"In an ever-changing sales landscape, maintaining a healthy personal brand on social media has become a necessary tool for sales professionals to build and maintain relationships with prospects."

— Shayne Smith, The Center for Sales Strategy

In our last post, we offered some easy ways to make your first social posts easy to publish by following rules for curated content. Now, let's fast track to some simple rules to get your content noticed. People have a limited attention span, but they will spend time with social stories that could change their own point of view or offer new insights.

Now is not the time to be shy! Here are some tips to consider:

1: Be an expert.

Earn your followers. In most of your posts, you'll be sharing channel insights, customer experiences, and technology trends. You don't have to write them, but you do have to make sure the stories are compelling. Also, it's important to express why you think the story is important.

Example: "I just saw this story on CRN, and it's incredible. The world of IoT is here and will be a $1 trillion category in 2022. At {insert your company name}, we're already seeing its impact on our channel."

2: Be provacative.

Make people stop and read your point of view. Again, if you add a story link, throw in one or two captivating sentences about why the reader should spend time with your content.

Example: "Will robots take your job? I don't think so. I want you to excel at what you do. Learn how to beat the odds. Great story here."

3: Be aspirational and inspirational.

Be a champion of change. Share stories about people doing amazing things to help customers or close business, and not just in your channel space. Or discuss ideas that are changing the way we do business.

Example: "Great customer service can change your bottom line. Read this."

4: Be human and authentic.

People like to read and learn from people they value. Don't be afraid to post a story that's close to your heart. Your followers may well have the same interests. While this kind of post should be used sparingly, it's ok to react to a local, national, or global tragedy — or even a cause close to your heart.

Example: "Just read about the flooding in New Orleans this morning. Heartbreaking. Please donate to the Red Cross if you can."

5: Be selective.

Once you figure out how easy it is to publish to your social stream, it's important to do it regularly, but posting all the time can work against you. In the beginning, set a goal to publish at least once a week. Great social authors have been "unsubscribed" for sending a blizzard of posts rather than because their posts don't have merit. Restraint goes a long way.

Today, great social selling authors are built, not born. I continue to learn from the best. You will too.

Check out the conversation around social selling:

• 4 Secrets to Crafting Stellar LinkedIn Posts That Bring Clicks — Social Pilot

• 16 Content Ideas that Will Make You a LinkedIn Superstar — Disruptive Advertising

• Work Smarter by Following These 50 B2B Sales Experts on LinkedIn in 2019 — LinkedIn

• 26 Twitter Tips for Beginners You'll Wish You Knew Sooner — Sprout Social

• 8 Awesome Ways to Create Engaging Tweets in 280 Characters — Social Pilot

• How to Write the Perfect Tweet — Social Media Today