#3: influence is claimed by target/audience, not by you. Who are we to declare that WE are influent? You can say that you have skills, results or do some actions. But not really say that YOU are influent. It’s a result from your work, behaviour, digital footprint, not a self declaration.
#4: where you are, describe your interests and profile: groups, forums, timelines, conferences…and so long where you express yourself describe, all along the shape of your interest circle. Don’t sign up to “be like everybody” and dig in fashion. It’s too much time consuming and spread like you don’t know who you are and what you really like.
#5: content is king. Prefer rare comments but do relevant ones, instead of jumping into all conversations, with no other interest than “to be there”. With the information redundancy, machines, softs and human won’t see you with many filters, and if they do, they will blacklist you as a “flat” people.
#6: “me” among “you”. The most interesting thing is not what you express, but how it enhances the whole conversation, in a group. Content as a part of a whole participation.
#7: networks to engage and empower diversity. Don’t run for volume on social platforms, but look for any contact as an opportunity to share and learn more. Because each of them adds some elements, skills, profiles to enrich your global reflexion, work and learning. You can sign up on a Russian or Indian social platform because diversity of concepts and exchanges shows you other faces of things you’re working on. Networks not as window-dressing for you, but for enhance your multi-cultural mindset.
#8: there was a before and will be an after. Before “you” and after “you”. Be sure your presence brings something relevant to the (short) period of your existence. And don’t be obsessed with “inheritage”, like influence it’s the audience who will consume, appreciate or not. You take or leave, but it’s so.
#9: meaning and sense. Things more rare than you believe. Give what you search, it’s what could be bartered more than ever. The core in the middle of a linked relation.
#10: me vs the other “me”. Manage your own frustrations yourself and don’t wait other to be the umpire. Up to you to decide which profile you show, but remember the “memory of the web”. You’re definitely signed up, entered a world organization, where the message is you. Is how you show you, express you and give the visible face of your opinions. When it’s done, it’s done. Finished, over, consumed, tagged, stumbled, sorted, curated. Don’t ever think of cheat with “trust”. Trust in you.
Are you ready to empower you?