Just hearing or reading the name Kim Kardashian is guaranteed to create a reaction in everyone. Some positive and some negative but everyone has a reaction.
Are you concerned about becoming the Kim Kardashian in your industry? Constantly promoting you, you and you. Self-promotion is not a bad thing. I know people that don’t do enough of it. There is even a book about how to do self-promotion the right way (Show your Work! by Austin Kleon). But can you over do it? I’ll bet if I ask you to name someone in your business that is near or has reached that point that you could give me a name. I know this is true because I have been asking you in private conversations over the last month or so.
It is easy to blast away on social, to literally be everywhere, on every topic, at every Twitter chat, webinar, Google Hangout, LinkedIn post and more. Establishing your presence and voice are important. It can become easily overdone though, and when that happens, you will start to see your efforts having the opposite effect. You can easily discover that you are on the road to becoming the Kim Kardashiam of your industry. That might be what you desire and if so, good luck. If you are looking for a long term, permanent seat at the table and to be welcomed by others it might be worth reconsidering your actions.
Social media is providing a platform for all of us to communicate with the world. It might be tempting to overdue it, especially at first because it is so easy to do. Many people jump into social media participation without any plan or objectives, they just start typing away.
I learned many years ago of the folly of trying to tell someone that they are doing social media wrong. Each person brings different background, experience and perspective to the table, and there is no one “right” way. What works for me might be a disaster for you.
To highlight my point, a recent post from Buffer provided six guidelines or rules for sharing content on social media. It is a valuable post and I encourage you to follow the link and read it. The post shares 6 of these and are from respected leaders, many of which I consider friends:
- 5-3-2 Rule
- 411 Rule
- 555+ Rule
- Rule of Thirds
- The Golden Ratio 30/60/10
- 20 to 1 Rule
In my own learning curve, I have tried most of these at one time or another. The point is that you should identify what you want to accomplish before you start any of the rules mentioned. Try one, or several and you will most likely end up with some variation that works best for you.
I would like to ask you to share your thoughts in the comments below on this specific question:
How much of what share should be your own original thoughts and content vs. how much should be others work, what I have heard referred to as other people’s content or OPC? I have been pondering this myself for over a month now. I have so many people that I learn from. Ideas that are of great help to me. If we are in the same industry, you are probably reading the same things yourself from the source (blog, ebook, video or book). Is it helpful and productive if both of us share the same thing, and 100 others in our business are doing the same thing. There is usually just not enough characters to add my thoughts to a tweet about someone’s work with any depth.
What do you think? I doubt that I am the only one that is struggling with these questions. Please share your thoughts and ideas below. There is no character limit in comments, so tell me what you are thinking.
