Personal brand social media plan

@Thoughtsieve12- “Adapt or become irrelevant”

RT: Shane Jewett

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#SocialMediaMarketing

Fall 2012

#Introduction

Some might think that telling a story just encompasses regurgitating

information they already know but it requires much more than that. It requires

emotion, maybe a smile or a hand gesture; it needs movement and inflection. Most

importantly, it needs PASSION. What is life without passion? Who wants to delve

into anything if doesn’t spark that interest everyone is looking for? My name is

Shane Jewett and this story is about a young man who is striving for the opportunity

to succeed.

Have you ever heard the quote, “Luck is when preparation meets

opportunity?”

I say, “Opportunity is when hard work meets ambition” –Shane Jewett.

@Epiphany 1

Growing up in a town where every one waves to one another, it was hard to

imagine what else was out in the world. “Growing-up,” for me, meant nothing more

than becoming one year older every year for the rest of my life. I never thought

about what made people successful or wealthy. I just thought becoming successful

was a lot of luck and “some” work. I guess you could say I had an epiphany of sorts

when I turned 16. I started learning German and it left an eternal scar in my brain. I

was constantly learning new words, teaching my self the grammar, watching movies

in German and making friends with the German foreign exchange students. I had

passion. I had interest. I had ambition! I had finally figured out how people become

successful.

@Epiphany 2

4 years later I carried this energy over to the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

At this time, I had two majors: Marketing and German. I was doing well in school but

I realized I needed to start looking for the elusive internships and employment.

Aside from the traditional help wanted ads and my own business connections, I had

no idea where to start my career search. At this time, I knew of Linkedin and other

social media sources to look for jobs but I had no idea how powerful of a tool these

sites were. That’s exactly what they are in the day and age, tools. People like you and

I have the option of utilizing these sources to our advantage. This is when I had my

second major epiphany. I now knew that I was behind and needed to catch up in the

world of business. I needed to change, I needed… to “adapt.”

One of the quotes I live by states, “Adapt or become irrelevant.” When ever I

think that there is nothing more I can do to solve a problem, I always ask myself,

“How can I change? What can I do differently to make this situation work?”

RT: Decision Time

As for my job search/employment problem, I decided to start using social

media to make contacts and keep up to date with trends in the marketing world

today. Sites like: Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook are very user friendly but it took

me a while to start using them effectively in business. One of the worst things you

can do with Linkedin is not have a professional picture and also, not have a

complete profile. A great profile with this website also has a

creatively written summary of yourself. DO NOT, write a summary like this:

“My name is Shane Jewett and I go to the University of Minnesota- Duluth. I am 23

years old. My majors are blah blah blah.”

You need to write a summary that is not only going to put a choke-hold on

the attention of potential employers, but also one that will wrestle their memory

and make them remember who you are. I spent some time working on mine and

made adjustments along the way:

Follow: Shane Jewett

"The ability to adapt, is the best ability one can acquire." I believe this quote

to my core and intend on always learning new things as my life goes on. This

attribute goes hand-in-hand with having passion for what you do and why you do it.

I can't stress enough how much I want to do well in my career and also, how excited

I am to succeed in my interests; whether these be work related or in my free time.

Just Getting Started

I am currently in my last year of college up here at UMD and I continue to

adapt every day. I am always tailoring the way I approach issues, how I present my

self and most importantly, how I engage others. By that, I mean: make contacts,

meet new people, adapt to your surroundings and never be afraid to try something

new. There is a whole pool of opportunity out there and I intend on doing a lot of

swimming in the future. With that being said, I would like to introduce you to the

Personal Brand Social Media Plan I have created, in order to continue my growth as

a professional and also just as a person in general.

Industry Overview: Content Marketing/Marketing

Personal views on the opportunity in the real world based on the opinions of

#ShaneJewett.

So many of us stress out and have a lot of angst surrounding this idea of landing that

first “career” job right after graduation. Guess what, we should be having these

feelings! You think any of the many successful people out there get to relax all the

time and just enjoy the most fancy gratuities that life offers? This anxiety and

constant reminder that the real world is approaching plays an important role in why

we get up at 6:00 A.M. to do some last minute review for that test we have in a few

hours. It is the reason why us “students” place so much emphasis on developing the

proper skills and knowledge we need in order to get a head start in our career life.

