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 Jerry Albright on March 13, 2013 at 10:58am: What is the business value (as in - sending someone an invoice at some point) in all of this?

Comment by Mike Chuidian on March 13, 2013 at 12:39pm: Jerry, I think for all intents and purposes, the business value of building your brand, at least for me personally on twitter, is really the connections I make with people and learning from them and gaining insight from different recruiting/staffing/hr perspectives. My main purpose for using Twitter is not for personal branding, but to learn from other peoples experiences, taking those different experiences and try to refine my recruiting and sourcing skills. But honestly, my favorite part about Twitter is learning from people like you, who've been in this business for a while and has the wealth and knowledge of this industry.

Comment by Jerry Albright on March 13, 2013 at 2:15pm: If I wasn't semi-retired, I would rarely visit Twitter. There's only so much "perspective" I can take. :)

Comment by Kelly Blokdijk on March 13, 2013 at 9:17pm: Admittedly, I've used that dreadful "B" word a few too many times myself, but REALLY what exactly does it mean to "build your brand?"

Before it became such an obnoxious, overused and misused term, I always equated the concept of "brand" with reputation. Meaning what others think about you and what you represent and/or any images (positive or negative) that come to mind associated with you or your name is what makes up your reputation.

Nowadays, it seems to be implied that one can simply whip up a "personal brand" however and whenever they choose, to suit the desired impression they wish to leave upon the rest of the world.

In either case, I don't believe Twitter or any other website holds that much ability to influence how other people interpret what you are all about. Your observable actions, behaviors, performance, etc., do that. With or without Twitter or any other tool, that has always been the case. You raise your visibility or reach a wider audience, but that doesn't mean anything is being built that wouldn't have otherwise existed in a less prominent way.

Lemme demonstrate an example using Lemmy -- http://talenttalks.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/how-to-build-a-bad-brand/

Anyone agree or disagree with that point of view?

Kelly B @TalentTalks

Comment by Sandra McCartt on March 14, 2013 at 2:41am: Agree Kelly. To me people scrambling around trying to "build their brand" should spend their time on an online dating site to find out how real most of this crap really is. Sometimes it reminds of my years in broadcasting. Each time we hired a new "air personality" we had a creative session to decide what their "persona" would be. Then we created it, promoted it and the world knew them the way we decided they would be. If they were short, we put them on a box. If they were fat we put them behind a tall news desk. It is easy to create a persona. All we have going on with all this personal brand building is with social media everybody and their dog is an "on air personality" creating their persona and thinking they are a star based on the number of other personas doing all the following and fanning.

Sorry to rain on your parade Michael and if you are enjoying it by all means carryon and enjoy. However, consider this, 99% of these don't know you and you don't know them and with a few exceptions if most of them were nibbled to death by a herd of baby ducks you might have a fleeting thought of wondering why you hadn't seen any tweets for a week. In another week you would probably think, "huh, maybe they moved to Bolivia, or married a farmer in Idaho. In another week they would be forgotten. A personna can be built in an hour, promoted in a matter of weeks and forgotten just as quickly. A brand is an identifying name, Kelly is right on target, a reputation is built by doing or being something real over a period of time good or bad. A reputation makes a brand stand for something. It's a "good brand" or a "cheap brand".

There are no reputations being built on twitter or any other social media sites but there are millions of on the air personalities creating personnas of what they want to be.
Some people just play WOW so they can have a moving avatar and think they are learning team building. Rave on.

Comment by Jerry Albright on March 14, 2013 at 8:47am: I blame the very people encouraging the masses to actually think they have a "brand" - and then doing their best to make these folks then believe they need their advice on how to build it. It's a circle of false need.

From time to time an example comes around, such as this one, and I'm reminded of how vaporous some parts of this world have become.

Unless you plan to tour with the Hot Air Circus (currently gigging at SXSW I would imagine) then your brand will do practically nothing for you.

Having a "brand" within the recruiting community might make you feel good, but unless new clients are calling you (which is rare) or targeted candidates are calling you at the exact moment in time you actually need someone like that - the entire charade is pure entertainment.

