You may not have given much thought to this question until the recent popularity and emergence of social media touched the masses. Beyond the social implications of this new media, social networks and social online tools play an essential role for all professionals, entrepreneurs, and business people. Posted content and images either add or subtract from your desired brand.

With over 800 million profiles on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn, and millions more on micro social sites, a mug shot or profile avatar has quite a bit of brand power.

Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, Associate Professor and Mervin Bower Fellow in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School conducted extensive research on the subject of social media and images. His findings indicate 70 percent of all social media actions are related to viewing pictures or other peoples’ profiles.

The day when only authors, rock stars, celebrities, and other gurus needed to consider their photo images is gone. Today everyone has a new stage on which to shine or look like a goofball.

And this is not limited to online social communities; the same goes for speakers at conferences. Regardless of your professional status as a speaker, if you are contributing to the program and the organization is promoting you on a Web site, your image counts. This also applies to printed association directories and what you put on your own Web site.

Your mug is your surrogate persona and a voice for your brand.

Don’t fall victim to the crappy, old, and tired photo thing. You can control this part of your brand.

If your goal is to build an online footprint that supports your professional substance and brand, here are some tips I recommend to get the biggest bang from your mug shot.

1) Consistency is key.
Use the same image of you in all of your social communities. This will build equity in your visual mark and strengthen the memory factor.

2) Production quality says a lot about you.
Grainy, wrong, and low-resolution images scream cheesy, unprofessional, and that you are foreign to the online environment.

3) Project your true you.
If you are a creative soul, let your photo image convey that. Cropping, adding a compelling prop, and the right facial expression can achieve that.

Are edge and risk part of your brand? Then demonstrate this with the style of image.

Are you serious, conservative, or highly intelligent? A traditional portrait may best suit you.

For any of these personas, consider your wardrobe, accessories, and the background. All of these elements project a message.

4) Keep your image current.
There is nothing worse than meeting someone who is 25 years older than his or her published photos. Update your photos every couple of years, unless you look pretty much the same—and good for you! This can be a trust issue too.

5) Invest in your brand.
Using a group shot where others were cropped out of the original, or posting a poorly-lit image with no contrast to feature your brilliance are often the product of being cheap and not valuing your brand. Your photo image is often the first thing people associate with you and your qualities.

Remember, first impressions only happen once and people make immediate judgments based on what they see.

As noted on front page of Oddpodz, we are experiencing some changes to our site. Our plan is to re-launch in the next 30 days with better social dialogue tools, more blog contributors, and useful tools to help you grow your business.

During our transition, some items in the Community section of the site are not functioning properly. We are working on all of these.

Thank you for your patience!

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com.

Last week I earned many of your eyeballs by sharing how I scored a 6-figure gig while using Twitter.

Twitter is definitely a viable method for communicating to prospects, clients, and business fans but, like many new social platforms, it can be overwhelming. Not just how it works, but also how to utilize all the handy applications that are available to enhance your experience and value gained with it.

Twitter is a microblog that enables real-time messaging to the world via your computer or mobile device. The only rule—your message must be under 140 characters.

Start slow and simple. Add apps as you get comfortable with it.

Here’s a rundown on some of my favorite Twitter tools and how I use them. If you have discovered a Twitter tool that really rocks, please share it in a comment on the Oddpodz blog, so others can learn about it.

1) Grade your Twitter profile. Try Twitter grader learn to see if your tweet power, authority, and reach are working for you. This grader not only gives you a score, but tells you how to amp things up.

2) Organize and manage your tweets Better. Check out TweetDeck. This cool tool is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now; connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, and more. TweetDeck shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organized and up to date.

3) Analyze your tweets. Twitter analyzer is amazing. This is a great tool to see what type of professionals are following you, how many people you are reaching beyond your followers, who is tweeting about you, and lots more.

4) Track the Twitter addicts by location. Twitterholic lets you find people in a geographic area and also ranks you in the world of Twitterers. For example, since I live in Tampa, I searched with http://Twitterholic.com/top100/followers/bylocation/Tampa/ and learned how often Tampa folks were tweeting and who they were. I also learned that I am #52 in active Tampa tweeters.

5) How does your profile compare to others (like your competitors) and how do subjects compare. Twittervolume provides a great snapshot. Type in your handle along with competitors; Tweetvolume shows you the volume tweets. Want to find the best key word? Type in several like I did: sales, marketing, branding, and women business. Guess which ranked highest? I won’t tell—you’ll have to check it out.