Stress can either take over your life; and become a festering infection which will

eventually inhibit you from the greatness your trying to achieve or it can be that

energy drink you buy at 12 A.M. to keep plugging away at work. The field I currently

have the most interest in is German Language and Marketing; be it online marketing

or traditional. Marketing is an interesting field. It not only incorporates creativity,

persistence, and knowing your “market” but it is also ever changing. Marketing can

be applied to so many instances. From a company standpoint, I believe everyone is a

marketer. When dealing with a customer, no matter what position you are in, you

are your company and represent the overall image of your brand. I could sit here

and regurgitate an array of statistics about the marketing field and what experts

think but when it comes down to it, we personally, are the ones responsible for

doing the research and making our own judgment. I believe that there will always

be a demand for people who can make a certain brand/service appealing to the

consumer and provide a proper strategy to maintain a certain company’s image…

(insert rest of sentence as you please). However though, there are a few aspects of

marketing that I do see as a basic template for success and are where my focus

resides for this industry.

1. Communication: In order to be in marketing, one must be able to

communicate a message clearly and concisely. A marketer needs to be

able to walk into a room of people, who have no idea what the product is

and make it blatantly apparent what the reasoning is behind it.

2. Content: “Creating content is easy. Consistency in great content for the

consumer is where it gets more difficult.” –Shane Jewett. Many

individuals think that by simply providing a lot of content, the consumer

will be impressed. What happens when this content is boring and no one

cares? Content Marketing is a relatively explosive term being used now a

days and in my opinion, is where marketing will live in the future. All this

means is that companies need to be prepared for providing quality:

images, messages, services and products to the consumer, in order to

obtain a lot of business. Just quantity is not enough. Best case scenario for

marketing is summed up in this simple equation: Successful Marketing=

(Quality Content)(Consistent Quality in Quantity).

3. Adaptability: “Adapt or become irrelevant.” –Shane Jewett. Humanity as

a whole has made leaps and bounds in the sector of technology.

Marketing has been adapting with it. It used to be acceptable to engage in

just PR, print, radio and television ads for marketing but NOT TODAY!

Whether or not you think this has changed, I do not care. The fact of the

matter is, marketing has started to encompass the Internet at an alarming

pace. All marketers should adapt accordingly and start looking at the

other alternatives out there, in order to get their message across. This

entails also using resources such as: SEO, Social Media, PPC, email and

mobile platforms. People are going to continue to socialize as time goes

on, only the platforms through which we do so are going to change.

Shouldn’t us marketers adjust accordingly?

Objectives for this plan:

Like I spoke about earlier, the whole reason we attend college is to obtain a specific

set of knowledge and skills in order to obtain a job. The objective I have for this

Social Media Marketing plan is to not only help me land that job but also

create/maintain business relationships. Hopefully also turn some of these

relationships into friendships.

That goal in the above paragraph is a little vague, so lets break it down into a few

more specific objectives.

1. Make contact/engage with thought leaders in the industry of marketing

and listen to what is being said about the atmosphere as a whole.

2. Build my own personal brand as a credible source for advice regarding

marketing and how to generate outstanding content.

3. By making a personal brand for my self, I hope to achieve an overall

image that will give me more clout in advancing my career. A lot of this

brand will be built online, and will give others a chance to see who I am;

without actually ever having spoken to me.

Now that I have stated my objectives, lets take out the magnifying class and delve

into why I decided these were the most important.

Contact/Engage with thought leaders: I have always been an opinionated person

but there is also much to learn from others. No one person can have all of the rights

answers and insights. By listening to and speaking with others who have differing

views on the world of marketing, I can better tailor my viewpoints and decide which

actions are best suited for certain situations.

Building a personal brand: By building a personal brand as a source of credible

information, I will start making many contacts which could potentially lead to

referrals and more business for whom ever I work for; whether this be my self or a

different company. This personal brand will also build a large network for my self;

of which, I can tap into.

