In an earlier challenge, I asked you to identify ten people on social media and engage with them. I also shared a tip explaining that connecting with people online should not be a shallow activity. Building relationships takes deep conversations, time, and patience.

Similarly, you must focus your energy to maximize your impact when you are building your professional brand and a body of supporting evidence. People need to know what you’re great at doing, and they need to notice that you exist.

However, you’ll drive yourself crazy if you divide your time amongst the insane number of social media and marketing channels. Yes, there are indeed tools that can automate much of your posting. For example:

• MeetEdgar

• SmarterQueue

• Buffer

• Hootsuite

• Sprout Social

• HubSpot

• Zapier

• IFTTT

But, social and networking platforms sometimes punish automation (e.g., it can be against their terms of service). Also, posting to social media is only half of the awareness story.

As I’ve discovered, connecting with other peo…