Create Evangelists for Your Brand on Twitter - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Create Evangelists for Your Brand on Twitter - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career How to Create Evangelists for Your Brand on Twitter This is adapted from the eBook,  From Tweet to Hired: How to Leverage Twitter to Advance Your Career, which includes contributions from Dan Schawbel and Gary Vaynerchuk. So you have a Twitter profile that strengthens your personal brand. And your bio and background image exude your core values and align with your career goals. Youre tweeting useful links, tips, quotes, advice, and experiences that resonate with your target audience. Youre answering relevant questions and effectively retweeting those who add value to you.  Youre ready to grow your network but where do you start? 1. Define your goals As Monica O’Brien, author of Social Pollination advises, “Too often people gravitate towards their friends and  forget that the whole point is to meet new people! Have a goal.  Think of who you need to know to reach your goal (i.e. finding a job) and find those people.” What is your goal? To attract new clients? Grow awareness for a cause?  Land a job? Whatever the case, youre going to want to engage the right people in the right way on Twitter. Its time to make a splash at the global networking party. 2. Engage major players in your industry Industry leaders are phenomenal resources to stay up  to date with the latest trends.  Twitter is unlike any other social platform in  this regard. Compare it to being invited to a prestigious networking event  with some of the most prominent, well-known players in your field. The  benefits of connecting and “talking shop” with them are immeasurable. Twitter allows you to do this every day. Simply search their blog or website to find their Twitter username. Leaders in your field are too busy to respond to shallow attempts to  connect. So ask thoughtful questions, retweet their messages, and post meaningful comments on their content. After responding directly to their tweets a few  times, they are likely to follow you or respond back. When they respond, all of their followers see your name, setting the stage for more meaningful  connections. 3. Engage colleagues in your industry Start by checking out  a few of the major Twitter directories to find the relevant tweeters in your field. Maintain your relationships and lines of  communication and eventually you will be familiar enough to ask for an  endorsement, phone call, or contribution to their blog. Imagine how far  recommendations from leaders and colleagues in your field can take you. Theres only one way to find out find them and reach out to them. 4. Proactively join relevant conversations Thousands of  people in your field on Twitter are conversing with each other.  These are conversations you want to join. Use Twitter search  tools to monitor keywords in your industry. Automate these searches with a Twitter management app like TweetDeck. Keep an eye out and start  interacting. Research relevant hashtags to find conversations  surrounding your industry.  For example, at my company, we have saved searches for personal branding, online reputation management and social  media. This allows us to connect become a part of conversations with like-minded people as theyre happening, and grow a relevant network around our services. 5. Engage people nearby Connect with people in your area.  There is no replacement for face-to-face connections, but many Twitter apps like TwitterLocal allow you  to find relevant people in your area and initiate relationships with people nearby. 6. Focus on quality over quantity Do not simply follow every person with “Marketing” in their bio. You  look like a spammer if you follow many people without having a somewhat  equal ratio of followers. Instead, focus your efforts and make sure you  truly connect with those you do interact with. A network of 150 people who  appreciate your tweets is far more valuable than a network of ten thousand  who have no idea who you are, and dont care to find out. Youre now on your way to growing a network of engaged Twitter followers. Along the way, dont forget to build your thought capital, tweet useful links, tips, quotes, advice, and experiences that resonate with your followers, and retweet those who add value to you. Your goal is to grow an engaged network, not an irrelevant one. 7. Turn followers into evangelists Youre now equipped to grow your following by finding and engaging with the relevant people on Twitter. In my next post, Ill break down ways you can turn these new online connections into real, meaningful relationships, and transform everyday followers into proactive evangelists for your personal brand. Before you go: have you completed a  Twitter Audit to maximize your personal branding efforts on Twitter? Also, check out the four-step process laid out in From Tweet to Hired: How to Leverage Twitter to Advance Your Career.  I guarantee it will help you strengthen your personal brand on Twitter, and it includes contributions from some of the greatest branders in the world including Dan Schawbel and Gary Vaynerchuk. Good luck! Do you have any tips and suggestions that you use to grow a relevant network on Twitter? Author: Pete Kistler is a leading Online Reputation Management expert for Generation Y, a top 5 finalist for Entrepreneur Magazine’s College Entrepreneur of 2009, one of the Top 30 Definitive Personal Branding Experts on Twitter, a widely read career development blogger, and a Judge for the 2009 Personal Brand Awards. Pete manages strategic vision for Brand-Yourself.com, the first online reputation management platform for job applicants, named one of the Top 100 Most Innovative College Startups in the U.S.