Social media networks give you a platform from where you can have your 15 minutes of fame. However, if you use it wisely, you can elevate yourself up to the highest echelons of your profession. “How is this accomplished?” you ask. This is accomplished by sharing the knowledge and experience you have acquired over time. We know that you have the ability to sit down with a colleague and give them advice, it may be only one line but in order to know that one line, it required a college education and years of experience. This is the kind of information that’s worth sharing online. In this situation that one line is
- To raise your professional profile you must write blogs that show examples of your knowledge and experience within your industry, write tweets that share your knowledge on Twitter and share the knowledge and experience you have acquired with your peers on LinkedIn.
In order to make this blog clearer, I am going to use a logistics manager as an example, I will call him Andrew.
Andrew will have to write blogs that show his experience within his industry. These blogs need to be of good quality, the type of information that is relevant and worth sharing. These blogs can then be shared using a blogging site, WordPress is a good example.
- WordPress: Setting up your own WordPress account (this one is free to set up) will give you a publishing outlet for your blogs on logistics; this will be written evidence of your experience which you will be able to share on LinkedIn and Twitter.
- Twitter; Twitter is a social media platform with an excess of 250 million members where Andrew can follow his colleagues, industry experts, breaking industry news, and establishing himself as an authority in his industry.
The most important aspect of your Twitter profile is to have a good avatar (photo), and your profile bio should be completed from the reader’s point of view. In this case, the profile bio could read 15 years of logistical experience, supply chain specialist, and supply chain lecturer.
This allows anyone who intends to follow you? A clear message of who you are and what you do.
Having completed your Twitter profile, the next step is to write at least 10 to 20 tweets to start with that are relevant to the logistic industry. These will be seen by potential followers when they click into your profile. An example is:
“What’s the difference between transporting a pallet of computers and a pallet of clothes? If they both fall, one is scrap, the other returns”
The next step is to identify who to follow? These are normally the industry leaders. They can be identified by using the Twitter search engine. Put words into the Twitter search engine that a specific to your industry such as Logistics or logistical management, the results will show you the tweets containing these words, when the results show in the stream, look at the left hand side of the column and click on the people tab; this will show you the people who are associated with the tweets. By reading their bios, you will be able to determine if you wish to follow them or not.
Result example: Supply Chain Digest @scdigest is just one of the tweeters that showed up in the results; this is a magazine that tweet information about supply chains; by following them, their tweets will show up in your twitter stream, this will give you the opportunity to retweet this valuable information to your followers which will gain positive sentiment by association.
Always remember that your personal and business brand will be associated with everything that you tweet on Twitter. We learn by association.
Please click on the link to read a previous blog about Twitter for more in-depth information. “Your Twitter Account in Detail”
Twitter is an excellent way of networking with like-minded individuals, but given that messages can only contain 140 characters, it isn’t the ideal platform for detailed messages.
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking social media platform with more than 175 million members worldwide. LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to manage your professional identity, build, and engage with your fellow professionals.
Creating a LinkedIn profile is the first step. This is relatively easy as the LinkedIn software will bring you through all the steps. All Andrew needs is an up to date C.V. A clear message of what he does and how he does it.
In this case Andrew has been a logistics manager in the industry for 15 years and is looking to further his career by presenting the experience he has gained with his peers and maybe with college students who are considering a career in logistics.
After setting up the profile and inviting his current contacts from his industry to join his LinkedIn network, Andrew should join in the discussions that are already taking place within the groups that are specific to his industry; groups such as The Logistics & Supply Chain Networking Group This group has a membership of 102,368. By entering the discussions, the logistics manager has the opportunity to show his experience and, by doing so, will bring his profile to the attention of the group members. The logistics manager could also start discussions that are relevant to his specific areas of interest, getting feedback from other members in the process.
Another logistics group is Logistiek. This is a closed group containing 16,287 members. The logistics manager would have to apply to join the group, but based on the experience of the logistics manager, this will be a formality. Once the logistics manager has joined, he will engage with the other members through discussions and answering questions.
- Starting discussions on LinkedIn by using your own blog as a reference point is a great way of raising your profile level within the group.
- Groups are only one segment of the LinkedIn network, but it is where the most like-minded people share information. For more information about LinkedIn, please click on the following link “The Benefits of Using LinkedIn”
Social media is a great way of raising your profile within your industry. It doesn’t matter what industry you operate in? There are like-minded individuals waiting to hear from you. When you begin to shine online, it will be time to create a Facebook fan page.
Communication is the key to growth, both personal and business; sharing knowledge is a great way to communicate.
I hope you enjoyed my blog. Please share it with your friends.
