How to Build Your Personal Brand Online
May 29th, 2007 (6:49am) Anne Zelenka 24 Comments
Whether you are an employee or a freelancer, you need to manage your personal brand. Of course you’ll think of using the web to do so. But does that mean shelling out money for search engine optimization, for pay-per-click ads that drive potential customers or employers to your website, for a professionally-designed website? Perhaps not, or at least not primarily, according to Tim Carter, who earns a six-figure income running his Ask the Builder website and selling ebooks on home building and remodeling.
According to former builder Carter, the way to build a personal brand online is not so different from building one offline. You have to work hard for the long haul, connect with people on a human level, and offer real value to potential customers:
Make the website personal. “I use the first person and have my photo on every page,” says Carter. “It shows that you’re not afraid to put yourself out there. It establishes immediate trust.”
Tell stories. “Don’t lecture but try to teach people through stories,” Carter says.
Solve problems. “The magic is having good high quality content about real problems people are interested in,” Carter says.
It’s a marathon. “If you want instant riches, forget about it,” cautions Carter. “It takes diligence, determination and hard work.”
Read more about creating and building your personal brand on Wendy Marx’ Brand U blog.
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24 Comments Post your own comment
Serge Lescouarnec says: May 29th, 2007 8:43am
Anne
I never used a ’search optimization’ service and after a bad experience with my first web site designer for my New Jersey based concierge service, I decided to take care of it myself.
It gives me the flexibility to update the content when I want and need to and keep it relevant.
I will actually give a try at using Typepad ‘pages function’ which allows building a site that is not a blog to revamp a secondary site I have for the business and see if it gives me greater flexibility.
I agree with Tim Carter that one should not expect instant rewards.
Take care
Serge
Biz:
http://www.njconcierges.com
Blog:
http://www.sergetheconcierge.com
dreadsword says: May 29th, 2007 11:41am
Hey - I just wrote an article about how you can use del.icio.us. technorati, digg, and google to stay on top of your online brand/reputation and drive engagement with your stakeholders. Set up a few RSS feeds based on search results from the above, and tracking the conversation about you and your company can become very automated. Participation is still up to you, of course!
http://techfold.com/2007/05/28/engagement-4-tips-for-startups-established-players-using-digg-delicious-technorati-and-google-to-build-your-community/
- rod/techfold.com
Brand your blog: The Elevator Pitch « J.T’s Official Blog says: May 29th, 2007 12:45pm
[...] One of the most important things you can do to create a brand for your blog. As Anne Zelenka writes: “Whether you are an employee or a freelancer, you need to manage your personal [...]
Thomas says: May 29th, 2007 1:00pm
I wrote a post on just the other day.
People need to keep in mind that a brand needs to create feelings of trust and authority. This is part of where the ‘It’s a marathon’ component comes in. It is very rare brands are built overnight - but instead built over time with consistency and value.
As a blogger, you or your blog persona are the brand.
Rich Miller says: May 29th, 2007 1:25pm
For another good blog on using the web for personal branding, check out Quick Sprout by Neil Patel, who has an excellent track record generating traffic from social media/networking sites.
Vikram Rajan says: May 29th, 2007 8:45pm
Great post. I just came home from a talk I gave at my local Nassau/Suffolk Limo Association!
I had invited one of my clients, Dr. Glazer - a cosmetic dentist to attend. It scored me some brownie points to bring guests, for my client to see me in action in another crowd, and I was able to interweave Dr. Glazer’s pitch (that I had given her).
“Why Would a Dentist Be Interested in Targeting Limo/Black Car Owners?”
I’m about to post the answer on ViksMarketingBlog.com
My client definitely stood out; she will be remembered, and will probably do business… from a simple Personal Brand Marketing trick: Stand out in a well-conditioned Community.
Why nothing you do will ever make a difference « in.spite says: May 30th, 2007 3:28am
[...] comments and 580,876 views, and 7.5 million page impressions, after building your pathetic “brand online“, you are #1 with a bullet in Technorati, you earn £0.53 a day from Google Adwords. What a [...]
atul k bhaskar says: May 30th, 2007 8:11am
well….!
i preety much liked your recommendations and suggestions.building brand is just not about following a fad that everybody seems to be doing.
but what i can understand and anlyse, it is much about the confidence that you have in yourself and also in whatever you do.that is to say it is much about quality, in all spheres of our life.
