When we think of brands, we usually associate the term with businesses. However, with the rise of social media and the public nature of the internet, the opportunity to conduct some personal branding has arisen.

What is your personal brand?

Just as a company’s brand is reflected in every image, statement and video released, so is yours. It’s no secret that employers, competitors (and suitors) now routinely google people of interest. If you don’t pay attention to your personal branding, you might not like what they find (and neither might they).

Collectively, your personal brand is reflected in every social media profile you own, and every mention of you – consider how many times you’ve been mentioned in the media or in press releases. All of these are now online.

Why brand yourself?

As mentioned above, personal branding is important as a form of reputation management – ensuring that people don’t form a negative picture of you.

However, in a more positive sense, it can also create opportunities for you or your company. Fostering a strong personal brand is more than just hiding those pictures of you from last year’s Christmas party, it is also about establishing yourself as a an expert in your field; someone in your industry worth paying attention to.

Although you might initially do this within the framework of your employers, your personal brand will last a lot longer than that. It is an investment in your own future.

LinkedIn

If someone is interested in you professionally, your LinkedIn profile is the first place they’ll look. Make sure it is absolutely ship-shape, up to date, and shows off only your best qualities.

Join relevant groups and contribute regularly. If you can position yourself as an authority with other professionals within your niche, you will be a long way to building a strong personal brand.

Blogging

Blogging offers you the chance to really show what you know and to develop a following. If your blog becomes popular enough, you could even turn it into a commercial enterprise.

Some bloggers make significant sums from advertising, but others manage to establish themselves as ‘thought leaders’, monetising their reputation by publishing e-books (or real books) and working the lecture circuit.

Needless to say, cultivating such a reputation will very likely also bring further business or employment opportunities, as well as becoming a direct revenue stream in itself.

If you liked this article you may also want to read: 10 tips for online reputation management

Image Credit: johnsto

This entry was posted on Friday, November 25th, 2011 at 8:17 am and is filed under Online Reputation Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.