Shama Kabani talks readily about the evolution of her career expectations and her brand  For a while she wanted to be a cosmetologist, and then a wife and mother, a journalist and a teacher. She went to college – on a full-ride scholarship to the University of Texas — because her boyfriend, now husband, wanted her to have a college degree. “I want you to be smart’ ” she recalls him telling her.

She’s all that, and also a success in the social media world, running a 25-person digital marketing agency in Dallas and speaking at universities and organizations worldwide. Her book The Zen of Social Media Marketing  is in its second edition and has received many five-star reviews on Amazon.

I interviewed Shama for my Fortune magazine piece on career branding, and some mistakes and overextension people make. I was impressed with her candor and her thoughtfulness – not to mention her ability to manage myriad commitments from speaking engagements and a web television show to a digital marketing agency that has 25 employees and growing. (I also was taken with her shaggy little dog named Snoopy, who shows up in some of her videos.)

“All my passions clicked” – technology, media, teaching – with the social media work, she said.  ”Social media is simply an amplifier. Doing the right things and saying the right things and building the brand,” she said.  “There’s a digital footprint for everyone,” even children as young as 2.

So as you grow and manage yours, consider these four lessons I heard from from Shama Kabani:

• Provide value and build credibility. In today’s Twitter and Facebook all the time world, it’s easy to write something silly or off-the-cuff.  Instead, think about your community, your followers and what could be useful to them. Shama answers questions about social media, and sharing insights of others.  “It’s always been content based, sharing things,” she said. You want your messages to match your brand and to attract more people in whatever focused market you’ve chosen.
• Develop your own principles and approaches.  She suggests her clients answer the question: “What is it that they want to be known for?” Understand the norms of your industry or position; then adapt your own approaches that work for you and your values. “Find what works for you. Don’t care what’s politically correct,” she said.  She believes in being accessible and transparent, but when come-ons and inappropriate comments grew too much, she changed her approach to Google+ and Twitter to keep out the spammers and weirdos. ”You need to balance that personal-professional line; manage that very closely,” she said, and respect your husband, your personal life and family’s needs too.
• Evolve your brand and your business.  Initially Kabani wanted to work for a major consulting firm like McKinsey or Bain on social media develop . But it was the recession of 2009 and they were skeptics and also not hiring. So she started her own company, to consult on use of Twitter and other new tools. Soon clients were asking her not just for recommendations but for implementation, so she developed the full deal. Her brand is evolving too, as she talks about social media and SEO but also leadership and entrepreneurship. And she chose to take her husband’s last name, despite some feedback that she was giving up something. “Your life evolves,” she said. So should your business strategies.
• Choose how you will impact the world.  Shama seems already to be ahead of many people twice her age with her book and her business. She’s mentoring a group of young Egyptian women called SuperMama.me  and is involved in the Young Entrepreneur Council. She’s also committed to giving talks at universities and nonprofits. “That’s my platform for giving back in a public way,” she said. Recently when she couldn’t fly to the Dominican Republic for a college engagement, she agreed to a Skype talk instead.