This is a guest post by Ben Johnson.
Becoming a thought leader in an industry requires expert level knowledge and vision, accompanied with the ability to communicate and align with relevant people. Social media provides that platform and power to reach out to people online and create a powerful and long lasting personal brand. Personal branding is no different than product branding, but this time it’s you who needs to be differentiated.
Developing a brand over social media is a step-by-step non-linear process and it will take some time before you start seeing the results. Remember, creating a personal brand is directly proportional to creating value for other people.
The Power of Blogging
Let’s first start with blogging. Blogging do it consistently and add value. Blogging provides tangible evidence of your expertise and achievements. Before starting a blog, setup all the on-page stuff. Firstly, buy user-friendly, easy-to remember, and content appropriate domain name, and then create blog theme according to your area of expertise and target audience. Meanwhile, set everything else like “About us” page with your personal and professional information, easy to use comments box, RSS subscription etc. Make sure that your blog is well-build for search engines.
Don’t forget to update your blog with quality and relevant content regularly to make your readers keep coming back. A strong, well written content can be the headstone of a great online identity, which in turn is a key element of a great personal brand.
Get Listed To Increase Online Presence
On the other hand, you need to increase your online presence. Therefore, register your blog with the available blog and web directories, claim with Technorati.com, and use Google Reader to store your searches. This way your blog will be easily indexed in search engines. Check regularly who is linking back to you through Yahoo! Site Explorer. Also commenting on other blogs within your area of expertise would certainly help in building connections with the experts.
Brand Extension With Social Media
Besides blogging, to further extend you personal brand, creating accounts on other social networks and media platforms help a lot. Like, Twitter, it connects you to other social media practitioners. Facebook and MySpace could be used for outpost and to stay in touch with friends, and find new ones, LinkedIn for professional networking, which helps in exploring business opportunities and getting advices from experts no matter where you are, Flicker for photo sharing, YouTube for video, Digg and StumbleUpon for voting, Upcoming.org for events updates, and Gmail for docs, readers and more. Creating accounts on all these would certainly give you jump recognition on social media. In addition, creating groups on social networking platforms give you an easy mechanism for communicating with lots of people in one go.
Time To Build Networks
After all the efforts, it’s time to start networking aggressively. Interact with people, allow them to reach you easily, thank community often for their time and attention, ask questions for expert advices, share knowledge based articles with your contacts and if you have mistakenly done something wrong, apologize immediately. Doing all these community building efforts grow you out as a natural extension.
Remember…
The concept of personal branding is closely associated to that of leadership and at the heart of its passion. There is much more you can do to standout and become a brand. Remember, Online personal branding using social media is depended on creating quality relationships. Try to look for ways to help those who are best placed to help you, they’ll be more inclined to help you, and if you need to call on them they’ll remember who you are.
This is guest post from Ben Johnson of Logoinn, custom logo design service provider based in UK.
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June 2nd, 2009 at 11:58 am
Ben, great post as always! The key to remember is that social media, just like real life has to be genuine and truthful. It’s not about collecting ‘followers’ it’s about connecting with people.
Christopher Ross´s last blog post..Google articles in the news
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June 2nd, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Your suggestion are Great
Enjoyed the post
People BUY from People not Icons.
Branding on the Internet is a important as your
Off-line reputation in your respective Niche
We spend a lot of time coaching in this direction at
Focus Society Mastermind
Chuck Bartok´s last blog post..The Internet, Is it a Business?
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June 2nd, 2009 at 2:57 pm
That actually is what I am working for when I started my blog… To get a strong personal brand and have it stamped to the blogosphere
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June 2nd, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Another thing to consider is writing for article directories like EzineArticles and ArticlesBase. There are a lot of people on these sites and they rank really high in Google. For example, when I google “Nick Tart” my profile on ArticlesBase is 10th and EzineArticles is 11th. It’s a good thing for a prospective employer to find. Nice post, Ben!
