How Twitter Built My Brand

Oh, c’mon! Go ahead! Take a crack at it! It’s really not that intimidating. A couple tweets here, a couple tweets there; a

few RT’s sprinkled in, several hundred #’s here, and……BAM!!! You’re a Tweetin’ machine! The first time I set up my first Twitter account, @MikeChuidian, I really didn’t know what to expect, nor did I completely understand it. I mean who understands this….?!?!

Huh?!?! Yup, those not familiar with Twitter and its landscape can and will be utterly perplexed. I know I was. But I did what any other forward thinking individual would do…. I Googled it! Novel idea, I know. I Googled what hashtags were, the meaning of RT’s and @’s, and those funky random characters that don’t make bit of sense!

I started following some famous peeps I had interest in and then started following people in my industry. At first, I just started to observe my twitter timeline and tweeted a little bit, engaging here and there, but nothing to generate a steady following. But getting that first follower is pretty awesome. I mean, who wants to follow a regular Joe like myself, right?! For a year I had my account and I had a little under 120 followers and was following about 100, most of them people I knew personally.

By this time, I knew how powerful Twitter could be and how it could help build my personal brand. I decided to step my Twitter game up, but how was I going to do that? I only had 120 or so followers. Being that I love all aspects of Recruiting/Staffing/HR and Social Media, I decided to start following the relevant industry influencers, thought leaders and fellow recruiters alike.

So my Twitter score at that time… Followers- 122….Following- 500+. As I started getting a hang of how Twitter worked, I decided to put the pedal to the metal and began engaging with those influencers, thought leaders and recruiters more than ever. The result was a steady rise in my followers accompanied by me following more relevant tweeps along the way.

I frequented the chats on Twitter, as I do to this day. Particularly #Jobhuntchat, which I co-moderate on a monthly basis and the likes of #peoplechat, #Tchat, #nextchat, #Internpro, etc. Not only was this the vehicle within Twitter that helped build my brand, but I was becoming someone of influence. A small one, but an influence nonetheless. I saw my following increase and quickly. WHOA, wait a minute….ME? I guess so! I have a passion and love for what I do and I love sharing that with people.

The chats on Twitter allowed me to have a voice to share my vision and outlook on my industry. More importantly it has allowed me to help people out and give them valuable advice. I was floored the first time OOMF (One Of My Followers) whom I had little interaction with, reach out to me via Twitter and asked if I could give them advice on recruiting! My response…ABSO-freakin-lutely!! After this, I knew Twitter was going to do wonders not only for my personal brand, but my credibility in the industry as well! After 6 months of goin’ all in on Twitter, here are my current stats to date and growing daily…..Not Rockstar status, but it’s building….

I’ve got a pretty rad brand going right now and it’s because of Twitter. More importantly I’ve got a rad brand because of the awesome friendships and professional relationships I’ve developed over a 6 month period. I’m no overnight sensation by any means and am proud to have grown my following organically. But let’s get one thing straight before you whisk into the Twittersphere…..Building your brand on Twitter is a lot of work. It takes a lot of motivation, purpose and thought to build your brand there. Use Twitter wisely and be conscious of the content you’re tweeting.

Here are the Top 5 Elements that built my brand on Twitter:

Awesome Profile- NO robotic profiles and no one follows Eggs! You love food?? I wanna know!
Follow to be followed- Put your pride aside and follow, follow, follow….
Content is King- Please refrain from tweeting articles about Justin Bieber. Stay Relevant!
If content is King, then Engaging & Interacting is Queen- Get on those Twitter chats and tweet a Thank you to those who engaged with you via RT’s (Retweets) and MT’s (Mentions)
Get the Balance Right- Personal Tweet, Retweet, Share an article, Reply’s, etc. You can’t build a brand on Twitter by being a “Job Post” tweeter *YAWN*. Strategize!!

U CAN DO EET!!