Matthew Lowes says: May 30th, 2007 2:13pm
I’m fascinated by this topic. There are many articles out there on self-promotion via the internet. Two common themes I’ve noticed are provide something of value and personally participating in relevant online communities.
BARONdirect says: May 30th, 2007 3:25pm
I recently attended a marketing professional’s forum which included the topic of online branding. It was actually really fascinating to see what other marketing professionals are doing to maximize the web as a marketing tool. Take a look at my blog post to learn about some of the helpful tips I took away from the lecture:
http://barondirect.wordpress.com
How to Build Your Personal Brand Online? · New York Articles says: May 30th, 2007 4:20pm
[...] Whether you are an employee or a freelancer, you need to manage your personal brand. Of course you’ll think of using the web to do so. But does that mean shelling out money for search engine optimization, for pay-per-click ads that drive potential customers or employers to your website, for a professionally-designed website? Continue Reading. [...]
Wendy Marx says: May 31st, 2007 7:52pm
Great point about the fact that building an offline brand is not that much different in some respects from an offline brand. Tim Carter, of course is an amazing person and a Web genius. He also was brilliant about transporting his offline column to the web and going far beyond that.And he knows the value of excellent content.
Eloquation » Blog Archive » David Jones on Entering Social Media says: June 1st, 2007 4:36am
[...] a great article (that I found via WBD) by Wendy Marx on Fast Company about Constructing a Personal Brand. Important reading, even if you [...]
shwibbs says: June 2nd, 2007 12:40pm
It’s just like in a business. You want to propose solutions to known problems. The problem to getting a job you want is solved through Personal Branding.
robcuesta says: June 14th, 2007 4:30am
The stuff you control - the look and feel of your blog and website and any online profiles you build - is one part of the equation. But you also need to think about what’s being said about you that you have no control over.
That can be comments about you in other people’s blogs and websites, profiles you’ve forgotten about, the websites of former employers, old articles you’ve written, and so on.
There’s a post (What does the web say about you?) on my blog that talks about how one canadian academic was caught out by this, and another on the impact on your personal brand of Consumer Generated Media.
Its easy to overlook the stuff we haven’t written ourselves, or that we haven’t thought about for a while, but it has to be managed just as carefully as the day to day stuff!
Web Worker Daily » Blog Archive The 3 Laws of Online Personal Branding « says: July 26th, 2007 5:42am
[...] 3 Laws of Online Personal Branding We’ve written about creating your personal brand and an online persona before, but given the importance of that branding in the world of [...]
Beautiful minds – Thinky post: personal branding* says: August 2nd, 2007 4:08pm
[...] How to build your personal brand online (Web Worker Daily) [...]
Ignore the Social Media Scoreboard : Instigator Blog says: October 1st, 2007 6:35am
[...] personal brand. It’s about providing you with a platform to express and demonstrate your domain expertise, interests, values and goals. It provides an extension for describing who you are to the outside [...]
4 Branding Lessons from Wall Drug « Web Worker Daily says: October 9th, 2007 11:00am
[...] interstate and into their parking lot. Here’s what I saw that you can use to enhance your own personal branding or marketing efforts. 1. Have a simple, consistent, actionable message - Pick one primary action [...]
The 3 Rules of Self-Marketing « Web Worker Daily says: October 24th, 2007 7:59am
[...] 3 Rules of Self-Marketing We’ve written before about building your personal brand online, and about various ways to promote yourself through your web site. The topic is worth [...]
Kolz Blog » Blog Archive » The 3 Rules of Self-Marketing says: October 31st, 2007 4:23pm
[...] of Self-Marketing October 24th, 2007 by syndicated We’ve written before about building your personal brand online, and about various ways to promote yourself through your web site. The topic is worth [...]
Web Worker Daily » Archive WWD Coffee Break - GTalk, Resolutions & Event Tracking « says: January 2nd, 2008 8:00am
[...] doing it as part of the Blog 365 challenge or not, frequent blogging is one of the best ways to build your personal brand online, an essential for many web [...]
Miracle studios -- web design company says: June 15th, 2008 11:45pm
Hmm nice thought …..
Thanks a lot …..
MIracle studios is seriously enhancing its online reputation
theRA!S says: June 26th, 2008 12:38am
thanks for your tips.
it’s great..!
regards,
http://the-rais.blogspot.com/