Lon Safko, host of a PBS special on communication & social media, shares how to create your digital footprint & personal brand. Lon started 14 successful companies. He shares what you need to know to build your brand.
“The companies that are really going to be successful at marketing as we go from 2015 to 2025, are the ones that know that all the social media tools (all the hundreds of them) are just tools (just like all the hundreds of traditional tools) & when you put them together and fully integrate them and consider them as one toolset, those are the companies that are going to be successful.” –Lon Safko
Lon Safko is a bestselling author, speaker, trainer, consultant, and is the creator oft he “First Computer To Save A Human Life” as coined by Steve Jobs, Apple, Inc. That computer, along with 18 other inventions and more than 30,000 of Lon‘s papers, are in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. This alone is a testimony to Lon’s creativity. Lon is the host of the world’s first PBS Television Special “Social Media&You… Communicating In A Digital World”.
Think Like A Journalist Quote
Social media is changing the way we communicate and the way we are perceived, both positively and negatively. Every time you post a photo, or update your status, you are contributing to your own digital footprint and personal brand. –Amy Jo Martin of Digital Royalty
Success Quote & Tip
Democratization of technology reduces the barrier to entry.
Never give up. If you don’t quit, you can’t lose.
Career Highlight
Inventing a computer that literally helps save people’s lives.
Writing a bestselling book on Amazon, The Social Media Bible
When It Didn’t Work
Hear what happened when Lon had to use Venture Capital money. Find out what he learned and what he would do differently.
Top Tips
- Don’t give up when you fail. Learn from your mistakes.
- Give careful consideration before you choose to use venture capital.
- Make sure you’re protected if you do decide to use VC / Angel Investor money.
- VCs may want control of your company.
- Having a lot of followers is not necessarily a strategy.
- Understand that digital tools and platforms are not the strategy. You must engage your followers.
- Build followers, pay attention to new social tools that are coming out.
- Test campaigns on your social platforms. See which ones are most responsive.
- Use the social platforms to leverage and increase exposure on other networks.
- Aim to get your audience to participate in your conversation.
- Remember the WIFM: What’s in it for me.
- Lon’s favorite platform: LinkedIn.
Multimedia Resource
Book
Contact
The Social Media Bible by Lon Safko
The Fusion Marketing Bible by Lon Safko
https://youtu.be/lhFDw50NMfg