Overall Image: This objective could also be construed as a sub-category for the last

objective but it is slightly different. By building a large pool of contacts and

knowledge, I will be able to have more influence in my field. An important aspect of

being found online will entail the use of “keywords” in order to increase SEO for my

self. This will allow me to advance my career faster and using social sites, also gives

me the opportunity to be discovered by potential employers.

Who am I targeting?

. “True learning only occurs when changes in behavior become relatively permanent

and are repeated over time.” –OBM textbook I once read. I couldn’t agree more with

this statement. There are many companies I would love to work for out in the

“professional world.” Many people who are the head of successful companies are

experts in their own right but not all of these experts have the unique ability to

teach. I realize that a majority of what I learn in school will not help me in my career.

I will have to learn as I go but it never hurts to have some one who can clearly guide

you in the right direction. A boss or company that I want to work for will have some

of the following personalities and traits:

Creativity: I want some one who can take something simple or

mundane and turn it into something people can’t stop gawking at. I

take pride in creating interest out of nothing and I want that in a

future employer.

Respectable: I know of many successful people who make a lot of

money and get things done but do they always treat people the way

they should? I am talking about the Golden Rule people! I want to

work with some one who I can have differing opinions with and

challenge me but at the end of the day, still respect/admire.

Open-Minded: I want some one who can have a set agenda of sorts but

also still be able to take time to listen to my ideas and take my insight

into account. I do not want to just be a drone that completes one thing

and moves on to the next.

Competitive: In order to stay on top of my game, I am always trying to

learn new things and size my self up against potential challenges;

whether these are people or situations. This is important to me

because if you’re not competing, you’re either a spectator or staying

cool on the bench. I am here to win and I am here to succeed. My boss

needs to be willing to do the same.

Curious: I have a great deal of respect for other cultures. This is why I

have spent so much time learning to speak German. Every time I visit

the country or speak German, I learn a new lesson or take something

from it. All of this comes from wanting to learn new things and see

what else is out there. My boss needs to have that inner child in

him/her and continue to search for new endeavors/excitements.

International: This is also tied to the last paragraph. I plan on moving

to Germany at some point in my life because I want to see what a

different culture/atmosphere would be like to live in. I also have

dreams of traveling and learning how others think. This makes for a

better-rounded mind and also gives people the opportunity to step

into some one else’s shoes.

I am sure as time goes on, I could continue to add more to this list but as for right

now, these will do. I feel all of these aspects foster a great birthplace for a

relationship to begin and continue to grow.

Ok guys… who specifically am I looking @?

In this section, I am going to identify and list which people I feel meet the

requirements I listed above. Not every person on this list will have all of the aspects

I listed but they all have enough to keep my eyes peeled. I already know some of

these people and others I plan on getting to know. These are alphabetized by

company name:

Marty Weintraub: #aimClear

Laura Litwinka: #aimClear

Dale Fuller: #Allianz

Andrew Rasch: #Cargill

Klaus Eck: #eckKommunikation

Tia Fisher: #eModeration

Kyle Lacy: #Exact Target

Jaime Strom: #Paradysz

Andrea Timmerman: #Paradysz

Christa Tiefenbacher-Hudson: #TripleInk

5 Pillars for success:

In class we had to decide early on which specific pillars we were going to use and

some were mandatory. My five pillars ended up entailing:

1. LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/shanejewett/)

2. Twitter (https://twitter.com/Thoughtsieve12)

3. Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/Thoughtsieve12)

4. Scoop.it! (http://scoop.it.com/Thoughtsieve12)

5. Personal Blog WordPress (http://shanejewett.mktg4795.com)

I feel all of these will allow me to properly achieve my objectives I stated earlier in

the paper. As a way to track my progress with these sites, I will use a 6-month time

span. I know this time span was used by former students but 6 months really is a

good time span. It allows enough time to go by in order to collect enough data about

my sites but it also isn’t too long, where I will forget to keep up with my progress.

LinkedIn: I once heard someone equate LinkedIn to Facebook but on steroids. It

really is a wonderful tool to make more “professional” contacts. In my opinion, this

is one of the most important pillars. It allows you to: make contacts(domestic or

international), search for jobs, join groups and allow other business opportunities to

find you! There are other aspects about this site that I love but I feel these are the

most important, as far as our Personal Brand is concerned.

