What's your goal? What's your aim when it comes to social media? Or defining who you are? Or building your brand (personal or otherwise)?

Do you have targets? Do you have a measurement point of where you are now (or where you were at the start of your journey) to where you want to be in 3, 6, 12, 18 months or more?

What's your end goal? What do you need to be seeing as a return?

Who do you want to impress? Who do you want to emulate, to build from, to surpass? Who do you want to be compared to as "the next Blogger X, or Author Y, or Educator Z"?

Stop.

Stop what you're doing right now.

Unless you're doing it for you, you're doing it wrong. Unless you're being you, you're doing it wrong. Unless you're doing it for goals that you want to achieve, as opposed to goals someone else has set, you're doing it wrong.

Everything you're doing, in fact, you're doing it wrong.

Unless it's as you.

People aren't interested in clones.

Blog readers don't want you to be the next blogger X.

Shoppers with kids don't want you to be the next Toys R Us.

Fast food lovers don't want you to be the next McDonald's.

Why? Because these brands already exist, and they have their audience, fans and detractors. They don't need more, and people looking for the "more factor" won't be their customers anyway.

But they will be yours.

If you work at it, and let them. And the best way to let them? Be yourself. Don't try to emulate the brands they've stepped away from. If you do, they'll simply step away from you too.

Instead, just be you.

Be yourself. Be honest. Be the brand you believe you should be. Because that's where you fit in.

And that's where your customers will find you.

photo credit: randomcuriosity