A blog post on Twitter tools could go on for days. Every day, new and improved Twitter tools are hatched. If you need more good ideas, check out my pal Chris Brogan’s blog, he has a great post called “50 ideas for using Twitter for Biz”
Also see my other super-smart marketing friend John Jantsch of “Duct Tape Marketing,” at ducttapemarketing. John’s blog is filled with sound insight.

Have an awesome week! And don’t forget to check out Oddpodz Free Biz Findz. This week we are adding 20 new super, cool, and FREE items.

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos, Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers¹ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com.

For all the doubters and naysayers, social media can bring in the Benjamins. In fact, for my consulting practice, Brain Tattoo Branding, Twitter scored an exciting, new, six-figure assignment.

So how did it happen?
First, you’ve got to be signed up. It’s easy and painless. If you are clueless to the new world of Twitter, watch the video on the Twitter web site and also check out these excellent books on the subject.

All A Twitter by Tee Morris

Twitter for Dummies by Laura Fitton, Michael Gruen and Leslie Poston

Secondly, you need to understand what Twitter is and is not. In a bird shell, Twitter is a micro blog that enables you to post and read “tweets.” A tweet is a text message in a concise, less than 140-character format. A tweet post has no content boundaries other than length. You can tweet or twitter anything, from a question, a quote, an opinion; a status on what you are doing, feeling or about to do; share resources, or dish an experience.

Twitter is a real-time communication channel for personal and business purposes. It is intended to adhere to the new social media etiquette and be more about dialogue and helping rather than hard selling. But, like many things in life, there are always a few bird brains that don’t seem to get that part.

Back to how I did it.
I set up my profile, selected a handle — @brandingdiva.com, uploaded a photo, and added keywords that are relevant to my world. Now, as a twitterer, I get to follow others, which means their posts are in a timeline on my Twitter page. It’s not about quantity, but quality. You must follow people who can add to your success.

A few years ago I joined a mentor group lead by The Million Dollar Consultant, Alan Weiss. Alan has authored over 32 books and is one of the smartest cats I know. He helped me improve my business proposals, leverage my intellectual property, and just become a better consultant. I delete reams of newsletters and mail in my inbox daily, but, I’m very religious about reading Alan’s stuff.

In a recent email, he suggested I follow him on Twitter @BentleyGTCSpeed. And because I like Alan’s thinking and humor, I thought this would be a great way to get bite-sized samples of his brilliance, fast. So I started following him.

That Saturday night, I was drinking my BV cab and perusing my tweets, and I saw one from Alan. It read something like: Global industrial company looking for branding and naming specialist, interested parties contact XYZ.

So I did, right that moment. I shot an email to the contact listed. My branded email was formal and included my contact info, background on me, services summary, web site links, and an article from a prominent business publication in India that highlighted me and my views on brand naming.

Within minutes, I heard back from the contact; we exchanged a few more emails and then chatted on the phone. It turned out that he had also been in Alan’s mentor program. He was not the client, but was making recommendations to the client. After all of our dialogue, I was on the short list.

A few weeks later, I got a call from the client outlining the actual assignment, background on the company, and other details. I listened more than I talked. From there, he requested a proposal. I explained to him, that before I could produce the proposal, I needed some additional information from him and agreement on key issues around the project. My list was extensive, but he promptly answered all my questions and I submitted my proposal.

My proposal was brief; not a lot of selling, but it did include our agreed-upon goals, measure of success and value expected, pricing options, and a strong overview of my company’s credentials and B2B experience.

Three weeks later, I get another call. They want me to come to their home office to meet the team. They also requested I summarize my proposal into 3-4 pages. I obliged, on my nickel. For those you who squirm at shelling out travel expenses in advance of getting a deal, I say get real, if you are worth your proposal, you will earn this back quickly.

As it turned out, they were interviewing several firms and I was still in the hunt. To reinforce my position as a branding authority who works in diverse sectors, I prepared and did as much homework as I could. I flew in the night before, leaving nothing to chance, flight delays, bad weather, etc.

In my pitch I stressed my creative problem-solving ability above my knowledge of their industry. I rehearsed my key points and continued to listen and ask questions. In fact, I walked in with a list of both, so I wouldn’t forget anything. While I had plenty of B2B experience, I did not have hands-on experience in their specific industry category. However, I presented my lack of specific experience as a strength, not a weakness.

