About six months ago, I read an article on social media, specifically building a personal brand on LinkedIn. This particular creator had around 75,000 connections at the time, and there was no doubt he had accumulated an audience doing precisely what he was advising the reader on. According to the author, "Social media is a game," and in order to find success, you have to be willing to play.
This article was full of information, including advice on sending connection requests (basically following up for those of you who might be asking yourself, "What is LinkedIn?"), leaving comments on influencers' content, honing in a niche, using hooks in your content, creating carousels, writing articles, and posting at ideal times, followed by a very elaborate schedule of tasks needed nearly every day.
Two things came immediately to mind: One, what is the metric we are using to define success, and two, what exactly are we considering a "personal brand?"
"I ate two pieces of pizza, went to bed, and grew conscious." Jerry Maguire said that after he was fired for writing a memo about how he disagreed with the industry he was in, Well, this is a version of my memo, and if I wanted to use the right image, I would coin Jerry, "Even the Cover looks like the Catcher in the Rye."
Let's pretend you're in a new sales role, in a new industry, or in marketing (if you’re reading this, you probably are) If you want to be a thought leader or writer, you own a small business, or, as our buddy the author wrote, "want to build a personal brand," are you honestly going to relate any of those goals to a game? And let's say that you do find success; how are you going to define that success? By the number of followers you have? The money is in your bank account. What publications is your work picked up by? Or how about the purpose you feel doing the work?
I see a contradiction with the social media "game plan," and the people who pass off their tactics as gospel. They always fail (or neglect) to mention that these tactics aren't posted anywhere by the actual social media platform. Whether you agree or disagree with the idea that social media is, in fact, not a game, show me the algorithm, and I'll shut up forever.
In the meantime, carve your own path, whatever that may be. But don't worry about your brand growing because you're not following the so-called rules that "some guy wrote about in his article," who has a different definition of success than you do. I would instead ask the question, do these people telling us how to grow our personal brands realize that their personal brand is, in fact, who they are?
I don't believe you don't need a hook; you don't need to space out your sentences; you don't need to learn the algorithm, and you don't need to try and outsmart it; you don't need to hone in on a niche; you don't need post at ideal times, you don't even need a call to action, and you certainly don't need to consider your social media presence a game, because well, it's not.
Before you hit that unsubscribe button, remember this is the Anti Social Social Media Club newsletter. Just in case you missed it, my business is called Disruptur and I just so happen to believe that ”Leaders don’t copy other people’s ideas.”
I would ask how I did, but that would be a call to action, and if you are, in fact, inspired to act, you'll know what to do.
Thanks for reading,
Derek Laliberte
#BEADISRUPTOR
