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Andy Warhol said that everyone will have his or her 15 minutes of fame.  But what if you want more than 15 minutes?

How can YOU become an Internet celebrity?

At WordCamp Chicago Erin Blaskie gave a standout presentation entitled “Becoming an Internet Celebrity using WordPress and Social Media.”  Anyone looking to break into the spotlight, pay attention!

Who is Erin Blaskie, and what makes her an Internet celebrity?  Erin is an Internet Marketing Strategist from Ontario, Canada, or as she describes herself, “A Girl Involved in a Passionate Love Affair with Internet Marketing.”  In order to demonstrate how to gain exposure and maintain relevancy within a target market; Erin created an alter ego and became her own real life case study – Bonus: an Internet Celebrity was born!

Meet Erin Games.

Erin Games did not exist before February 2009. Erin Games 1.0 was created using Brian Gardner’s Church theme on WordPress, social media channels including YouTube and Twitter, and a World of Warcraft membership.  Within four months, the Erin Games YouTube channel had over 9,000 views and 500 subscribers, and was listed on the second page of YouTube’s Gaming Channel.  Erin Games gained over 2,000 followers on Twitter, and the website now ranks at 279,000 of US sites according to Alexa.  On top of that, Erin was asked to cover ComicCon and BlizzCon, she is the gaming/MMO correspondent for TheStream.tv, and was offered a clothing line sponsorship with Jinx.com!

How can you apply a similar strategy to become an Internet celebrity in your area of interest?

Internet celebrity is interchangeable with industry expert, leader, guru, go-to person.  Simply stated, it’s all about the know, like and trust factor. – Michael Port

To begin your path to stardom:

• Chose a specific target market where you have knowledge and passion
• Share your personality!
• Target specific people in the industry and on the web who will drive the brand forward, partner with larger sites for increased exposure
• Gather a following for your blog as opposed to capturing a one-time audience
• Create buzz and appeal for your markets, which increases sales, visibility and market appeal

Remember – It is important to maintain relevance to YOUR target market, not the entire world.

Authenticity sells, so be yourself!

People will seek you out when you give them reason to, don’t try to fit into a mold.

When you are blogging, do so in your own voice, so people get to learn about YOU and not just your company or chosen topic.

Tools to get you started:

• Video – if you are comfortable with it, get on YouTube and do videos about your content area
• Blog different mediums, video, blog posts, excerpts from other bloggers, give people a lot of things to interact with.
• Interweave your efforts – when you blog tweet about it, turn blog post into articles, turn videos into blog posts.
• Live streaming video sessions – invite people to come and ask you questions
• Guest bloggers – invite industry leaders to blog on your site
• Interaction & interactivity – get community involved through contests, etc (freebies help sell stuff)
• Get out of your bubble – look at industry and outside of your industry to see what’s hot now
• Attend specific events: going to networking events & conferences

Remember – Reach out as much as your expect to be reached to…this is a two- way street!

Erin has it going on, and is therefore an Internet Celebrity in my eyes (even though I am not a gamer!)   You should get to know Erin too, and can by visiting her sites:
www.bsetc.ca
www.thevacoach.com
www.learnaboutonlinebusiness.com

In case I haven’t encountered your favorite Internet Celebrity yet,  please turn me on to some of your favorites!

Don’t forget – It is OK to talk about what you do, who you are and why you’re the Rockstar in your industry.

If you are an aspiring Internet Celebrity plug yourself below!

Related posts:

1. What I Learned at WordCamp Chicago
2. What I Learned at WordCamp 2010
3. interactiveAmy is now Video Blogging!