I’m honored to be part the very first Upstate Social Sessions conference Oct. 31 in Rochester, N.Y.
The panel I’m on – Brand Yourself: Advancing Your Career Through Social Media – looks to be a lot of fun. My co-panelists are Alex Fitzpatrick, a Deputy Tech Editor at Time magazine, and Rachel Barnhart, a news anchor and reporter at WROC-TV in Rochester.
Since I’m assuming the focus will mostly be on more advanced techniques for using social media for personal branding I thought it might be helpful to offer a collection of blog posts on some of the basics of personal branding. Here goes:
Quality SM connections for personal branding
Making connections is what social media is all about. When it comes to personal branding however, the quality of those connections is important. For example, imagine a recruiter looking through your Twitter Followers and finding a spammy “Buy 5,000 Twitter followers” account or, worse, a porn account. What does that say about you that you didn't block such accounts? Read more …
Blogging for personal branding
Building or improving your personal brand can seem like facing a massive mountain. But some strategic use of social media can help anyone improve their personal brand – or the collective impression online search results speak about who you are. One of the best places to start? A blog. To read more …
Personal branding – don’t leave it to chance
Like it or not a personal brand is something that follows you wherever you go from your personal life to the work world and beyond. It’s the combined information (Internet postings, social media updates etc.) about you that shows up when someone searches online. Don't leave it to chance. To read more …
6 Overlooked SM Personal Branding Must-Dos
Personal branding – it’s all the rage. Working hard to make sure that everything that shows up online – social media and everything else – reflects well on you and paints an accurate picture of who you are. But there a few things that often get overlooked when considering working on a personal brand. To read more …
Showing posts with label personal branding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal branding. Show all posts
Friday, October 30, 2015
6 Overlooked SM Personal Branding Must-Dos
Personal branding – it’s all the rage. Working hard to make sure that everything that shows up online – social media and everything else – reflects well on you and paints an accurate picture of who you are.But there a few things that often go overlooked when considering working on a personal brand.
6 Personal Branding Must-Dos
1. Updating: Stay on top of your various online presences and what they say about you. If you have a job title change, be sure to update it in all of your bios. If that profile photo more than 10 years old its time to update it – everywhere.
2. Social media and SM connections: Reevaluate all of you social media presences. Do they all still make sense to tell your story? Are there others you should be on? Evaluate your connections for quality. Be sure that anyone looking at who you’re connected to is not going to be less than impressed.
To read more on this topic, see Quality SM connections for personal branding
3. Blogging: Writing and regularly posting to a blog is viewed by some as a bit of a vanity pastime. They could not be more wrong. To claim extra internet real estate, show off some expertise or to simply get found in Google search results – it’s hard to beat the power of a blog.
To read more on this topic, see Blogging for personal branding
4. Your focus: Yes, you’re focused on things you can do to your personal brand stand out, but ultimately your success in social media is mostly about how social you are and how others perceive you. To that end make your time on social mostly about others. Be helpful: help others connect, help others learn and most of all notice, and comment on, the hard work of others. It’s the No. 1 commandment here: 10 Commandments for Social Media
5. Get uncomfortable: It’s easy to stick to connecting to people we know; to interact with people like us. But the real secret sauce of social media is the opportunity to meet people all over the world who have interesting stories to share.
Make a point of connecting to at least one intriguing Twitter or other social network account per week and look for ways to interact with the account-holder.
You’ll be surprised where this might lead in terms of connections down the road.
6. Get real: Finally, but most importantly you need to turn all this online activity in something in the real world or IRL as the kids say). Massive effort on social media is not worth a hill of beans if you don’t make new connections in the real world.
How to do this? Look for opportunities to attend meetups. Suggest your own meetup. If you’re visiting a different city or even a different country let your connections know and offer to buy coffee so you can meet. It truly is a very gratifying and fun experience to meet someone you’ve been connected to on social media for years to finally meet them in real life….
There you have it: Six often overlooked keys to stronger personal branding wit social media and other online presences. Do you have other suggestions? I’d love to hear them.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Personal branding – don’t leave it to chance
Like it or not a personal brand is something that follows you wherever you go from your personal life to the work world and beyond.
It’s the combined information (Internet postings, social media updates etc.) about you that shows up when someone searches online. So it probably makes sense to figure out how to make your brand the best it can be.
5 steps to take this weekend to boost your personal brand:
1. Define your tactics:
Ask yourself: What do you want people to find when they search for you online? Someone they’d like to …
Develop a short description of who you are, what you believe in and what you do best. In other words: How would you tell your online audience why you’re the right person to work with or connect with?
This two- or three-sentence statement is for you, but should guide how you describe yourself - everywhere. Be sure to describe what makes you different from other people with the same or similar expertise.
