Andy Warhol, the 1960‘s visionary artist and celebrity watcher,  predicted that  “…everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.” Today the Internet, websites and social media have made Warhol’s prediction a reality, giving just about anyone the ability to become “famous” or a lot longer than the predicted quarter of an hour. I mean just look at the endless popularity of “funny kitty”  and “cute baby” viral videos. Adorable fluff balls and uncontrolled infantile bodily functions aside, what exactly does this mean for your business?

Simply having a consistent branding message is not enough. In order to stand out from the crowd, or more importantly, from your competition, you need to take full advantage of this new media landscape, and make yourself  “famous”—specifically you need to make yourself a Micro Celebrity.

A Micro Celebrity is a person, business or organization that is a recognized leader in their field by a small but loyal, tightly defined, online community. They are the “go to people” for their specific areas of expertise…and unlike real celebrities, they WANT their fans to find them.

You Might be a Micro Celeb if…

Micro Celebs have three main characteristics:

• They have a recognizable identity, image, message, personality—something that would make you an identifiable “YOU!”—that is consistently applied across a variety of media and platforms (websites, blogs. mobile apps, social media and anything else that might appear in the next 15 minutes.)

• They consistently deliver a quality the product or service (the best kind of viral marketing is happy customer)

• They are “Socially Active” and post, pin, tweet, blog to a specific niche market that hang on their every word because they a reputation for creating compelling content that is useful, entertaining, even controversial, and it’s something fans want to share with their friends. (…that’s the second best kind of viral marketing)

As a Micro Celebrity people will seek you out as resource of information in your field of expertise with friends referring you to friends, tweeters to their tweeters and so on as “the community of you” grows organically and exponentially. In return, you will be seen you as a “star” in your chosen profession. Your fans will provide you with a steady stream of business and referrals, taking you way beyond the predicted 15 minutes.

Are you ready for your close-up?