Balancing Being a Brand and Being Yourself

Friday I had the opportunity/chance/pleasure of attending Social Slam 2013. It was an all day conference about social media. And I've always thought of myself as 'social media savvy' but boy, oh boy was I wrong. Yes I can tweet, update a Facebook page and blog like there is no tomorrow but apparently I've been doing it all wrong.

All day I listened to these AMAZING speakers teach me how to be better. And it was awesome. But the biggest take away I got was that I need to be branding myself. Well, I have a few problems with this. I hate following someone on Twitter who constantly just tweets about their lastest blog/article/achievements. I personally use Twitter to connect, and that just doesn't do it for me.

I also learned that blogging, in particular, has to start with some sort of passion. And has to have meaningful content. Starting today I am going to start focusing on building myself as a brand, especially in the blogging sphere, but promise to continue being myself. I'm going to try to RT things on Twitter that pertain to my life, but would be useful for other as well. I promise to continue with daily life updates as well. And same with my blog. Maybe I'll work on some sort of continuity in posts, but not forgetting that this is a personal blog and I want to share about my life as well.

To leave you today, here are 10 these were really hard to pick things I learned at #SoSlam this year. They might seem simple and you might already  know them, but sometimes a gentle reminder is nice.

1. You have to start.
2. You're never going to be perfect.
3. Mirror online engagement with face-to-face engagement.
4. Don't be 'normal.' Be yourself.
5. Don't be locked into a brand, your brand can always be evolving.
6. You will not build an audience without being focused.
7. Twitter supports your growth.
8. Looks count.
9. Expect that mistakes are going to happen.
10. Be patient.

Now that I'm looking at this blogging venture through completely new lenses, do you have any tips for me? What about things that just any new blogger should know. Let me hear it!!