Chapter 14
Social Media Entrepreneur at 17
“The best path to success is your own!”
@AmitV_Tweets
To have founded three successful companies is quite an achievement. To have founded them all by the age of 17 is nothing short of phenomenal, and that’s the best word with which to describe Amit Verma (@AmitV_Tweets).
This brilliant young entrepreneur has a wise head on his young shoulders, something that comes across clearly in his personal brand message. Amit built a strong personal brand on Twitter and credits much of his companies’ successes to Twitter. He first learned of Twitter as a young schoolboy, when it was officially launched back in 2006, but remembers being “too busy concentrating on my studies to sign up.” His first priority back then, he remembers, was to “make my parents proud,” which they certainly were when he finally graduated from high school with exceptional grades.
Later, Amit’s love of technology led him to become an avid reader of technology and gadget-related articles, and it led him back to Twitter once more. He recalls, “I’m very much a gadget freak and love to discover info about them. It was while watching a television show on gadgets Twitter was mentioned again, and I suddenly felt drawn to the excitement of the platform and what I felt it could offer me in terms of meeting others with interests similar to mine.”
Amit signed up and created an account on Twitter (see Figure 14-1). It was a life-changing moment for him: “I decided to create my Twitter account on my birthday and it turned out to be the best gift I could have possibly given myself. Twitter is incredibly popular, the growth rate is exponential, and it’s here to stay. There are thousands and thousands of great people to network and socialize with on the platform, and suddenly I could reach them all.”
Figure 14-1
Amit Verma has found early personal branding success through Twitter. His Twitter profile and bio perfectly reflect his innovative personal brand.
Establishing Brand Visibility
Amit believes that what you tweet can help shape your brand on Twitter. For example, if you regularly help others with business ideas, you will soon become known as the business ideas go-to person. Humorous individuals will be known as fun and will gain followers who appreciate their sense of humor. Twitter may bring an impact to your brand based on the human qualities that are given out through your tweets every day.
Amit believes it’s also important to choose your content wisely because, once you tweet, it will be out there for others to find forever, “As a tweeter, you are going to be visible, so make sure you do it in the right way and to the right group of people and influencers.”
Using cross-platform promotion (CPP) effectively is another way that Amit has successfully built his personal brand using Twitter. He uses the platform to link to his website, blog, and application platforms as part of his daily Twitter show schedule (see Figure 14-2).
Figure 14-2
Amit links his tweets to new and popular blog posts.
“If you want to build your brand, it will be far more effective if you expand your visibility across multiple platforms,” Amit explains. “Creating a web presence is a good start. Build a blog and update it frequently. Make sure that you create eye-catching tweets to link to them on a daily basis and to keep your followers entertained. My blog, ModernLifeBlogs.com [see Figure 14-3], is about inspiration, technology, social media, and personal growth, so my tweets are all geared around these topics and tied into the blog through regular links.”
Amit doesn’t just stay behind the keyboard but plays a regular role in industry events that further boosts his personal brand and showcases his early achievements. “It is easier to establish trust if you directly meet with individuals. If early brand visibility is important to you, you may want to combine your online presence with real-life attendance at industry events. Talk to real people. This kind of interaction will often lead to many great things in the future, and it’s a great way to create a buzz about your brand on Twitter prior to an event.”
Figure 14-3
Amit cofounded the highly successful ModernLifeBlogs, whose posts have been shared more than 500,000 times.
Amit recommends creating a Twitter background that resembles the colors, format, and logo from your personal or corporate website: “When you create your background, add information that isn’t covered in your Twitter profile, such as pointers to more websites or information about products or services you sell. If you’re trying to build a strong personal brand, focus your Twitter handle, profile picture, and bio information 100 percent on you, instead of your company.”
Amit Verma’s Golden Rules to Personal Branding Success
Amit has eight best practices for successful personal branding.
1. Review your Twitter activity
“Begin each day by checking your Twitter streams for mentions and direct messages and to establish what your followers are talking and tweeting about. Use the four types of tweets to respond, thank, RT, engage, and react accordingly. Depending on level of engagement, reacting can take up to an hour each day, but it’s time well spent.
“Pay particular attention to Twitter posts from key influencers in your fields of interest and follow the people they follow. Join discussions and participate in Twitter chats. If they’re interesting enough, you’ll find many other like-minded people to follow on Twitter and gain additional followers as a result.”
2. Promote your blog posts
“Twitter is a great tool for promoting your blog and other posts you may find interesting. Sharing through effective cross-platform promotion (CPP) is a key factor in my personal branding success. I use my afternoons to update my blog, which includes writing new posts, scheduling others, and checking the drafts of any pending posts. After this, I tweet my latest post with a great headline to grab attention and a link to the post itself. I also send the tweet as a direct message to key influencers who can help spread the news about it. I make time to respond to any comments both on the blog itself and via Twitter throughout the day.
“It’s great to be able to have the opportunity through Twitter to ask for people’s reactions about my posts, and I also welcome interesting guests posts [see Figure 14-4]. Whenever possible, I try to solve problems from readers who may want additional information about topics I have covered on my blog.”
Figure 14-4
Amit is always happy to feature interesting guest posts on his blog.
3. Sharing is caring
“I can’t reiterate enough just how important engagement and sharing are for personal branding success on Twitter. When my working day is done, I return to Twitter to socialize and share my tweets and my thanks for any mentions or retweets given to me [see Figure 14-5]. It’s a very rewarding time and is always a great reminder of how much friendship and support I have on the platform.”
Figure 14-5
Amit enjoys time on Twitter catching up with friends and socializing with new followers.
4. Schedule tweets during peak times
“I use scheduling tools such as Buffer [see Figure 14-6] to ensure that my tweets go out at optimum times throughout the day. The most effective U.S. times I have noticed are between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. CST, 12:00 p,m. CST, and between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. EST.”
Figure 14-6
Amit schedules many of his daily tweets using tools like Buffer.
5. Build your social media presence with tweet chats
“Your presence on Twitter is wonderfully effective as a source of traffic for your blog or website. In addition, the contacts you build on Twitter help in the real world, as well as the interaction on Twitter, invariably give way to organized meetings for people who interact regularly.”
6. Connect with people irrespective of their geographic location
“Geographic location and time zone shouldn’t be an obstacle to interaction on Twitter. Get to know people from around the world and connect through shared interests.”
7. Join in the hype around a trending topic
“Tweets with hashtags give shape to a trending topic on Twitter. As more people tweet on a particular trending topic, Twitter gets its own little revolution that shapes people’s opinions and unites them. Be a part of it!”
8. Use a great Twitter client
“The new Twitter has a great interface but for me, the Twitter client of choice is TweetDeck [see Figure 14-7]. It’s a free app that brings more flexibility and insight to power users and people serious about building a personal brand. TweetDeck allows you to arrange your feeds in customizable columns. You can focus on what really matters by using its powerful filters.
“Like Buffer, TweetDeck allows you to schedule your Tweets to suit your audience’s time zones. You can monitor and manage unlimited Twitter accounts and you can stay up to date with customizable notification alerts for new tweets. I use TweetDeck every day and wouldn’t be without it.”
Figure 14-7
TweetDeck is Amit’s Twitter client of choice and one that he uses every day.
The Future
Amit’s personal branding success story is truly inspirational. He has not only embraced Twitter as a social tool but also as a powerhouse of knowledge and connections that he uses to promote and expand each of his business ventures.
His entrepreneurial empire is continuing to grow, with new applications in the pipeline that he’s gearing up to tweet about. Look for news of them in a Twitter stream near you!