Recently I’ve become a bit of a hypocrite in the advice I give about crafting your online brand. Fortunately it recently cost me a client, which helped sort me out.
In general, my advice on this topic goes something like: Show your personality online, and don’t try to play it safe. Stand out, and you will attract the customers who value what you have to offer.
Insightful, right? If you try to appeal to everyone, you will end up appealing to no one and be lost in the sea of mediocrity.
In spite of this sage advice, over the past few weeks I’ve found myself editing my tweets and Facebook posts, concerned about fallout over who might see them. I basically stopped blogging for not wanting to throw out ideas until I had time to carefully cultivate them into the shining beacons of genius I have little doubt they would become. And in spite of all my caution I lost a speaking engagement this past week. Why? In part because I was more concerned with being what I thought the client wanted than just being me.
Stupid. If you have your own take on the world, let it shine. You may scare away some, but you’ll attract those who appreciate what you have to offer.
Take these gents. They take an already polarizing singer like Lady Gaga, put about the nerdiest spin on it I can possibly imagine, and they’ve got 210,000+ views and counting.
As the man said, “To thine own self be true.”
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