Do You Know Me? The Key to Success with Social Media

In discussing factors that contribute to a person’s success, I used to hear a lot of people say, “It’s not what you know. It’s who you know.” For a long time, that was pretty much true. If you knew people in high places, it was more likely that you would succeed. And until recently, it was hard to get to know those high-flyers.

But today, things have changed. Social media puts the power of personal and company promotion in anyone’s hands (or keyboards!). And the costs are reasonable. Nothing close to the traditional advertising costs of years gone by, when building a brand required vast amounts of cash.

Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube are essentially free to use, and they can distribute your information at mach speeds. Of course, you need to manage the content that you post, and you may require professionals to help you do that, but the digital vehicles to distribute that content are virtually free, with no real need to use expensive magazines, newspapers and other traditional medias to build your brand.

So I propose an update to the old expression. I will no longer use, “It’s not what you know. It’s who you know.” The new expression for success in the Internet-age is, “It’s not what you know or who you know, it’s who knows you!” And never has it been easier and more cost-effective for people to get to know you!