A few weeks later, I got the bright green light and today I’m working with a great company on a challenging project. Once we take it public, I will share with you more on the branding and project processes and outcome.

I am thrilled that a new social media like Twitter made this opportunity possible. I hope it soon does the same for you. Following are the key lessons I took away from this experience.

Lessons learned:

1) Twitter is tool, just like your business card.
2) Twitter is not an autopilot sales associate.
3) Twitter is a marketing tactic that you must use strategically.
4) Social media is not a magic potion that cures all; it is one piece of your marketing arsenal.
5) Jump on opportunities when you see them. Even on the weekends.
6) First impressions only come once.
7) Be efficient and “on your brand” with all of your touch points.
8) Not having experience in someone’s business is not a deal killer.
9) Listen more. Talk less.
10) Do your homework on the prospect’s competition, their leadership, and the challenges they face.
11) Proposals are to confirm goals, methods, measures, and expectations; not to convince.

About the author: Karen Post, a.k.a. The Branding Diva® is an international authority on branding, marketing, and entrepreneurial matters. She has been featured as a business expert in print publications; on TV, radio, and on Web channels. Karen authored the best-selling book Brain Tattoos, Creating Unique Brands That Stick in your Customers’ Minds and she is co-founder and CEO of Oddpodz.com.

Have you ever misinterpreted an email message and reacted like a crazy person? And soon found out that the message that you read in your head was not what the sender intended at all? YIKES!

Caution fellow tweeters, the same thing can happen in the new world of very abbreviated tongue.

Tweet in point, last week I get a direct message from someone. The tweet read: “Consult, don’t sell”.

I’m having a day from hell, full throttle PMS, allergies, rained on my tennis game and feeling a bit cranky.

I’m thinking who is this tweet chick insinuating that I’m behaving badly, breaking the rules of tweet etiquette by hard selling?

Needless to say my feathers were ruffled, because I am very conscious of the golden rule in social media, never sell, spam or whore dog in any way!

I first fire back with a direct message back to my follower. “What exactly are you referring to?”

Twenty four hours goes by and no response. Now I’ve been stewing on this bird crap criticism of me being a sleaze and selling instead of consulting.

I discuss this whole matter with some of my fellow tweeters. What would you do? What do you think? They all banded with me. You don’t sell they confirmed. What’s she drinking? If she does not like your style of Diva-ness, tell her to opt her tweet butt out.

Yeah. They are right.

So I get back on my high-horse bird and fire another message, this time it’s going public, no direct soft tweet here.

I repeat to my follower “What exactly are you referring to? If you don’t like my style of content, opt out. Funny, my other 1400 followers have never thrown me a sour grape”.

It’s interesting how a sour tweet spreads like the swine flu. Some of my other followers even queried me, “what’s up with the cat fight on twitter?”. I explained the deal and felt like I had handled a big bully.

What a difference a tweet makes!

So today, I’m trolling through all my tweets and I notice one from that tweople who got my panties all in a big wad.

Oh my gosh—

I felt a giant black twitter egg growing on my face as I read her words.

The tweet read: >@Brandingdiva, you posted a list of ways to be different in your blog, and asked for ideas, I was contributing to your list, “consult, don’t sell”.

Moral to this bird-brained story.

Tweeting can cut out words, leave out previous posts and vital data. When this happens, find the spatula and start scrapping the big egg off and immediately apologize.

To my follower carolyngoodman

So sorry I pole vaulted to a wrong conclusion.

K

(The following post is by Sarah Guinot, Oddpodz newest team member).

I was until this week, when I attended Social School in Tampa.

I just joined the Oddpodz team as an intern. I’m finishing my MBA at the University of Tampa and I am thrilled to be working with such an exciting, young social media company. To learn more about me and connect, my Oddpodz user name is sarenka. I’d love to hear from you.

Part of my contributions to the company will be helping the Oddpodz community members and attracting new ones through social media.

My first assignment, get in the social media grove fast.

Lucky for me, the Oddpodz offices are located in www.Walkerbrands.com, a super cool place to work. Not only is it a design-centric, creative environment, the office culture has also lots of means for collaboration and learning via our roommates, tools and events.

This week the office hosted Social School. It was lead by Nancy Walker, President of Walker Brands and a super savvy, branding and marketing pro, and Julia Gorzka, a social media enthusiast and consultant.

