If social media scares you – and based on a new study this isn’t a bad assumption – you don’t have to jump in with both feet. In fact, there are three easy ways you can get your feet wet without making a huge commitment.

And you can help your brand.

This isn’t size specific and these small things will help you stay on top of what’s being said about your brand (or business – or you!) and that is the first step in getting involved with social media. These are easy, easy things. So there’s no excuse for not getting started.

1. Set up Google Alerts.
Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. In this case, set one up for your brand – and don’t forget to do one for your name! When you do, add quotes around the search to make sure you get a focused report (for example, for me I use “Jennifer Carole” as the search term).

2. Set up a Twitter Search.
You can do a simple search to find conversations surrounding your brand. You can make it even better by adding and advanced search to find comments that are local, timely or include sentiment.

3. Use your “brand” name whenever you post.
If you post to LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, or comment on a blog, be sure to work in your brand name as part of the post. These properties are indexed by Google and the better you are about promoting your brand, the better chance you have of improving your search results.

Do you have other “low hanging fruit” ideas to share? Let us know – add your comment to this blog! And don’t ever forget the importance of promoting your personal brand (your name) along the way!