If you’re not sure what that is, do some research on well-known people in your field. Observe what they do and adapt it to your own way of doing things.
3. Define your expertise:
What particular skills and knowledge do you want to be known for? Who do you hope to connect with?
Determining what makes you unique helps you understand what sets you apart from crowd on the Internet.
Your areas of expertise define who you are and what you do. They should be included in your social media profile descriptions and should include your main keywords.
4. Define your approach:
How will you use various social media platforms to advance your brand? For example, will ...
5. Define your success:
What will success look like to you?
Remember your personal brand is an evolving, living thing. The only thing you can do "wrong" is to ignore it and let it change, or worse: stagnate, while you remain blissfully unaware…
Does this help? Will you use social media and a plan to boost your personal brand? I’d love to hear back from you.
Related posts:
Quality SM connections for personal branding
Blogging for personal branding
It’s the combined information (Internet postings, social media updates etc.) about you that shows up when someone searches online. So it probably makes sense to figure out how to make your brand the best it can be.
5 steps to take this weekend to boost your personal brand:
1. Define your tactics:
Ask yourself: What do you want people to find when they search for you online? Someone they’d like to …
- Hire: Then focus on optimizing your Linkedin profile (and not just to get it to Linkedin’s 100 percent complete status, but adding images, videos, examples of your work etc.) Consider using other channels too: A blog to demonstrate your knowledge, Pinterest boards to demonstrate any visual work and interests, and Twitter to share your work and to network without the barriers of Linkedin.
- Get to know: Start by picking three platforms to focus on that will allow you to tell your story. For example, if your interests are sports, travel and reading consider creating boards on Pinterest for each of you specific interests.
Develop a short description of who you are, what you believe in and what you do best. In other words: How would you tell your online audience why you’re the right person to work with or connect with?
This two- or three-sentence statement is for you, but should guide how you describe yourself - everywhere. Be sure to describe what makes you different from other people with the same or similar expertise.
If you’re not sure what that is, do some research on well-known people in your field. Observe what they do and adapt it to your own way of doing things.
3. Define your expertise:
What particular skills and knowledge do you want to be known for? Who do you hope to connect with?
Determining what makes you unique helps you understand what sets you apart from crowd on the Internet.
Your areas of expertise define who you are and what you do. They should be included in your social media profile descriptions and should include your main keywords.
4. Define your approach:
How will you use various social media platforms to advance your brand? For example, will ...
- You only use Linkedin to post things relevant to your career or will you also post a few things that show some of your personality?
- Facebook be strictly for people you’ve met in real life or consider personal friends?
- Twitter be a place to share industry news and find new connections?
- You use a scheduling tool such as Hootsuite or Buffer to schedule posts to maintain a regular social presence or will you post organically as you find interesting material?
- You use tools such as Empire Avenue, Kred and Klout to monitor your efforts and guide your progress?
5. Define your success:
What will success look like to you?
- Making lots of online connections that become in real life (IRL) connections?
- Enhancing your current job/career?
- Getting a better job?
Remember your personal brand is an evolving, living thing. The only thing you can do "wrong" is to ignore it and let it change, or worse: stagnate, while you remain blissfully unaware…
Does this help? Will you use social media and a plan to boost your personal brand? I’d love to hear back from you.
Related posts:
Quality SM connections for personal branding
Blogging for personal branding
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Quality SM connections for personal branding
Making connections is what social media is all about. When it comes to personal branding however, the quality of those connections is important.
For example, imagine a recruiter looking through your Twitter Followers and finding a spammy “Buy 5,000 Twitter followers” account or, worse, a porn account. What does that say about you that didn't block such accounts?
And, if you’re still using the number of followers to measure your social media success, it’s time to rethink your strategy. Do an audit of your audience and determine which users are the right ones, and cull your lists accordingly.
Once you’ve completed the audit what can you do in the future to ensure you have quality connections that will enhance your online personal brand?
Start by having a thoughtful approach to who you’ll follow.
How to decide who to follow on social media for personal branding success
When someone asks to connect with you, ask yourself:
- Are they in your industry or a related industry? (Related question: Are they in any Linkedin groups you belong to?)
- Are they active on Linkedin and other social media?
- What do they talk about and what do they share on SM?
If you are seeking new connections, first ask yourself:
- Who do you want to connect to? Why?
- How will you find these people? Using advanced search in Twitter and Linkedin, and Facebook’s graph search are good places to start – search for people mentioning the terms relevant to your interests.
- Are they active on Linkedin and other social media?
- What do they talk about and what do they share on SM?
In some respects Twitter is a better starting place to find industry-relevant people. It is a place where you can connect with anyone (unlike Linkedin where you need to be connected or pay a premium to contact people you aren’t connected to).