The event attracted a diverse group of business people, all like me, hungry to get on the social media train.

So what is this international phenomenon sweeping the media, business and people’s lives?

It’s the “world’s largest cocktail party where everybody is invited”, explained Julia.

Such a definition makes it clear that social media challenges the “old school” marketing thinking. As most of the audience, you might find social media intimidating. After all, there are so many social tools out there, where does one start? How do you find your markets in this new World? You heard about Twitter and might wonder who is this new animal. But have no fear. The good news is that it is completely possible to understand social media and, even better, to make great use of them in order to support your brand and its delivery- two essential components for business success.

Here are some of the highlights I took away from Social School.

1) The first step is to define your brand. A brand is not merely a logo or a catchy slogan anymore. It’s what customers think, feel and expect about you, which is earned at every touch points, every contact with your customers, from product and signage to employee training.

2) Then, once you have a coherent and strong brand essence, it’s time for delivery. You are now ready to hit the social media universe. What are your goals? Is it brand awareness? Discoverability? Finding new leads?

3) Remember that in the World’s largest cocktail party (social media), the communication style is very conversational, helpful and educational and definitely not about hard selling. If you’re focused on mere transactions, you will be quickly black listed and your efforts will be a waste.

As Julia explained, “It is not as much about advertising anymore anyway, when companies were pushing their messages. It is about giving your customers something to talk about”.

For more on how social media can help your business check back, we will be posting other gems gained from the class. If you are interested in attending a future social media class go to social school.

Also we’ve posted and reviewed some great FREE social media tools and resources in Oddpodz FREE Biz Findz.

(Updated 05.07.09)This list grows, thanks to our communities contributions.

Most businesses can gain from standing out from the pack. People too can benefit from being different in the crowded world of bodies and brains. When ever I speak to audiences I always preach “Be distinct, standout and own a space that’s unique”. There is often a big sigh, HOW can we not blend in?

Here are some ideas to help you be unique in your industry. Apply them to one or several brand attributes or touch points. My goal is to assemble a list of 140 soon, all clearly stated in less than 140 characters for the new language of tweet tongue. I’ll be tapping my social stream for more ideas and be updating the list everyday. Have a contribution? DM at @brandingdiva on twitter.
1. Make up a word as your name
2. Leave something out
3. Use different ingredients
4. Sport an odd uniform
5. Do it faster
6. Save the earth while you are at it
7. Cop an attitude
8. Add humor
9. Package it in the unexpected
10. Combine extreme opposites
11. Infuse a foreign language
12. Give something big away
13. Slow it down
14. Jazz it up with a tune
15. Birth a new holiday
16. Hide something
17. Introduce an unbelievable guarantee
18. Splash a wild color
19. Involve younger minds
20. Gift often
21. Start earlier
22. Never close
23. Dispense it from a vending machine
24. Invite animals
25. Be exclusive
26. Create a mascot
27. Blow up a common practice
28. Use the earth to build it
29. Display it on a building
30. Mix in minis
31. Charge a lot more
32. Take alternative payments
33. Reward loyalty with living gifts
34. Start a new way
35. Slice it up
36. Get social
37. Remove technology
38. Add chocolate
39. Make a metaphor
40. Rearrange it
41. Sacrifice something important
42. Break the rules
43. Require tickets
44. Mash up weird things
45. Always have a deadline
46. Partner with an unusual suspect
47. Conduct an annual poll
48. Create controversy
49. Add a feminine touch
50. Be obnoxious
51. Super-size it
52. Get nostalgic
53. Exaggerate
54. Simplify the process
55. Reverse the order
56. Take a pause
57. Sing it
58. Scream it
59. Always whisper
60. House it in a remote spot
61. Sprinkle spice on it
62. Fast forward
63. Get glamorous
64. Dress it down
65. Get folksy
66. Make it low fat
67. Start a trend
68. Infuse a scent into it
69. Make it see threw
70.Make it edible
71.Be an expert
72.Be independent
73.Make it more durable
74.Turn it black and white
75.Add serenity
76.Incorporate cool
77.Expand its dimension

I’ve never read anything I didn’t love from social media guru Chris Brogan. He’s just plain good. This is not a hot off the press article, but with all the buzz on twitter these days, if you have not read it, you should. 50 Ways to use twitter for business

Tampa TweetUp.

