There’s a lot of competition out there. Everyday, thousands of new profiles pop up that say “Social media enthusiast.” They share very similar links and conversation topics while hoping for lots of attention. The equation just doesn’t balance out.
Personality and participation alone usually aren’t enough to draw accolades. The best way to get recognized is work hard to develop skills worth talking about and then use your skills to contribute directly back to the community. Here are 11 of most common ways people have made a “big name” for themselves:
1. Become a popular blogger
If you have a flair for writing and a never-ending flow of new ideas + insights, you might be able to blog your way to the top. But writing original, thought-provoking articles on a consistent basis is only half of the blogger’s game – the other part is constantly promoting and marketing your blog. This means doing guest posts, leaving comments, doing keyword research, outreach, partnering, pitching & pimping your blog as hard as you can (without getting people mad at you).
Skills needed: Clear writing, grammar, punctuation, image editing skills, HTML/CSS, social networking savvy.
2. Become a power user
Power users are people with a huge social media presence – the “big guys” with big numbers to back them up. Most spend several hours (or more) uber-power-networking each day. But once you get some momentum and people start to see your name all the time, your connections exponentially increase and it gets easier. Power users like @Zaibatsu, @Msaleem and @BryantSmith have climbed to the top of one site first… and then used their connections and relationships to conquer others. People see their name everywhere.
Skills needed: Stamina, speed, intuition for online trends and memes, great relationship-building skills & online etiquette.
3. Learn video production
If you truly have “rockstar” charisma, wit and personality – you might be able to get away with yammering in front of your laptop camera. Otherwise save yourself the time and embarrassment, and focus on improving your creative and technical skills. Follow the lead of guys like @unmarketing and @dugdale… keep churning out top interviews, comedy videos or tutorials on and eventually you will strike a chord and get recognized.
Skills needed: Visual intelligence, creativity, precision, compression & file format knowledge, $$$ to buy equipment and software.
4. Learn illustration
A picture is worth a thousand words. A clever illustration is worth 2,000 diggs. You don’t have to do “fine art” or photo-realistic quality drawing to get your point across or crack people up. @GapingVoid is well-known for sketching cartoons on the back of business cards, and @Oatmeal has spiced up his smash-hit viral quizzes with cartoon vectors. You can also create info-graphics… or buttons and icons that people need (like RSS or social media icons) – and give them away for free in exchange for lots of links, tweets and bookmarks back to your site. Get a graphics tablet, take an online illustration course… and make your mark.
Skills needed: Artistic flair, geometry, software learning and file-format skills.
5. Create quality tutorials or documentation
High-quality tutorials stand on their own and attract buzz with very little “push” marketing or promotion. @DaveTaylor has gotten a lot of web traffic by offering free technical support tutorials aimed at beginners. Video game blogs compete to see who can release the first “Walkthrough” guide for a new hit game. If you can sense where people are struggling and provide clear answers and help – you’ll be the light at the end of their dark tunnel. People will take notice. And they’ll remember you and thank you.
Skills required: Technical writing, video or image editing, illustration.
6. Do scientific or statistical research
Big companies and agencies often need solid, scientific evidence or statistics to make decisions. @DanZarrella does scientific analysis of Twitter trends and publishing the results into easy-to-understand graphs. @JOwyang of Forrester Research analyzes data, does surveys and predicts trends for Fortune 500 companies. Their solid research efforts plus smooth personalities have brought them large followings, awards and international speaking gigs.
Skills required: Analytical mindset, knowledge of scientific method / social research, graphing and presentation skills.
7. Start a new social site
Starting a successful new social site is quite a coup, but if you can pull it off… you’ll be rolling with ballers like @kevinrose (co-founder of Digg) or @ev (co-founder of Twitter). If you don’t have have the funds to build a site from scratch, platforms like Ning, Reddit will let you create custom, hosted communities frameworks from scratch. They’ll handle the plumbing, and then it’s your job to fill the pipes with people and conversations.
Skills needed: Visionary intuition, team building, project management, usability, investment fund raising, branding and PR.
8. Start a conference or event
If you can build up a successful social media conference or event, you’ll be in a position of power where many of the top players in the industry will be asking you for speaking slots and other favors. Guys like @BrianSolis (Social Media Club), @BTabke (PubCon), @ChrisBrogan (Podcamp) or @AndrewHyde (Startup Weekend) started their own conferences and leveraged them to build considerable connections and influence.
Skills needed: Connections with top speakers, event planning, marketing and strong in-person social skills.
9. Learn how to design & theme blogs
Blog designers are like haute coture tailors. Guys like @pearsonified and @mezzoblue are the elite fashion designers of the online world who create the visual environments and set the trends we follow. They’re a rare breed of human with both brain hemispheres in balance – producing stylish art and perfect, valid code to match it — and their services are in top demand. Want to see your work everywhere? Get a double major in art & computer science and go for it!
Skills needed: PHP, CSS, XHTML + design & illustration.
10. Learn how to develop web applications
Code a new Wordpress gadget or web tool that fixes a problem and you’ll be everyone’s hero. (Until that tool breaks due to some external circumstance or you fail to provide round-the-clock instant free customer support during weekends and holidays – then people will hate you and say you’re a jerk.) Developer rocks stars like @FirstDigg (SocialBlade) or @Yoast (SEO tools and Wordpress plugins) — who create useful tools and keep cool while fixing them — get massive community respect.
Skills needed: PHP, MySQL, Ruby, Air, XHTML / CSS, technical support and documentation.
11. Get hired by a famous company
If you get hired by an influential company as an evangelist, social media guy or product manager… you can ride the coat-tails of the company’s brand power and get instant credibility. Plus you can go to conferences and land speaking slots on the company nickel. Some folks, like @GuyKawasaki (ex-Apple), @VanessaFox (ex-Google) or @Scobleizer (ex-Microsoft) – did some time under the limelight at a big company for a few years – built their name up – and then broke free while keeping their celebrity status.
Skills needed: Team player, cooperative, reliable, organized, superior attention to detail. Proficiency in Microsoft Word and Excel. Ability to lift 30 to 50 lbs. and travel up to 20% of time.
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How are you going to make your mark in Social Media? What’s your dream set of skills?
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