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Peoples’ attention span in the social media domain is very short. You are placed in the “nobody category” with a partial LinkedIn profile or an “egg-head” status on twitter. The first step is to secure you create a good first digital impression. Don’t dive too fast in following and positing, it can wait. A good profile come before your first professional post.

Your first digital impression come from the combined view of the social media tools you are present in. Most of us start with a Facebook profile used for private purposes and a LinkedIn accounts used as a professional address book.

To get you quick off the ground the following insights could be useful:
• In the networked world your private and professional profile are merging – Plan for presenting a 360 degree view of you, rather and a 180 degree private and 180 degree professional on different social media platforms.
• As discussed earlier (see You are a brand – articulate it well) your positioning requires a good idea of how you can and will portrait yourself – Digital impact is more like face to face than written in a resume, so go with a credible positioning.
• Limit yourself to two social media networks for professional purposes – LinkedIn (Expanding from people you know) and Twitter (attracting the people who want to know you).

The first phase is about planting the seeds for your personal brand. I would suggest first 4-6 weeks of a Networked leadership journey to focus on a few important initiatives:
• Establish a baseline for your wanted digital first impression – Your mini resume.
• Establish social media accounts on all platforms with a common name as early as possible, e.g. Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, Google+, WordPress, Vine – You don’t know what you will use but it is always worth protecting your brand name.
• Establish an attractive Twitter profile – based on your wanted first impression.
• Clean up your Facebook from posts that does not match your professional profile.

This part is individual as preferences vary between executives on what to expose and what not to. The most important part is to get out with a digital first impression you feel send the right signals about you.

Good additional readings in this area are:

• How to create attractive social media profiles [BLOG] – by Fabbo (@iFabbo)
• 8 way to create a powerful LinkedIn profile [BLOG] – by Business Insider (@BusinessInsider)
• 14 steps to improve your LinkedIn presence in 2014 [BLOG] – By Forbes (@Forbes)
• How to quickly optimize your new Twitter profile [BLOG] – By Rebekah Radice (@RebekahRadice)
• Personal Branding on LinkedIn: 10 mistakes to avoid [BLOG] – by Jeff Bullas (@JeffBullas)

With these steps in place you are now ready to start listening.