Saturday night I was drinking red wine, munching on pretzels and tweeting with some 60 new tweeple at Walker Brands. Why spend three hours with a bunch of strangers and their keypads seeing random text notes under 160 characters of what they are doing, thinking and why anyone should care on a big screen?

Copyright 2009 Michael Alex Wasylik

I was curious.
This was the fifth gathering sponsored by The Tampa TweetUp. It was organized by Tampa Bloggers’ Founder Josh Carrico and Brand Tampa Creator Julia Gorzka, both self-proclaimed social media junkies. The first official Tampa TweetUp was held in March.

I’ve been tweeting for a couple months, follow me @Brandingdiva. I see how it can be a good communication tool and a way to bring awareness to your business. Has any of this tweeting translated into cha ching, can’t report that yet.

Was it fun and worth my tweet time?
Yes. I met a bunch of cool people (bloggers, marketers, and business owners) that I would likely have passed by in my regular life walk. Many of these tweeters have checked out Oddpodz and signed up. That’s a good thing. I also connected with a couple reporters who could become meaningful contacts and I witnessed how an online phenomenon like twitter expands its purpose and passion offline. And as a bonus the TweetUp hosts facilitated 30-minute think tanks where guests could collaborate on some creative issues and learn about more about tweeting.

If your community offers TweetUps, I’d say check them out and support the effort. If your community is not hosting TweetUps yet, jump in and be a tweet leader. It’s a powerful new way to further bridge technology and business relationships.

For more on the Tampa Tweet, visit Tampa TweetUp, Tampa Bloggers’ and Brand Tampa. And note the Twitter Hash Tag is #tbtweet. Tag your posts with this code and all the Tampa TweetUper will get the tweet.

If not, you may be missing out on tapping a new relationship, talking to a client or even targeting a group with a marketing message.

Twitter is the leading micro blogging site out there, with over 2 million tweeters. This week they hosted the Shorty Awards recognizing the best tweets, messages under 140 characters at an event in NY City. See the winners at: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/12/twitter.shorty.awards/index.html

To comment on James McPherson’s Media & Politics Blog question, “Can a guy who wins a ‘Shorty’ adequately explain in fewer than 140 characters what he won, and why?” I would have to say absolutely, “yes!” Not only in a short and sweet way, but in a jazzy form with sophistication and flair!

Tweeting is definitely a challenge and those 26 shorty winners that were selected by an amazing 50,000 public nomination and votes obviously well deserved it. These 26 winners have mastered the art form of tweeting and are extremely creative individuals.

As a intern for Oddpodz.com that has been newly introduced to Twitter, I have learned a lot from the “big kahuna” major tweeters to the more beginner but, aggressive tweeters with a goal of catching attention and leaving readers begging for more.

Twitter can turn on lots of lights.

Take a Twitterer with mass dedicated followers, Chris Brogan, http://twitter.com/chrisbrogan has over 42,163. The company I work with Oddpodz, blogged about his FREE ebook on personal branding in our FREE Biz Findz. After the post, we shot Chris a note, he tweeted about our site and the post, and within minutes 42,163 of his followers were introduced to Oddpodz. We track where our visitors come from with an incredible FREE tool from Damandbase (Click here for the full entry about it) and we could see hundreds of new visitors from twitter, thanks to the power of a tweet.

Gaining a mass following does not happen overnight. Of the 26 shorty winners, all of them have an extremely large amount of followers including, PeggyOlson, with 11,384, Wendy Leidhecker, with 12,439 followers, and Eric Mueller for entertainment @ FLWbooks with 16,008 followers.

Part of my job as being an intern at Oddpodz.com is tweeting. The art of the tweet is a tough skill. It takes concise communication style to get an intriguing tweet across in 140 characters or less. It is an even tougher challenge to shorten it within 120 characters if you want to add a link with your twitter name to the end for an easy access to retweet. Developing a creative top tweet with personality and individuality takes time and practice. These tips can help: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/12/twitter.shorty.awards/index.html

Congratulations Shorty award winners! You deserved it! Follow us, Oddpodz @Oddpodz and Karen aka @Brandingdiva on twitter and join in the fun.

Here’s a great “How-to-Tweet” video.

Shaina Bindeman is an Intern at Oddpodz and a student at University of South Florida where she will graduate this spring 09 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Administration, with a major in marketing. When Shaina’s not working she enjoys professional networking, theater, ballet, modern dance, movies, and fine art. To contact Shaina reach out through the Oddpodz community her user name is sbindema.