Today, we are taking a different take on FollowFriday. We aren’t recommending anyone in particular, just the most important “secret” about social media.
Today, we follow “Hard Work.” Yes, Hard Work. We are following it, like we have always have. Even on those days when we don’t want to, we still follow it. For those who don’t know what “Hard Work” is, we recommend you follow it because if you think social media is easy and automatic, if you think all you have to do is listen to some “experts” (by the way, we are all experts, everyone of us, but that is for another blog) and you run everything on auto-pilot, if you think that since most major social media sites are free and any company can just hire anyone to do the job, then you aren’t following “Hard Work.”
(PSST, we had to add an image to this blog, and not to count out amazing talents of women online, come on, you HAVE to love the image we picked for this blog. Yes?)
We aren’t not going to gloss this over. When people ask us, “How can we get some branding success online?,” we say, “Hard Work.”
And how do you know that you are following “Hard Work?” Here are our some of the signs:
1. You would rather call it a night, instead of writing your weekly Friday blog. (Wait, that sounds familiar.)
2. You would rather personally thank people who follow you on Twitter instead of using automated systems and replies. (Exhibit A of this: @jeffmello)
3. You would rather personally reply to people on Twitter when they connect with you publicly and ask for your advice. (See: @daivrawks or @jamesrivers for examples of TRUE givers of advice.)
4. You tell your clients the truth when it comes to resources and success online with branding and social media. You show real data to prove this. The time for theory is over.
5. You breathe, take a rest, and start all over again the next day.
Some days will be better than others, but in the end if you follow “Hard Work” consistently and authentically, you will see the results. This takes time, dedication, and insane passion. Yet, the best part of this, is that anyone can achieve success online, if you follow “Hard Work.”
The days of the Internet as an automated medium to increase brand loyalty and sales are over. The time to truly connect is here. With a little “Hard Work,” we know you can do it.
Franky Benítez 
Following your passion has always equaled HARD WORK, as it relates to how others my visualize how HARD you appear to be working. For you, since you are following your passion, it just happens to be the purveyor for accomplishing your dreams. When you passionately engage in what you really like to do, most of the time it would not seem as though you are “Working”, let alone HARD WORK. Don’t mistake ” Hard Work” with what more than 90%+ of all the people in the world consider they do, just because they have a JOB that they need, because it provides them a check. When you are forced to do ‘WORK” because you have to, it can be misunderstood to mean you are “working hard” to do something you don’t like to do, so it will seem as though it entails Hard Work to do it.
Just make sure that at some moment in your life, you will make a decision to actually do, whatever it is that your PASSIONATE about, a life guarantee that the money will follow. For HARD WORK will only just reassert your JOY for what you really like to do….peace….Papijulio
Papi, an excellent point and addition to this blog!
Bravo!Bravo!
All the best to you –
Bettina de Perez
Thank you so much!