Unless you have been living under a rock, it is virtually impossible for you to have escaped the barrage of social media sites that have popped up all over the web. Most company websites include links to their respective social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, just to name a few.  While companies realize the importance of having a presence in these areas, professionals often overlook the importance of marketing themselves in the same manner.

At the end of 2014, Facebook reported having 890 million daily active users. With approximately 157 million of those users are in the US and Canada, it is tough to say Facebook is not popular. However, think of how many of your friends, colleagues, and business associates have a business account on Facebook. Probably not very many. That’s what LinkedIn is for, right?  Maybe not...   

While your title or job description may not state so, all professionals work in some type of sales. When you say, “buy this widget from me” or “use my quote,” are you selling your company, or yourself?  To help set yourself apart from your competition, you want to do what multi-million dollar companies around the world do – spend some time on branding.  Below are a few things you can do to get that process started:

• Social Media – Chances are you already have a personal Facebook and/or Twitter account and you let the professional side of your life reside on LinkedIn. Creating a business presence on Facebook and Twitter not only increases your footprint on the web, it gives prospective and existing customers who may not have a LinkedIn account access to your professional side.  Don't use these sites simply to share where you are going to lunch or how frustrated you are with traffic; share articles, post things you are doing to advance the industry, and even post things you are doing to assist your customers’ success (just don't use their names). Help people see how you put in extra effort in what you do. Using a site like HootSuite allows you to draft your message once and push it to various social media sites.
• Blog  - Periodically posting blogs is a great way to get information out to the masses. Doing so can be time consuming and can tax the brain, but it is another way to set yourself apart from your competition. You can use sites like WordPress to manage your blog, or you can choose to distribute a newsletter with your own content that lives elsewhere.  Whatever you choose to use, the key thing to remember is to do it consistently. You can also reach out to existing blogs and ask if they need guest bloggers.
• Website – Having your own website might cost you a little bit of money to establish and maintain, but having your own personal space online is another great way to differentiate yourself from the rest. Not only will doing so add to your virtual footprint, your own site is a great place for all of your social media and blog information to appear in once place. Sites like Wix, Weebly and 1&1.com make creating and managing your own page relatively painless.

We all understand price is an important factor, but price is not always the most important factor - if that were the case, companies like Starbucks and Mercedes would cease to exist. When everything else is the same, the differentiating factor can be you.

David is a Surety Bond Specialist with Nielson, Wojtowicz, Neu & Associates, the Tampa/St. Pete branch of The Nielson, Hoover Group.  He can be reached via email, [email protected], or cell (813.390.4711) with questions or comments.