Are You a Social Media Clone?

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Over the last two nights I read Gary Vaynerchuk’s book, “Crush It!” (Amazon Link). Gary’s foundational message throughout his book and in every keynote he delivers is, “do what your passionate about.” Everything you do should come from that gut motivator.

It’s from that passion that you develop strategies, and from those strategies you execute your dreams and goals. However, the more I observe and listen the more I hear echoes of someone else’s dreams. Originality is missing and clones are everywhere.

In a former life, when I was involved in the magic scene, I spent hours traveling, attending conventions and networking. Like anyone else I had my favorite performers that I looked up to because of their technique and their showmanship, but I never wanted to be them.

However, it was common for guys to steal routines, even down to their actual body language, as well as their entire performance. Most often the reason why is because they refused to work and develop a routine until they owned it. It was easier to copy.

Who wants to hire a copy?

On the return home from Blog World Expo, a few of my friends joked about the buzz words that we heard everywhere. While certain phrases are common to describe an idea or concept, I wondered if there was a social media “Cliff Notes” that would equipped you on how to “join the conversation.”

Let’s face it, Chris Brogan is an awesome and smart guy, but I don’t want to be Chris Brogan. Greg Cangialosi at Blue Sky Factory is doing some pretty cool stuff with email marketing, but I don’t want to be Greg. While many say, “there’s nothing new under the sun” there is a lot to be said for those that choose to be an original.

How to be an Original
1. Listen… For a long time.
2. Read it, listen to it, execute it until it becomes your own.
3. Be passionate about who you are and what you do.

With these three simple tips, when you speak it won’t be something you memorized or heard someone else say, but it will be your own because of what you’ve experienced and what you’ve done. You’ll be able to speak with confidence because you own it and you’ve earned it.

As Gary Vaynerchuk’s would say, now go “Crush It.”

The comments are yours!!

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Tagged as: Marketing, personal branding, Social media