Admittedly I have to credit the U.O phrase to David Armano who I had the pleasure of meeting and hearing his presentation on Thursday at the Chicago Social Media Club meeting (thank you Kelly Olexa for this video link):

As marketers we are so often charged at the opportunity to leverage new mediums for our clients. I can remember when direct mail was all the rage yet folks were seeing an average return rate of 2-3% (according to the Direct Marketing Association). Yet we continue to seek out new avenues for our clients to receive a leg up on their competitors.

Along comes “social media” and yet a new medium to stoke the marketing ambers we so desperately want to turn into a raging fire. To continue rolling with such an analogy…my word of caution to marketers is to ease into the social media space or watch your clients go down in flames.

The advice I’ve learned from the very best in this social media space are to walk before you run and crawl before you walk…but do it immediately and consistently. In addition to David Armano, I’ve been reading Chris Brogan’s blog and following him on Twitter for some time. Chris has numerous blog posts on the subject of “personal branding”or as David Armano puts it – U.O.

Quite simply, before you start running with various social media strategies (if even relevant for your business or clients), work on creating a brand for your self, an experience that you can then share with your client in this space. Otherwise you’re sure to misstep in a space where there are no do-over’s.

For example here are the 5 tips I’m following as I plunge into social media & U.O:

1. Get professional guidance – I was fortunate enough to have met Kelly Olexa early on in my social media learning process. I immediately knew that Kelly would serve as a terrific advisor as she was savvy and versed in social media but also had a strong business foundation. In other words, she was “geeky” enough to know her stuff but professional enough to know how to advise business owners or executives on its value for self and business.

2. Set your personal goals – Why are you participating in social media? What are you looking to achieve? How are you going to accomplish such goals?

3. Let down your guard - As you begin dipping your toes into social media such as Twitter, blogging, Facebook, etc., you will instinctively have some resistance or hesitation interacting with strangers. You must remember that people know people and even if someone doesn’t “appear” to be an ideal connection…they might know others who are. You have to let down your guard if making the switch to social media.

4. Be yourself & be transparent – This might seem logical, yet so many people jump into social media and become something so much different than themselves. Here is a great blog post from Ignite Social Media on “5 ways to be yourself online.”

5. Build some credibility for yourself – It’s really easy to think that you’ve got social media down and you’re ready to do anything in this space. Take the time (several months) to build credibility for yourself through conversations, blog posts, blog comments, etc.

I’m certainly not an expert but I believe in sharing what I’ve learned from others who are true thought leaders, influencers, and experts in this space. I’d love to hear about any advice or tips you’d like to share about entering the social media space and/or creating U.O. Looking forward to our conversations!