One of the many, MANY things I will be doing to move my business – more accurately, my brand – forward once these two weeks are over is to review and expand on the length and strength of my reach online. I’ve liked the concept Chris Brogan has been talking about lately regarding your online spaces and how outposts can improve your strategy with social media. There, Chris talks about your ‘home base,’ ‘outposts,’ and ‘passports’ online. AnnieSorensen.com is obviously my home base, and one that I have many plans to expand.

I currently consider Twitter, DailyBooth, Facebook, and Corkd as my outposts; those areas online where I consistently spend time conversing and connecting. The purpose of these outposts is to have fun, network, and eventually filter folks back to my home base.

Passports, however, represent a huge growth area for me. I think of passports as areas online where I’m reserving and representing my brand, yet not actively playing in the space. And the work I could do on my passports is massive. I mean, LinkedIn? Ugh, let’s not even get into how much I’m leaving on the table in that space. That’s a current passport I DESPERATELY need to turn into a solid outpost.

Then there my other passports; Tumblr, Flickr, Ustream, Amazon, YouTube, TubeMogul, StumbleUpon, and…hmm, I’m sure I’m missing others. I will soon have much more time to develop my brand, which items from this list do I want to dedicate more time to and develop into outposts? Which would I prefer to keep as passports? What passports have I not yet even secured? Very important questions that I need to figure out how to answer.

Lots of work to do!

What say you – how do you decide what spaces to develop into strong, beneficial outposts of your home base? What spaces do you think are important in 2010 to, at the very least, secure a passport?

As a geek passionate about social media and networking online, I was intrigued by the summary of this book. I mean, who wouldn’t be? The founding of Facebook? Money, sex, betrayal, genius? You couldn’t POSSIBLY find a more attractive title than that! After reading the book, however, all I can think of to say, in CEO Zuckerberg’s supposed own words, was that it was “interesting.”

Was it fascinating to learn the details of the names and events surrounding Facebook’s creation and growth? Yes. Did it peak my curiosity about Mark Zuckerberg, Sean Parker, the Winklevoss twins, and the many other real-life characters it introduced? Yes. Was it overly dramatic, poorly written, and almost embarassingly corny? Yes, yes, YES.

Go into The Accidental Billionaires with the knowledge that it’s not going to be the actual written words that will inspire you – they’ll more likely annoy you – but instead the general feeling of inspiration and curiosity that the dorm room-to-riches story leaves you with upon walking away from the last page.

It’s got a pretty catchy cover, too, but you know what they say about that…
1.5/5 stars