Nick Tart´s last blog post..Improving JuniorBiz.com – JJ Entry #15
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June 3rd, 2009 at 3:32 am
You are right, it is very important for me to brand myself.
Once people get to know me and maybe start to like me,
they will eventually buy from me.
The more exposure I get, the better. That goes for everybody.
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June 3rd, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Nice guest post and very valid points raised. I just need to point out something that is quite common on the net. There are some blogs that carry funny names but the owners have their brand names so powerfully in the minds of their readers, that the blog site does very well. Such developments need a different kind of understanding and marketing.
Nicole Price´s last blog post..Some Risqué and not so Risqué Gift Ideas
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June 3rd, 2009 at 8:00 pm
These are all good points but I think you also want to get a good reputation as well. Because what’s the point of branding something if you’re going to have a bad rep?
For instance, if you are known as a potential spammer then your brand is all over from there.
Last Minute Gift Ideas´s last blog post..Sony Webbie MHS-CM1 HD Camcorder: Perfect Gift for Father’s Day
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June 3rd, 2009 at 8:17 pm
I have heard that social media websites such as MySpace can be a good way to drive traffic to your website. Does anyone know how to do this?
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June 4th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Great points, branding yourself is very important for the business
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June 5th, 2009 at 1:55 am
I try to focus on sites that have SEO friendly web links. Facebook is great but Myspace isn’t a friendly.
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June 5th, 2009 at 8:39 am
That actually is what I am working for when I started my blog…thank for making us aware about the point that to connect followers is not important but to connect to people.
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June 6th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
That’s a very nice article! I totally agree in the Blogging Power part.
Very well said. Keep it going
Arlind´s last blog post..eBay Money Making Secrets: Enticing Product Descriptions
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June 7th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Great article, in a society where once presence in social media is forever increasing in importance it is essential to know how to develop one’s brand.
Hugo Firth´s last blog post..Why the internet is killing traditional press, one generation at a time.
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June 9th, 2009 at 7:49 am
As the old saying goes, “No man is an island”.
The same thing applies for blogs.
Diabetis´s last blog post..A type 2 diabetis
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June 13th, 2009 at 11:19 am
It really takes time and patience to build up your connection and interacting with people. Some people simply can’t reach this far.
Ben Pei´s last blog post..Your e-Book – Should It Be EXE or PDF?
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June 20th, 2009 at 2:03 am
Creating such kind of branding is really a tough and steady work. You should always do such things which will add value to your blog and to your reputation as well.
Any bad move and that can ruin your months labour.
You should be everywhere and your presence should be felt every where as well.
SW @ Quality Squidoo Lens Service´s last blog post..Social Bookmarking Service
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June 21st, 2009 at 11:09 am
Just spread your name every where by creating your name.
Create controversy with big names …
Start bulky amount contest and give …
Be innovative and create some great ideas like Squidoo from Seth …
Now this is the stage where you will have to do something different otherwise you will be also a part of crows like we are
ZK @ Web Marketing Blog´s last blog post..Ultimate Blogging Theme Coupon Code – Save $20
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June 26th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Yeah, I agree!
Social networks are perfect to build a particular kind of image, great suggestions!
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June 26th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Regarding the importance of Blogging and Branding, I just posted a quick audio on our New Video/Video Hosting site.
Give a quick Listen, sign in and Post your Stuff
http://www.2gshost.com/play_audio.php?audio=34
Great Blog!!
Chuck Bartok´s last blog post..Just created a quick audio
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July 4th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
[...] How To Develop A Strong Personal Brand Using Social Media – TheUniversityKid shows you how! [...]
June 11th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Social media is very important in building your name in a particular field. In this way, you can easily market everything you could actually offer. Connect to other people, that’s precisely the key.
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June 18th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
I agree with this and appreciate your article to make your brand with social media. Social media is the most powerful technique to cuild a stronger brand.
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July 21st, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Great points, branding yourself is very important role in business industry,thanks for sharing the blog.
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