Michael, I can tell you're a fun and motivated guy. I admire your spirit. Really - I do. But the sooner you relieve yourself of thinking your brand is anything beyond a fleeting blip on the internet stage - the sooner you'll be able to focus on real world pursuits. Namely - reputation.

Reputation comes from "having actually done" something. Not claiming you could, might, plan to, are pretending to be capable of, etc.

Comment by Mike Chuidian on March 14, 2013 at 9:27am: Sandra & Kelly, thanks so much for commenting. Umm, yeah, by no means was I trying to "whip up a brand" for myself with the intent of giving myself 6 months to do so, nor was I even remotely "scrambling" to build my brand. Building my brand was probably 3rd on my list of why I chose Twitter as my weapon of choice. I knew how it could impact my brand, but the biggest value in it for me (as mentioned above) was learning from others. 2nd it was networking aspect and I've developed some awesome personal and professional relationships that have helped me further my development as a recruiter. Not to mention, I had thought leader mention to me that I had "great brand that works" and that I should write about it. I kinda took that with a grain of salt and asked myself the question that Kelly would ask...what does that really mean?

Persona? I don't even know what that even means. So whatever I project myself to be on Twitter or any other SM platform for that matter, it's me or "The Real Mike Chuidian" Lol. Yup, I wear eyeglasses sometimes, yup I LOVE sneakers, yup I do surf (in the ocean, not just the web), yup I love hip hop and really am a DJ. These are just fun facts about me and pre-recruiting career too. Some people choose not to put themselves out there like that, but that's my personality, so sue me. I do know recruiting well and I've seen it all, good and bad.

Sandra, you didn't rain on my parade and if you did, then I have no business being in this profession that I love so much. I'll have to agree with you that 99% of people have not a clue about who I am. Shit, it might even be 99.9%. Haha. I'm no Justin Bieber, nor am I trying to be one.

Jerry, point taken and touche. And this>>> "I blame the very people encouraging the masses to actually think they have a "brand" - and then doing their best to make these folks then believe they need their advice on how to build it. It's a circle of false need." I've seen this before, Jerry. Although no one has ever told me how to build my brand. People have come to me for recruiting advice and I give it. It's up to them to take it or leave it.

Thank you everyone for commenting. I will admit this was somewhat of a reality check and there are some flaws to using Twitter to build your brand. BUT, this is what I love about this forum. It's informative and such a good learning experience. You all had very very valid points. Kelly, I really enjoyed your blog on How To Build a Bad Brand.

Anyways, let me get back to what I do best...Recruit and buy dope sneakers. ;-)

Comment by Jerry Albright on March 14, 2013 at 9:46am: Nice job on hanging in here Mike. You've passed the test. :)

We can be pretty tough some times - (at least I know I can be....) and you didn't lost your cool. Great job!

Comment by Mike Chuidian on March 14, 2013 at 9:51am: Jerry, YES! I've noticed you guys are a tough bunch. I guess I feel better that I'm not the only one being lambasted on their blog post! LOL. But thank you! That means a lot coming from a dude of your recruiting stature. :)

Comment by Amy Ala Miller on March 14, 2013 at 10:59am: First of all, any reference to Lemmy is all right by me. :) Secondly, I agree with the whole concept of "brand building is crap" - but I do want to say this in Mike's defense.

I would not have met Mike if not for Twitter. He's become a good buddy. We've talked on the phone and will hang out in Seattle in October when he comes to town for Sourcecon. I like his blog and am working on a 2nd guest post for him. I think Mike and I have the same "brand building" concept - and twitter happens to be a top forum for him. What makes Mike's "brand" so awesome is that he's just being (as he said) the Real Michael Chuidian. The guy who's as passionate about recruiting as he is about sneakers. I think that's cool. He's not one of these gurus plastering the internet with stock photography of guys in suits and "5 steps to be awesome like me" crap posts. He's a REAL recruiter and uses his various platforms (Twitter being a fave of his) to peel back the curtain and let us get to know him. That's branding I can get behind.