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Five Steps to Jumpstart Your Consulting Career with Social Media

  • May 24, 2011
If you spend enough time in a particular career, you know enough to share knowledge with companies and get paid for it. But changing gears and becoming a consultant isn’t so clear-cut. Erik Deckers, author of Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself, shows you how to use a blog, Twitter, and LinkedIn to start a consulting career, including finding a niche, finding connections on LinkedIn and Twitter, and writing blog posts.
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If you spend enough time in a particular career, you know enough to share knowledge with companies and get paid for it. You know how to build a profitable strategic plan, how to execute it, and how to insure your clients will see long-term growth from it. In short, you could be a consultant. If only you knew how to start your next career as a consultant. Here are five steps every new consultant should use to jumpstart their consulting career with social media.

#1: Start with a Blog

The best way to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise about a particular topic is to write about it as frequently as possible. The best way to do it is with a blog. There are plenty of free blog platforms available, like WordPress.com, Blogger.com, and Posterous.com.

Pick your consultancy niche, and focus almost exclusively on that. A single post should be roughly 350–450 words, but shorter is acceptable. Write about all the news, thoughts, and developments within the niche, and then promote it to your social network including LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Last Update: November 17, 2020