About six months ago, I was assigned the task of designing and implementing a social media strategy for my employer. Around the same time, I began to earnestly explore ways that social media outlets could be used to build my personal brand and–even more importantly–connect with other young professionals who loved their work enough to talk and blog about it off the clock.

flickr typewriter typo?! by bitzi on Flickr

1) Streamline your marketing efforts as best you can. If you have a website, for example, set it up so that your posts go straight through to your Facebook business page, your Twitter account and your LinkedIn account.

*Now, I must confess this post was inspired by my all-time favorite cartoon show: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.*

photo from The Small Object

Organizational Clock – $50

A lot of people that I meet tell me that they simply “don’t have time” to be successful in personal branding or social media. In fact, they don’t even have time to read this post so I’m going to make this fast.

This past week, I experienced internally a Great Schism, one not unlike that of Rome and Constantinople, East and West Berlin and Charlie Sheen and his ex-wife(s). My mind, it seems, has split into two distinct personalities: The Marketer and The Consumer. What has caused this rift, you ask? Well, these two sides have held an uneasy truce ever since I began working in this industry, but the culprit is easy to identify: Facebook.

Who is women’s best friend?

No, not diamond. At least, in social media, food/beverage brands seem to be women’s best friends.

You might be surprised on what shows up if you have yet to Google search your name. If you have a unique name, like Tanner Maluchnik, you can basically find anything about my online identity. My Google search results usually is dominated by the highly ranked social media sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn.

51 Steps to Launching a Hot Blog

Introducing Get In the Hot Spot Version 2.0

Cue drum rolls, fanfare and dancing horses for the new logo, branding and web design at Get In the Hot Spot. I’m excited to share it with you. If you’re reading this in an email or feed reader please visit the site to check it out. You’ll be in for a big surprise.

One of social media’s most talked about benefits is the ability for individuals across the globe to organize and accomplish tremendous things, particularly at the grassroots level.

So it’s been about two weeks since I ditched Facebook. And surprise, my life hasn’t gone into the gutter, people are still able to get a hold of me, and things are pretty much the same as they were, albeit with a bit less noise.

Twitter is an excellent way to promote content you find useful or interesting, along with promoting the site you found the content on. While I frequently see people use the Twitter handle of the website of the content their promoting, I rarely see any mention of the particular writer.

This article was originally published several months ago as my contribution to the Do Amazing Things ebook. The free ebook features articles from 12 of HR’s leading thinkers, you’ll find ideas on collaboration and innovation, recruiting, networking, performance management and more! Click here to learn more.

The title of this post caught my eye: Is C-suite rejection of social media reason for you to quit?

I actually did quit my job pretty much for this exact reason. If you know me or follow this blog you'll recall I left my job last fall, due in large part to the frustration of being one of the only social media Kool-aid drinkers on staff. You'll also recall that after 3 weeks I realized I'd made a mistake and asked for my job back.

One of the most popular themes of blogging is how to make a living while blogging. Apparently some people make money by blogging about how to make money by blogging. And here I am blogging about people making money by blogging about making money by blogging.

So, it is happening again! The world of open-source is taking on the established mighty giants. This time its Facebook that is the subject of an open-source attack. This time it is coming from four University students from NYC.

Yesterday we had our first in a series called  Webinar Wednesday and the topic was: How to Choose Your Soap Box: Picking the Right Social Media Platforms. We had a great time going over some of the many platforms available to generate discussion and impact for a nonprofit.

I’ve been quiet lately due to some exciting changes. Watch for more soon!

I’m heading to SOBCon today to connect with some amazing people.

Take care,

Tim