In order to grow your business through social media engagement, the first step is to be the realest version of yourself, and nothing but yourself. Don’t follow anyone else. Be the best version of yourself and live your passions. Everything else will fall into place.

I’d like to share with you one of my favorite quotes of all time and prove just how it applies to social media marketing personally and professionally:

“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the masters. Seek what they sought.”

Throughout my 20-year digital marketing career, this early Japanese proverb has guided me and has dared me to seek alternatives–to look left when everyone is going right. Shirzad Chamine, Stanford University professor and author of Positive Intelligence (also happens to be a brilliant teacher of mine), put it in another way. “If you are an apple tree, why do you wish to be an orange tree? Rather than trying to be something you are not, just be the most amazing apple tree you can be.”

This statement stuck with me to such an extent that, once I saw this simple fact, it was screaming at me from every direction I looked. “Being risky is safe. Being safe is risky.” This was pointed out in Seth Godin’s Purple Cow. Among the numerous insightful pearls of wisdom in this book, the concept of “standing out” was what truly mattered (hence the “purple cow”).

If you’re up to date with digital marketing today, you know there is a “follow the herd” mentality. One company comes up with a breakthrough and suddenly everyone is jumping on the bandwagon with the same innovation. Crowd wisdom can well provide thoughtful insights on where the world is going, but it does not help you grow your business. Terms such as “thought leader” and “influencer” don’t live up to the originality that most people crave.

Here’s the kicker: You already are original. Everyone is born unique and is one of a kind. Originality is within you by default. It took years of social pressure at school, home and social circles to beat the idea of originality out of you. Eventually, groupthink substituted that special part of you that is, paradoxically, both vulnerable and powerful.

The time to be brave is now. Find your true self and let it shine. That thing which makes you special is what makes you wholly unique. And that is what we want to see. You, the whole you and nothing but you. The problem lies with the fact that somewhere along the way, we have this tendency to be who we think others want us to be rather than who we truly are.

Try to think about how that pertains to your company, its brand personality and what you are willing to expose about your company when it comes to social media. Are you fully being transparent? Are you conveying your true self to your social media channels, or just the select parts you want people to pay attention to? The less “real” your company is, the less people care about it.

So when it comes to social media, I say, “Don’t follow me” because the idea of being a “Fast Follower” is obsolete. I don’t want nor need you to follow me–even if what I’m doing is working. Instead, learn from my failures and my success, and integrate those lessons into your own unique thinking and approach. No one will care about what you’re doing until you blaze your own trail.

If you need any more proof, look no further than my favorite Apple television ad, “Here’s to the Crazy Ones“:

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

I can be man enough to admit that when I read this (or watch the ad), I choke up a bit. My eyes begin to water because of the simple, raw truth so eloquently displayed by an ad by Apple.

If you want to grow your business through social media engagement, the very first step is to be yourself, your whole self and nothing but yourself. Or as Brené Brown puts it in her TED Talk, “Be vulnerable“. Be brave enough to put yourself out there and others will try to understand who you are and what you stand for. If it’s possible, genuinely and transparently connect all of that into helping make the world a better place. If you achieve this, you (and your company) will be unstoppable. So do not aim to follow or copy anyone. Aim to be the best person you can be and live your passions. The rest will fall into place.