Prior to taking this course, I had already achieved 100% profile completeness. If I

hadn’t, that would have been my number one goal for LinkedIn. My current page

looks like this-

Since I am tracking this site over a 6-month period, I need some aspects/goals to

track. These will be as follows:

1. Views of my profile

2. Group discussions joined and participated in.

3. Making at least 3 new contacts a week.

4. Posting at least 1 interesting article a day to my profile.

5. Endorsements

6. Expanding my work history and activities.

By tracking all of these variables, I hope to gain a broader knowledge of what I need

to do in order to expand my contact base and also what content I generate, will

create the most traffic to my profile. After all, isn’t that what you want people to do?

You want people to be driven to your profile, because you want to show off your

talents and experience.

Twitter: This pillar is my overall favorite. It not only allows you to connect with so

many people but it also gives you a real time look at what is going on with your

interests. I use my account for only a few things: connect with thought leaders in the

field of marketing, curate content regarding my interests, express my

views/opinions on these interests, occasional humor and finally, listen to what is

going on in the field of marketing. I feel like Twitter is one of the best ways to

express your thoughts to many people, in concise and quick manner. The ability to

search hashtags (#’s) has become a hobby of mine because it allows you to see who

is talking about an exact topic and what people are saying about it. When setting up

your profile, I think it is of the utmost importance that you have: a clear picture of

yourself, interesting bio and an emotion-inducing title picture. All of these will drive

more traffic to your profile. “You are what you Tweet” is a saying I have heard

before and it is very true. If you want to use it in a business sense, tweet about and

read articles about that field of business. This will give you a consistent community

of people in which you are listening to and engaging with whatever atmosphere you

are trying to cultivate. I recently joined Twitter but in the three months I have been

a member, my profile has grown rapidly and looks a little something like this:

I will also use a 6-month tracking time for this website as well. Again, I am not trying

to copy anyone else but this amount of time just makes sense to me. Aspects I will

track are as follows:

1. Retweets

2. Favorites

3. Posting minimum of 3 interesting articles a day.

4. Commenting on at least 3 other tweets a day.

5. Followers: Gain at least 5 new followers a week.

6. Following: Follow 10 new people a week.

7. Post at least 3 engaging pictures a week.

8. Make contact with 1 new thought leader a week.

9. Mentions

By using tools like TickrUS and Hootsuite, I will be able to see the progress of my

profile and how it grows. Both of these resources will allow me to view stats on all of

the following aspects I just spoke about. Being able to see all of these stats will give

me an overview of what tweets and content create the most positive results for my

profile. I will also get a chance to see when the best times to tweet are. I.E. 9:00 A.M.-

11:00 A.M. or 7:00 P.M.-10:00 P.M. I suspect that these two times will give me the

most influence and create the greatest chance for me to obtain followers. These are

the times when most people get a chance to look at their profile. Weekends will also

be an objective of mine because of all the free-time allotted for everyone. Even

before doing research, I could tell that these times were going to be my bread and

butter.

Pinterest: Pinterest is an interesting platform and one I love to use. It is one of the

fastest growing social media sites out there and it has recently started to leave its

mark on the business world. The real value in this site stems from the ability to pair

great written content with striking visuals. Most of the images I look at on Pinterest

are infographics regarding social media marketing or content marketing. By being

able to create what the company calls “boards,” you can curate a vast variety of

interesting/engaging content that pertains to where your interests lay. This site

literally gives you an image of what is going on in the area of your interests. I am

familiar with Pinterest but there are some things I need to do more research on. For

instance, I have not clicked the “follow” button 62 times, yet I am following 62

individuals. As of this moment, I only have two boards: Social Media Marketing and

Content Marketing. My profile is as follows:

I am going to be consistent and use 6 months again as my tracking time. I do not feel

that this site will allow me to collect as much data as Twitter or LinkedIn but there

are a few aspects I can think of:

1. People who RePin my content.

2. My RePins of other’s content.

3. Followers: Acquire 5 new followers a week.

4. Following: Follow 5 new people a week.

5. Create a new board once a month.

6. Comments on my boards.

By using Google Analytics or TickrUS, I could track these statistics on Pinterest but

from the research I have done, there are not many options for tracking information

on this particular platform. I will just have to gain more followers and follow more

people in order to broaden my community for this site. I do not believe that there is

a specific time in the day, in which my Pins will get most recognized but I do believe

that I need to keep my eye open for the best content and not just any old infographic

that I find. Pinning the best content is where my real goal is, in order to brand my

self as more of an expert in certain matters.

