Who the Eff is Reem Abeidoh?
February 26, 2009 1:42 pm Social Media
There are many identifiable brands online. If you mention the names of Chris Brogan, Liz Strauss, Pete Cashmore or Darren Rowse, many users immediately nod in recognition. These online super stars have secured solid positions in the space and have earned the respect of old and new users. To reach that level of popularity, there is a lot of effort that needs to be invested.
Although it is unlikely that I will blog as frequently as any of the aforementioned gurus, my goal is to build a solid brand online. I’ve consulted others on how to build personal brands, but my journey feels different because it’s personal. It’s me.
Having started my journey in late 2007, below is a documentation of all of my efforts up to this point:
Phase 1: Immersed myself in the online culture
When I started learning about social media, fellow users recommended that I spend time in the space. Since I am passionate about becoming a member of this community, I jumped in full force. I immersed myself in the culture, interacted with the veterans, and participated in the conversation. I joined all the recommended sites like, Digg, Mixx, Reddit, Stumble Upon, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, etc. I contributed to each site as much as I could for approximately a year. The result of my efforts - I learned the online culture, built solid relationships with fellow users and was fluent in the lingo. However, there were still a significant portion of the community who still asked, “Reem who?”
Phase 2: Revised my goal
Spending adequate amounts of time on all those sites is quite the challenge. If you have a full time job (that isn’t in social media,) it can be hard to build up a solid profile on all the sites. Although mass participation might gain you followers, it won’t help you build a solid and identifiable brand.
I decided that my personal focus will be to build a solid brand online. In order to accomplish that, I set the following goals:
1- Continue to learn about the evolving online space
2- Position myself as a knowledgeable social media strategist
3- Speak at more social media-related conferences
4- Write more guest posts and participate on guest posts
Phase 3: Selected the sites that helped to leverage my goals
In an effort to accomplish my 2009 goals, I limited my activity to a specific type of social media sites. I decided that I would actively participate on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and podcasts. Below are the reasons why I selected these sites:
Twitter: Engaging with fellow users on Twitter is an excellent way to build a brand. It allows me to share insight, and have interesting conversations. I’ve used Twitter many times to come up with blog post ideas. Users are always willing to help and support me.
Facebook: This is an excellent site that allows online friends learn all about me. With all the incredible applications available for installation, facebook serves as a hub of all my social media activity. My friends can enjoy (or mock!) my weekend pictures, watch my funny videos, read my posts and respond to my tweets.
Blog: My blog is the brains of my operation. It shares my thoughts, opinions and ideas on specific matters. It is also a good idea to guest post for other blogs within my niche! I have been fortunate to guest post for Problogger and Searchfuel. I look forward to finding the time to do it more in ‘09.
Podcast: It is another excellent way to showcase my knowledge and personality. Podcasts have a unique benefit - it allows people to tune in on and offline!
Continual: Measure, Measure, Measure
In order to gauge how successful your efforts are, it is important to keep an eye on your numbers. I set the following metrics for myself:
Blog: Levels of reader engagement, traffic and referring sites
Twitter: Number of followers, responses and retweets
Facebook: Interaction with my status updates and notes, and new friend requests
What have your efforts been like? Do you have any advice for me to follow in my journey to establishing an online brand?
* Image includes: Reem Abeidoh and Jeremy Wright
February 26th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
People have many different goals in social media - some business-oriented and some more personal. Yours is the very personal one of building a brand out of yourself. From what I can see, you’re doing a great job. As you know, it’s a LOT of work, but you’re doing awesome. Keep it up - you’re setting a great example for the rest of us!
February 26th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Anxious to see how things progress, you’ve got a great foundation for a national brand as it is. Especially in my industry branding is more important that ever.
February 26th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
My advice is to keep doing what you’re doing now and eventually all your time and effort will pay off.
February 26th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Two things I would recommend for brand building, FriendFeed and more frequent posts. FriendFeed has a fantastic community and interesting posts get a decent amount of discussion. Blogging more frequently would help just to get the name out there. I have always tried for 2-3 posts per week and that seems reasonable for long-form posts. I cannot do every day, but 2 per week can go a long way.
Good luck, with your plan for 2009!
February 26th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Thank you all for your support!
@rob I really appreciate your advice. I will spend more time on Friendfeed and I do plan on blogging more. I simply need to find the time to do it! Do you think shorter posts are just as effective as long and thorough ones?
February 26th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Speaking as someone who routinely doesn’t read anything online, but merely looks at pictures, I have to applaud the Reem Machine for her friendly photo at the top of this blog post. Sure, it wasn’t the best lit photo in the world. And sure, fine, maybe I would liked to see a picture of her and her fiance to get a more well-rounded portrait of her life… but hey, I’ll take any social impression I can get.
February 26th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Reem,
I have found length of post only matters based on what you write. I have had 1200 word posts that had good discussions because it was an in depth post. Other times I had 400 word posts also get good conversation. Generally, I am long-winded so longer is easier for me. The key is not to force yourself, and just write what you think the topic needs.
February 27th, 2009 at 1:44 am
Well Reem, I know who you are and I think you’re awesome.
February 27th, 2009 at 7:22 am
If you mention the name Reem, people just smile and think brilliant and beautiful.
March 3rd, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Good job at hitting a PR5 with your blog. That is a pretty good measure of your authority in social media. Nice to have you as a friend on Facebook too!