10 Techniques To Build Your Personal Brand On The Internet

Business branding is nearly as old as business building itself.  Personal branding is relatively new and exciting.

Personal branding can be described as the process that individuals and entrepreneurs use to distinguish themselves from the crowd and stand out.  They share what makes them unique,  personal and professional and leverage that information across the various platforms on the internet with the goal being to deliver a consistent message.

Simply said, personal branding is boldly self-promotion.

It is important to understand that success comes from more than one source.  It comes from self-improvement and personal branding or self-packaging.  Both self-improvement and personal branding are within your control.

Why should I brand myself online?

1. The quick answer is to establish and control your digital footprint.
2. To build a solid reputation in your area of expertise.  When someone search your name you want the information seen to be an honest representation of who you are.
3. To establish reliability and credibility.  This is so important in building relationships on the internet.
4. To meet people.  Make friends, business contacts, and customers.  With so many scams around it is all about trust, trust and trust.

 

How do I begin to brand myself?

I will begin to answer that question by asking another one.  What information surfaces  when you search  your name? Studies show that 59% of people on line searched their name last year.

If someone is considering a business relationship with you they will surely search your name to find out as much information about you as possible before entering into a relationship.

You are responsible for your reputation and credibility on the internet.  Start your personal branding today.

 

I have listed some tools you will need to brand yourself online:

1.  Use your real name. Be yourself!  You are special.  People will certainly gravitate toward your uniqueness.

2.  Create a blog. If you can type you can create a blog using Blogger or WordPress.  Both are free and easy to use.  WordPress is more versatile  than Blogger and WordPress blogs rank higher in the search engines.

3.  Write a newsletter.  It is wise to get an account that can capture leads and send to those leads newsletters, tips and bulletins.    Two good companies that can capture your leads are Aweber and Get Response.   There is a fee, usually under $20.00 (US) a month for this service.  They are simple and easy to use with training on their sites as well.

4.  Join Twitter and create a profile.  Twitter is a micro blogger with millions of users and growing rapidly.  The median age on Twitter surprisingly is 45-54 years old. Great marketing platform.

5.  Sign up with Facebook and create a profile.  It is very simple to do.  Upload a great picture of yourself and fill in the blanks.  You may have one profile, up to 5,000 friends on your personal page and unlimited fans on your business page.  A great way to start is with a personal page. The fastest growing age segment on Facebook over all is women 55 and older.  The fastest growing age group in the past 6 months are new users age 35-45.

6.  Add you profile to LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. It is mainly used for professional networking.   As of October 2009 LinkedIn had more than 50 million registered users. The average age is 41 years old.

7.  Create a Google profile.  Your Google profile is a part of your Google e-mail account.  Get an e-mail and get involved.   If you are not on Google you are not on the internet.  It has evolved into a giant dynamic machine.

8.  Write articles and post them to your blog, send your articles to your list, publish to article directories, send links to Twitter and Facebook.  If you are not a writer you can hire the service done for you’re at a very reasonable rate, usually under $10.00 (US)  per article.  Check here to find this article site.  Send your article links to all of your social networking sites with one entry at Ping.

9. Videos are great if you have a passion for this.  You only need an inexpensive flip recorder and your script.  YouTube is a well known site to post videos but not the only one?  An international site for video posting is Kewego.

10.  Some other social networking sites are: Digg,  Searchles,  Reddit,  Mixx and Stumbleupon. There are many others you can research.

You do not have to be everywhere online, only where it matters.  In one article it is difficult to cover all aspects of personal branding.  Check back frequently for more articles delving into the marketing platforms mentioned in this article.

Last tip:  Take some time and write a 100 word or less bio to use on your social networks. This is a snapshot of how you want others to see you.

Honor yourself!