I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I’m a bona-fide geek who has a lifetime subscription to the comic book industry and fantasy creators everywhere. I’m not ashamed of it (although my wife may laugh and tell me to grow up), and I also know it’s not for everyone. It is for me, though.

Yet before you join in the laughter (if you’re about to – maybe you’re a fellow geek too?), let me ask you something:

• How much are you being creative with the tools that you have around you?
• Are you exciting people with your plans both current and future?
• Are people talking about you in the communities you share?
• Are you taking existing tools and technologies and turning them into something even better?

If you don’t have a positive answer for any or all of these questions, you’re missing out on great opportunities to expand your name, your brand, your business and your community. Especially when it’s free or, at the very most, a few dollars a month.

We Can Rebuild It – We Have The Technology.

Look at any of the advances we’ve made and it’s usually someone taking an existing idea and running with it. Making it better, stronger, more complete. Brakes on a car becoming anti-lock brakes; vacuum cleaners becoming bagless cylinder cleaners; phones becoming wireless. Everything using already good products and making them great.

Use the same approach for yourself. Look at what makes your life easier, online and off, and see how you can improve that for both yourself and those around you.

Take inspiration from someone else and re-invent it for yourself. See what your peers and contemporaries are doing and ask yourself why you think they’re enjoying success in whatever they’re doing. Is it because they’re more experienced, or more open, or more communicative? Look, listen and learn. And then take the best parts and make them even better.

Be Creative.

How are you getting your message out? How do people know about your experience, your services, your difference from others around you? Maybe it’s time to take a step back and look at differentiating yourself and offering another way for your talents to shine.

There are plenty of tools to help you. Want an all-in-one place to link to your most important places, profiles or examples of your successes? Use a MeeID account to give people a 10-line snapshot of you. It’s easy, it’s free, and it’s entirely up to you how you use it best. Go all out and set up multiple accounts – personal, social networking and business. Really, the choice is yours.

Or update your resume and use a Visual CV instead. It’s using the same basic information you’d have on a normal resume and then some. As a tool for marketing yourself , it’s hard to beat. Have it on your blog, or link to it from your MeeID profile. Use the tools to connect with each other and you’ll answer anyone’s questions before they’re even asked.

Time is one luxury very few of us have. We can’t always come up with great new ideas and tools from scratch. Using the tools from those already a few steps ahead of us and making them our own is the next best thing.

This fan video shows just what can be achieved with some existing resources and creativity. How are you using your Thundercats groove?

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Get Your Thundercats Groove On To Market Yourself originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.

Talk about social media and many people automatically think of its business uses. While it’s as good a tool for individuals as it is for business, most social media talk at the moment is how it can benefit businesses. I’m as guilty as the next person for this, as it’s an area I always recommend clients both new and existing take a serious look at.

Yet there’s another area of social media that’s often overlooked, even though it’s quite possibly the most important use of all – using social media for social change.

There’s no end of advice around the web on how to use social media for business change, yet try and find information on how it’s being used for society and the results are less impressive.

Thankfully, there are some great organizations and influential blogs that are using social media to encourage change worldwide.

Social Media for Social Change, for example, is the brainchild of Michelle Riggen-Ransom, co-founder and Communications Director of BatchBlue Software. Michelle and guest writer T.J. Sondermann use the blog to show how technology can change the world for the better. Topics include Education, Non-Profit and Family Action Plans. There’s some great information on there and is well worth your time.

Change.org is also making headway since its inception in 2005. Its core message is about effecting change both social and environmental. Excellent use of their blog and interaction with their readers and visitors, as well as various projects using social media outlets, has seen Change.org become a leading light in social change.

One company that I have a lot of time for is Kiva, whose aim is to eradicate poverty through micro-lending. Individuals or groups can offer micro-loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries, offering a more viable way to escape poverty than charity handouts that may never get past the ruling Government. Kiva uses the Internet and social networking to great effect and is making a difference to those that really need it.

With these companies and the likes of Max Gladwell, Pop! Tech and more, social media is maturing into a medium that is much more than a business marketing tool. If we really want to encourage the “social” part of social media, then these sites and others like them are leading the way.

How will you make change?

Using Social Media for Change originally appeared on Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog - The Human Side of Media and the Social Side of Marketing under a Creative Commons license.