Redefining Yourself Means That You're Growing...into what?

Linda began a new project this past week in efforts to brand herself and her career as a writer. In this article, she journals her process in developing this persona across several social media venues. Learn more about your progress in self-branding as Linda shares her problems and how she resolved them

Twitter and Blog

After I staked a claim with my name on a few social media sites, I set about creating a new Twitter account and reshaping a blog to reflect my career as a writer. Twitter does not mind if you have several accounts, but you need a new email address for each account you open. If you tie that Twitter account into a blog and its email capabilities, you should not experience many difficulties in keeping those Twitter responses and direct messages straight if you have several Twitter accounts.

If you have a long name or a difficult name to remember or spell, you might think about using just your first or last name or creating a user name that is easy to remember. Just be consistent across the board in using that name over and over. You're branding a herd of cattle here, and you want to be sure that all the cattle in that herd are recognizable as yours.

My Linda Goin Twitter account: http://twitter.com/

My Linda Goin blog:  http://lindagoin.com/

If you follow those links, you'll realize that I have few followers at Twitter and little to no content at the blog. Since I created both the blog and Twitter account within the past two days, you can expect no more. But, if you decide to follow me on Twitter, be sure to state that you read about my account at DMXZone so I know who you are and your interest in following me.  Otherwise, you are a stranger, and I may not follow you back.

Also, by stating your point of origin, then I can label you and file you away in a Twitter list. I have a gut feeling that this Twitter list objective (a new Twitter twist) might be useless down the road since I am, by nature, very disorganized; but, I'm can attempt to try to keep my "friend" list separate from my professional lists.

You can find your lists under the search box in the right column at your Twitter home page. You also can utilize a "list" button at the top right on your Twitter page. Neither one of these list access points are available to you when you log out of your Twitter account.

I've locked all my lists for now, as you can see by the little lock to the right of each list in the image above. But, my whims may push me to open the writers' and designers' list to the public down the road.

You, too, can create lists that can help you define all the many hundreds of people who may follow you on Twitter. When you click on that list, you'll see only the people who are contained in that list in your Twitter window. I do not know yet whether those lists can be utilized in any Twitter tools outside the actual Twitter page. If anyone learns about whether those lists can be utilized outside Twitter, please inform.

While Twitter sometimes pushes my patience to the limit, especially when I'm busy with writing projects, I am learning that a focus on my writing may be what I need to create harmony between Twitter and myself.  You'll learn more about my inner conflict if you visit my blog, which will have only three-four entries by the time this article is published. I'm already developing a fondness for this new blog, as it may help me to vent a bit on topics that have no place in any other writing projects.

This ability to vent reminds me that I need to add a disclaimer on that blog to let my clients and others know that what I say does not reflect on my clients' policies. You might think about the addition of a disclaimer to your blog as well.

As a side note, I used WordPress for my blog, with Justin Tadlock's Hybrid format and the Structure child theme. Those choices are based upon my past experiences and familiarity both with WordPress and with Justin's work.

Other self-branding projects this week included: