Personal Branding: 10 Steps Toward a New Professional You

Dorie Clark says that the Internet is Your Resume.  People will find out more about you online than they will through almost any other means.  It is important to manage your personal brand on the internet so that anyone who googles you gets the best impression of you.

Rose Leadem has shared the following infographic the provides 10 basic steps to managing your personal brand on Entreprenuer. These steps are a great way to get started.

 The infographic was developed by Mel Carlon of Delightful Communications.

12 Storytelling Techniques For Creating A More Powerful Brand

From Forbes, Forbes Coaches Council shares its recommendations for storytelling techniques for building your brand.  They write: 

1. Use The Word That Most Describes Your Brand Repeatedly

If your brand were one word, what would it be? If you’re telling a story about your brand, bring each peak and valley in your story back to that one word. Use a powerful word that artfully describes your unique brand. Use something emotive, as people tend to remember how you make them feel versus what you say. And, if that word can be visually linked to your brand, you’re gold.   – Cha Tekeli, Chalamode, Inc.

2. Share Your Hero’s Journey

You are a company run by human beings for human beings. Share the authenticity of your hero’s journey with the world. Life is full of obstacles, pain, and low points, not just high points and celebrations. Show your light and your darkness. Invite the world into what you stand for as a brand and where you are strong, but also where you are frail. It’s time for companies to get real.   – Corey Blake, Round Table Companies

3. Be 100% Real And Share Your Journey

People connect with people. Stories that share triumph, tribulations, and the overcoming of obstacles are examples of ways to achieve this. More simply put, allow yourself to be seen as a round character rather than a flat character. This literary idea can be inputted into a powerful brand by conveying your emotions, inner thoughts, and the struggles you have encountered along the way.   – Wendi Weiner, JD, NCRW, CPRW, CCTC, CCM, The Writing Guru

Read the full story at 12 Storytelling Techniques For Creating A More Powerful Brand

7 Essential Tools for Building Your Personal Brand Online

From Social Media Today, Ryan Erskine offers his recommendations on 7 tools for building your personal brand online.  Ryan writes:

Here are 7 tools that make it easy to monitor and improve your online brand.

1. Google Alerts

You cannot afford to miss out on conversations about your brand.

It’s nice to know when you get a shout out, and proactive monitoring could mean the difference between effectively handling a crisis and completely dropping the ball.

The bottom line is you need to be the first to know when you’re mentioned online.

Craft a Google alert alert to stay on top of your mentions or those of your competition. Decide how often you want to receive the updates and the rest will handle itself.

2. Canva

Canva makes digital designing a cinch. Want to build a custom Twitter header or a high quality slideshow? Maybe a bespoke Pinterest pin or a beautiful Infographic?

The sky's the limit with Canva and you don’t need any design skills. With so many awesome templates, you can strategize visual elements and colors without stressing about the quality of the result.

Once you’re happy with a template, you can use it again and again to deliver visual content that your audience can come to expect and enjoy.

Canva is free with the opportunity to buy some templates and features for $1 each. I’ve spent a few dollars here and there but you can develop amazing designs without spending a cent.

3. BrandYourself

If you’re looking to improve your chances of getting hired or getting leads, then you’ll want to keep an eye on your online presence. And BrandYourself’s DIY tool is the one you’ll need.

With BrandYourself’s tool, you can track the movement of your search results over time. You’ll be notified when things change, get tips on how to improve your online properties to be SEO-friendly, and learn what to do to help things rise in search results over time.

The free DIY tool lets you track three online profiles while the $99 per year subscription gives you unlimited ability to track and improve your search results.

If you’re going to spend any money improving your online brand, BrandYourself’s DIY tool is the way to go.

Read the full story at 7 Essential Tools for Building Your Personal Brand Online

Personal Branding - A Step by Step Guide

Mattias Cronborc developed this terrific infographic with a step by step guide for building your personal brand.

4 Misconceptions About Personal Branding You Need To Abandon Right Now

From Fast Company, Erica Breuer share four misconceptions about personal branding.  The first one is: 

1. "I’M NOT THE KIND OF PERSON WHO NEEDS A WEB PRESENCE"

This is the lie I hear from my clients most frequently. It’s usually paired with the mantra "I’m really kind of a private person" or "I hate social media." The worst case I’ve run into was a super talented woman targeting a digital marketing job—and she was doing it without an active Twitter feed. Yikes!

If you’re in any vein of technology or marketing these days, you have to be active on more than just LinkedIn. But you don’t have to be the type of person who shares pictures of your lunch or tweets every thought you have to build your brand on the web. You don’t even have to churn out lengthy blog posts to start branding yourself as someone who’s engaged in an industry.The truth: You can have an active web presence without baring your soul.

All you have to do is select one to two social platforms that work for you and engage with content that’s relevant to your area of expertise. Simple shares and comments every other day or so.

See the full list and read the full story at  4 Misconceptions About Personal Branding You Need To Abandon Right Now

5 steps to build your Personal Brand

From PeopleMatters, Shibani Belwalkar offers 5 steps to build your personal brand.  She starts by recommending you identify your passion and then align your brand with your personal values.  She writes:

Identify your Passion

What makes you tick? Call out your strengths and label them. Get as close to the basics as you can and be eloquent about what it is you believe you have on offer to the world. Several attempts could be made before you can zero in on what really defines you. But what is important is to believe in the fact that you had a purpose in life before anyone had an opinion about it! Start where you are, use what you have and do what you can. Keep characterizing yourself. Precise, concise and consistent. 

Scale your Values to Articulate your Identity

Once you have defined yourself, you need to articulate your identity with your values. The Greek Philosopher Heraclitus had said that ‘Character is fate’. After all, if people like you, they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they will do business with you. Reputation matters tremendously. Admit mistakes if you make them. Work with all stakeholders to create mutually beneficial solutions to forge deeper relations. The base of all interactions should be Trust, Respect and Humility, fundamental human values. Every interaction should reflect your values.  Brands don’t just live on the page anymore.  They are living breathing things. It is important to build your brand that is aligned with your values so that your actions are aligned with the message you are putting out there.

Read the full story at  5 steps to build your Personal Brand.

How To Build Your Brand Online

When you have developed your brand, you may want to build it online.  Fortunately, FreeWebsite.com  developed the following infographic to help guide you in building your brand online. 

If you have trouble reading it, it also appears at How to Build Your Brand Online as part of Job Search Infographics