I love Twitter for a lot of reasons. One is that I get great links to articles and stories and all sorts of interesting things to read and think about. That's exactly what happened to me today, when I was checking out some of my new followers.
I was directed to this article about using social media for personal branding. This is a classic topic, but this article, though short, had some nice tidbits.
Do some pre-social media soul-searching before starting 
Most articles about using social media for personal branding jump right into the listening, participating, and publishing aspects. Few actually make the point to step back, figure out who you are and what value you provide, before jumping into the rest.
Some time ago I tried to figure out what I was going to do with this blog. So far, it's been a crazy mix of posts on anything from rants about facebook to funny YouTube videos to updates on what I happen to be cooking in the kitchen that week. Yep, not focused at all. Part of the reason is I haven't figured out who I'm writing for. Is it my friends and family who want to know what I've been up to? Or is it my marketing community where I live and interact all day every day on a professional level. This is where I really start to understand the whole business vs. personal social media dilemma.
So it's time for me to take a step back. Figure out who I'm writing for, and why. This is a hugely important step when you're going to use social media for personal branding.