Scoop.It: I am a very new user of Scoop.It and have just in the last few days have

starting using this website. Scoop.It is one of my pillars because I feel it gives you a

great way of sifting through all the “bull-shit” content in what ever you want more

information on. Being able to see how many views a person has and followers on

his/her page is a great way to determine who are seen as thought leaders/experts. I

try to look for pages that have the most views, because I believe this is where you

can start finding those hidden gems of information. I am interested in looking for

Scoops regarding Content Marketing and International Marketing (specifically in

Germany). Having a huge cookie jar of this information will allow me to really

“fatten up” my knowledge in these two areas. The one Scoop.It page I have right now

is labeled: “Content Marketing that doesn’t suck”. I will start by scooping the best

articles and infographics for content marketing and hopefully people will start

viewing my page as THE place to look for content marketing advice. Like I said, I just

very recently set up this account but my Scoop.It looks as follows:

Since I do not know Scoop.It as well as the other websites, I am going to track only a

small amount of data over a 6-month period for this website. They will be

categorized under the following:

1. Views per week for my pages.

2. Following: Start following at least 5 thought leaders in the topic of

Content Marketing a week.

3. Followers: Obtain at least 20 new followers a month.

4. Create one new page related to marketing a month.

Again, using resources like TickrUS or Google Analytics, one could track the

following aspects I have mentioned but there is not a lot out there in order to obtain

statistical information on your Scoop.It. I first want to focus on gaining more

followers and views, before I try to start trying to do analysis on my page. By

focusing on these two things, I think it will give me a great starting point for this

fantastic site and I can later decided how I will look at my stats.

Personal Blog (WordPress): During the duration of the semester, we created our

own blog using WordPress. The main purpose I have for my blog will be to drive

traffic to it through the use of all my other social media sites. Here, I will write posts

that are much more opinion based. All of these posts will pertain to my personal

experiences in the field of marketing and what lessons I am learning along the way.

By doing this, I hope to build more rapport with my online community and continue

to brand my self as a person of interest. I have added links to some of my social sites

such as: LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest. Having only had this blog for a very short

amount of time, I haven’t been able to use it yet but after creating it, the design is as

follows:

By using a resource called MyBlogLog, I will be able to look at statistics regarding

my blog and what is going on with it. I will be using a 6-month time period. The few

aspects I want to focus on and track will be the following:

1. Views of my page.

2. Comments on my posts.

3. Mentions of my blog on other websites.

4. Followers of my blog. I want to gain at least 5 a month.

5. Following: I want to start to get more involved in reading other blogs so I

will set the goal to follow at least 5 new blogs a month and at least 3 of

these will be thought leaders in the field of marketing.

6. I want to post at least 2 comments a week on other’s blogs.

7. Keep my blog up-to-date with my life by posting pictures as well. This will

bring more of a visual aspect to my page.

What to look forward to:

By the end of this spring, I will be a very recent college graduate. I do already have a

job lined up but chances are, I won’t stay there my whole career. This is why this

whole plan is so important! By building relationships online and expanding my pool

of contacts, I am creating an advantage for my self as time goes. Every person really

is unique in his or her own way but on paper what sets you apart from others in the

job market? For most of us, nothing does but implementing a plan like this will give

you that “extra something” our professors have been ranting about for the past 4

years and in my case, 5 years. Hey, two majors in 5 years isn’t the easiest thing to

accomplish. All I am trying to say is, if someone offered you an opportunity to get

your: name, experience, thoughts, opinions and insight out there to thousands of

people, wouldn’t you take it? I feel this is exactly what building a personal brand

online does for you. It gets you out there and will allow others to see what you’re

about.