If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it…you know the rest.

Today, when most of us spend far more time navigating the dense forest that is the social media landscape than strolling among actual trees, this existential question might look more like:

If a human or a brand isn’t on social media, does it exist?

Yes, of course – but not as loudly. And, depending on that human or brand’s goals, perhaps not as effectively. After attending an MITX Influence(her) workshop led by Beth Monaghan, CEO of the leading Boston PR agency InkHouse, on “Building Your Personal Brand” last week, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought.

Among the takeaways from Beth’s talk:

• Know what you want to achieve (this means setting your own personal/professional goals – and knowing why you’re doing what you’re doing, and who you need to build relationships with on your path to your goal)
• Define your digital personality (who do you want to be and how do you want to be perceived?)
• Make yourself stand out (fitting in is for dandelions – you want to show what makes you a never-before-seen species)
• Create a plan (even for those who live and breathe social media, a plan that pairs frequency with relevance will help make the time spent online meaningful; as a rule, we’re not creatures that thrive on randomness)

Resources for understanding and creating social media strategy

If you’d like some introductory or hands-on tools for creating social media strategy – or just to get a bit wiser on how our most-loved brands and online influencers and personalities gain loyal followers, someone has done the work for us.

Brian Peters at Buffer (a tool that lets you schedule posts, track content performance, and manage your accounts) pulled together 37 Free Social Media and Marketing Courses to Elevate Your Skills Today. A big fan of SkillShare, I’m breezing through Brian’s own course (the first one his list) – complete with worksheets and thought-provoking content. Incidentally (though not at all coincidentally), it helps both Brian and Buffer build their brands as knowledgeable, approachable, and helpful social media gurus.

Here’s to discovering new, creative, authentic and fulfilling ways to define who you are and what you stand for, to organically build your social media presence, and to reach the people you actually want to connect with.