How good are you, really?  While we all may have our own (sometimes inflated) opinions of our greatness, the reality of our expertise – and our personal brand – is always defined by others.  Social Media, for the first time ever, gives us the opportunity to find this out directly.

Here are some ideas on how your greatness can be exposed on the social web…

Numerical measures: Of course, one way to measure our influence is through the number of followers, friends, and connections.  The greater the number of followers the better.  And the number of retweets, likes, and shares also speak to what people think of you: activity equals respect and influence.

Comments: Beyond the numbers, the quality of the comments is also important.  For example, if people are not just commenting on your original post, but also commenting on the comments, this speaks to your ability to strike a chord – and develop a community.  The activity level of “your” community is a direct reflection on your greatness.

LinkedIn Recommendations:  These are the 2-3 sentence testimonials that some of your connections  give you.  Because others can see both the recommender and the context of their relationship, recommendations are an exceptionally powerful indicator.  There is also the benefit of selectivity: you need not have a particular LinkedIn recommendation appear on your profile – it’s totally up to you.

LinkedIn Endorsements:  These are one of LinkedIn’s most powerful features.  For the skills that you have listed, others can vote for (“endorse”) your strongest.  In essence, this is crowdsourcing your reputation. To get the most from this feature, only list those skills that you really want “on the menu”.  If you list too many, you may put yourself in the embarrassing position of thinking that you have a skill, but the market not agreeing.  One additional point: unlike LinkedIn Recommendations, ALL endorsements appear on your profile.

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