RT @MikeChuidian: Be rad & Tweet ur way 2 an awesome persnl brnd! #Branding #SoMe #Engage via @theradrecruiter at http://goo.gl/xGFZo

Comment by Mike Chuidian on March 14, 2013 at 11:30am: *Speechless* But thank you, Amy. YTB! BTW I've decided to take my recruiting talents to the graveyard shift specifically at 2am to source candidates. :-)

Comment by Ryan Leary on March 14, 2013 at 12:17pm: I think your all full of it. Hows that? :-)

Comment by Sandra McCartt on March 14, 2013 at 12:18pm: Let me try this one about personnas. At this point Mike, you have created a personna of a young , passionate, excited recruiter. You and Amy have become buds, have taken it a step further to speaking on the phone and plan to meet when you are in the city. Let's suppose you two do meet, she still thinks you are the real deal, likes your bullshit or as we used to call it in the "olden days", your "road game". She lists a job with you. You bust it but you send her some crap candidates or some who pass muster but turn out to be duds. She sends some on and gets blasted because she took your word for how they would present.

Your brand or as I put it your personna is now in the crapper because no matter how much she likes you , you didn't deliver. Until we deliver, deliver consistently over a period of time none of us are anything but a personna who says they are a recruiter. A reputation is built by successful efforts in any industry not by a winning personality or words on a twitter stream.

My favorite saying about recruiters is that we are like Luby's cafeteria, as good or as bad as the last meal somebody had there. As we put it in horse circles, Secretariat's full sister couldn't beat a fat man downhill but she was a pretty thing with a great name. That name was her brand but she couldn't deliver.

Don't get me started on "thought leaders".

Understand that I am not saying you can't or won't deliver and you aren't a grat recruiter. If Amy lists a job with you and you deliver like a champ, then my friend you have a real rep. That lends credence to what your "brand" stands for. Until then you are a fun guy, with a great personna.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on March 14, 2013 at 12:21pm: Ryan, did you ever know a recruiter who wasn't full of it?

Comment by Amy Ala Miller on March 14, 2013 at 12:24pm: LOL so true. Hey someone tell Ryan "cranky guy yelling at kids to get off his lawn" is taken. :)

Sandra has a great point, in that a "brand" amongst recruiters doesn't mean crap if you can't deliver for clients. I'll take it a step further - let's say as a fellow recruiter I recommend Mike to a company looking to hire a recruiter in his area - based on his "brand" I would do so. He gets the job and blows it? Well his brand is now crap in my eyes and I'll probably never forgive him. (not that he would EVER let that happen). So in that way, a brand could be an opening to developing a positive reputation, which is based on results. Geez we could skin this cat a million ways couldn't we??

Seriously Mike that 2 am sourcing stuff is for the birds... :P

Comment by Mike Chuidian on March 14, 2013 at 1:02pm: I just hope I take the #1 Trending topics spot on RBC from Amanda whatever her name is....for "Branding" purposes *Rubs hands together*. I have jokes....Muhahahahaha

Comment by Sandra McCartt on March 14, 2013 at 1:02pm: In the dark, all cats are gray. Think about how that relates to all this. :)

Comment by Daren J. Mongello on March 14, 2013 at 1:17pm: Michael: I'm kinda a metric driven person. I've built one Twitter account to 2500 users. Great, right? Well...not really. Cause I don't see the causal effect of increased revenues. No one from the twitterverse is knocking on the door with a search. All my searches have initiated via the phone or email. So I'm wondering if you track your revenue sources and what percent represent "jobs FILLED from Twitter" or "candidates PLACED from Twitter" and if you can share those percentages...that would give me a better idea of the true value.

Here's my other thought: it's much more effective to outsource social media postings to someone for $10 an hour than for me to take my time to do it. (Which, of course, is STILL on my to-do list)

Thank you for the article.

Comment by Jerry Albright on March 14, 2013 at 1:22pm: But Sandra - Mike and Amy are not meeting for business. It's yet a further continuation of the hot air circus - when some training course/seminar/conference/unconference/tweetup stops in the Great Northwest.

So while a friendship has been made (and I'm all about making friends!) - it has nothing to do with business.

It use to be a "brand" was something that encouraged you to go buy a product. Brand loyalty meant you'd buy 2 in a row. Brand now means - uh, well......nothing?

Comment by Mike Chuidian on March 14, 2013 at 1:29pm: Jerry, you're absolutely right....I don't have a good argument for this one, because your logic is sound.

Daren, thanks for the comment. I don't really purposely use Twitter to generate increased revenues. But going back to Jerry's point, that a brand encourages you to buy, I want people to buy that I can be someone who's approachable enough to ask for help whether that be recruiting or learning how to use social media and for FREE. I'm all about helping people.

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