Social media leads the path here. It comes down to an investment of your time vs. an investment of your money. Which one do you have more of? Time is, usually, the easier to create. Investing your time in social media tools like Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, Meetup.com and many others is a sure-fire path to getting noticed.

But that's not all that is required. It's not enough to simply participate in those social networks nowadays. You need to stand out in the crowd, which can be hard to do, sometimes.

Here are a few simple things to think about when attempting to get yourself noticed in a vast sea of competition.

One way to get noticed is to create exceptional, even remarkable, content. There's simply no better way to get noticed than to absolutely wow people with your brilliance. Create content in any format you wish; Audio, video, text, whatever. Just create content that blows people away and solves their problems.

Another way to get noticed is to look different. If everyone else in your industry niche wears sweater vests, then perhaps it's time for you to switch to a full suit. Or maybe do something fun like creating a caricature of yourself and using it for your profile images across your brand and social networking channels.

The point is, you need to make yourself different from everyone else.

Now, get to it!