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Personal Branding and How it Can Help Your Business

Guest post by: Robert Strong

Article Overview: What is Personal Branding and how can it help your business? There are a few steps to accomplish this task although easy it can be time consuming especially for the individual that has not invested time into what is in their best interest. The key to any success (and this isn't cutting edge information) is to be compensated for what you love to do.

Personal Branding and How it Can Help Your Business

What is Personal Branding and how can it help your business? There are a few steps to accomplish this task although easy it can be time consuming especially for the individual that has not invested time into what is in their best interest. The key to any success (and this isn't cutting edge information) is to be compensated for what you love to do. You want to figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life, setting goals, writing out a plan on how you are going to get there, and establishing a personal brand statement ( what are you going to stand for or how are you going to serve them). Remember how you perceive yourself is how others perceive you. Once you figure these steps out you want to be unique with your site, there are so many websites out there and some you never remember or some you forget how to get to, so brand your name.

Next thing you want to do to help your personal Branding is to get business cards, it doesn't matter who you are or what you are doing if you want to be known for "you", you need a business card. They need to have your picture, your brand statement and your preferred contact information.

You will also definitely want to look into getting your own blog or website, for example yourname.com and tell your story. What have you done in the past and what are you doing now, a great way to get more out in the digital world is to have a blog. An individual that has a blog and uses it consistently will have a huge advantage over someone who does not because blogs rank higher on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing to name a few. Which if you are in Internet Marketing this will drive more people to your website in turn turning into profits. One part of your website needs to have "your story"; you need to have pictures of you with other people (when you brand yourself for marketing as I have, realized this is a people business). People relate with people not facts, figures, graphs, corporations, charts or things like that. The more of "you" that you get out online is the more that people can relate with you, for example if you go online to promote yourself in camo, a deer rifle and a buck you are going to attract and relate to that type of individual. If you brand yourself online in a business suit, driving your Porsche, eating bon-bons, you will attract that type of individual. Personal branding is about you, what you like to do, and who you are, never try to be something you aren't, as people can read and see passion for what you do or the lack of passion also.

Another definite must is obtaining a LinkedIn profile, this profile is a combination of a resume, cover letter, references document and a moving and living database of your network. Use it to create your own personal advertising, to search for jobs or meet new people. This is a great resource to mingle with like- minded individuals and build a larger networking group. This group helps your personal branding also because you can join groups and discussions on things you enjoy or interest you.

Facebook is a wonderful way to brand yourself and what you like to do and who you are, Facebook was ranked the #3 website in the world at one time and has over 160 million profiles, but what I have found is so many have not even put up a picture. Having a blank picture on any profile is like a blank canvas, people can see nothing or imagine anything and your personal branding can be jeopardized. I can only strongly recommend that if you want to be "you" and be branded put up a picture, people love pictures, they can put a face with the name, and then they can really start relating with you and your brand. Make sure you fill out all the options, what you like, don't like, previous work experience, favorite color and the sort, I would be careful though on confidential information though, just use some common sense.

I would also and have setup a Twitter account, you can really brand yourself with this, and you want to make sure you put a picture in your profile that has you smiling. This is very important, people want to be around and see positive people, they want to see you smiling and being happy, I would recommend having your picture taken by a professional. Just think of it this way, you went to a "outing" with friends and someone got a picture of you on their camera phone, is it blurry, fuzzy, do you have red eyes... the first impression is the lasting impression, get it done professionally. When you set up your back drop use a calming background, soothing, maybe a tropical escape, something that people will want to stick around and read about you, also put your website or blog info in your bio.

Everyday lifestyle, while you may not think this is important it is quite important to say the least. How you dress, act, treat others, and carry on your daily life. If you go out to Starbucks and hang out on your laptop drinking lattes in a dress casual wardrobe you will get different looks and thought inquiries from others. People may approach you and start up a general conversation, which gets you to building a relationship with this person whether it may be personal or business, but ultimately you are branding yourself daily as you go out and interact with people. Dress to Impress and you probably will!

All these are ways to brand yourself as an Individual, which is what you want, someone they can relate to, and someone who knows where they are coming from. If you were tired of working 70+ hours a week, tired of the pay freezes, tired of the politics of corporate America, if you lost your job, lost all your money in the stock market debacles. (this is your pain). How did you solve or how are you solving the pain and having a better life... this is your story... some people can relate to what your story tells, and if you are happy now and or successful people want to follow you.

Good luck with your personal branding and have a phenomenal day!

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Article Tags: personal branding
Referred by: http://www.MeetKarenNewman.com



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