Take Advantage of Online Tools to Extend Your Personal Brand
By Dana Kohlbeck, PR Specialist Coalesce Marketing & Design, Inc
Originally printed in the May 5, 2008, MarketSmart Column of the Appleton Post-Crescent
Branding is not just for companies and products – whether you are a business owner or professional, your personal brand helps you to communicate a solid reputation, differentiate yourself from your peers and serves as a valuable connection opportunity. Today, a vast majority of professionals use the Internet to extend their personal brand, and according to a recent study, 40% of business community members use search engines such as Google to learn more about potential business partners.
While traditional networking and community service remains paramount to building solid business relationships, today’s technology enables individuals to increase their visibility and presence, and to tap into new opportunities.
Thanks to popular online tools, “wiring” into the global marketplace has never been easier.
Blog – Offer your expertise by creating your own profession-related blog or commenting within already established social communities. Seek out existing blogs that pertain to your business field or subjects in which you’d like to get more involved. Reviewing and posting comments will help you to stay on top of new trends and extend your name to others in your industry. Make sure the blogs you post to are reputable – and always stick to business discussions.
Join a social network – LinkedIn, Spoke, Ecademy or other professional social networks encourage business partnerships and jobs to come to you, and provide channels to seek out potential opportunities. What’s more, you can keep in touch with people you’ve met by connecting and sending them messages via their social networks. Consider number of members, credibility and relevancy when choosing which online communities to join, and be sure to keep your network profiles updated.
Get published – Enhance your online brand by publishing your professional work. Online newswire services like PR Web and I-Newswire distribute your news releases or professional papers to the press, both on- and off-line, for a fee. And, to assure online pick-up, write book reviews on Amazon or Barnes and Noble or contribute to online newsletters about topics within your areas of expertise.
What’s your online presence? Check the reach and value of your personal brand online by logging onto www.careerdistinction.com/onlineid/ or other online identity calculators.