Basic tips to assess whether to follow someone on Twitter include:
- Does their bio indicate relevance to your purposes on social media?
- What kind of content have they shared in the past few days?
- Is their Following-Follower ratio in balance – in other words are there either more Followers or are they about the same. If there is a much higher Following number they are either new to Twitter or desperate for followers.
- Twitteraudit: It seeks to answer the question: "How many of your followers are real?" But it also evaluates the Twitter accounts of others. Anything higher than 10 percent fake followers indicates someone who indiscriminately connects or does not block spammy followers… i.e. they’re not very careful on Twitter.
- Status People: It sorts any Twitter accounts followers into Fake, Inactive and Good. A high number in Fake (more than 10 percent) or Inactive (more than 20 percent) should also be a warning sign.
First, decide if Facebook is a place you want to open up to people beyond friends and family. Some people draw that line at Facebook.
But if you are OK with connecting professionally on Facebook you can use FB’s own search engine to find people who may be worth connecting to.
Start by using search terms such as keywords related to your industry and move on to search on relevant hashtags. And, although its focus is marketing the tips here can be applied to personal connections too: How to Use Facebook Graph Search to Improve Your Marketing
Google+
Any discussion on personal branding has to include Google+. Whether you’re a fan or not is somewhat irrelevant – it’s a Google product so you better believe being there helps in Google search results.
Using the Google+ search or a regular Google search use keywords and the usual Google search operators.
For more on doing better Google searches see How to Use Google Search More Effectively.
Was this helpful? Wil you invest some time in social media and ensuring your connections are worthwhile? It is the only way social media can help with personal branding.
Related link:
Blogging for personal branding
Personal branding – don’t leave it to chance
Monday, October 26, 2015
Blogging for personal branding
Building or improving your personal brand can seem like facing a massive mountain. But some strategic use of social media can help anyone improve their personal brand – or the collective impression online search results speak about who you are.
One of the best places to start? A blog.
Now a blog doesn’t need to be a massive undertaking. Think of it as a one-step-at-a-time approach to making a name for yourself or being an expert about something.
There are all kinds of theories about how to decide what your blog should be about and how to make it successful for personal branding. Here are some of the best pieces of advice I’ve seen:
15 Tips for a Successful Personal Branding Blog
1. Pick a blogging platform or a free website tool that is easy to work with. For a starter list of platforms see 5 Free Blogging Platforms to Start a New Blog in 2015.
2. Make it about something you care about so you’re more likely to keep it going.
3. Write about an aspect of your industry OR make it about something you can have a lot to say about. Which means as long as you write an informative and enthusiastic blog it will get a following and get you some attention.
4. Keep blog posts in the 250-500 word range. Shorter than that and it may not get indexed. Longer than that and it may not get read.
5. Stick with it. In other words post regularly (something I’m guilty of not doing this year) – perhaps once a week or twice a month at a minimum.
6. Plan how you will share your blog – this could mean via social media accounts and/or via email. And make sure social sharing buttons are always on your blog posts so others can share a post.
7. Join a blogging network – a place where members share each other’s posts- or find another place that welcomes blog sharers. See 15 Places You Should Be Sharing Your Blog Posts.
8. Discover sources of illustrative artwork for your blog. A blog post with at least one image is twice as likely to get attention and be shared by others. For a list of 20 sites and some good how-to-use-art tips see 20 Free Blog Graphics Sites and How To Customize Images For Your Blog.
9. Write out in a single sentence what the blog is about. Then a list of topics it will cover. Refer back to this list regularly
10. Develop a posting calendar. It can be flexible, but it takes a lot of pressure away to know what your next five to 10 posts will be about.
11. Be patient. All blogs take a little time to get established and win an audience.
12. Include two or more internal links to exterior, deeper content.
13. Be sure to include links to your previous posts – two or three per post once you have a catalog of posts.
14. Check to see how the blog displays in various browsers.
15. Interact with those who comment on your blog and, if necessary, delete spam comments.
So, do you have a blog? Will you start a blog? Will it be something you’ll add to your social media activities on a regular basis?
Related post:
Quality SM connections for personal branding
Personal branding – don’t leave it to chance
The Importance of Personal Branding for College Students #infographic
One of the best places to start? A blog.
Now a blog doesn’t need to be a massive undertaking. Think of it as a one-step-at-a-time approach to making a name for yourself or being an expert about something.
There are all kinds of theories about how to decide what your blog should be about and how to make it successful for personal branding. Here are some of the best pieces of advice I’ve seen:
15 Tips for a Successful Personal Branding Blog
1. Pick a blogging platform or a free website tool that is easy to work with. For a starter list of platforms see 5 Free Blogging Platforms to Start a New Blog in 2015.
2. Make it about something you care about so you’re more likely to keep it going.
3. Write about an aspect of your industry OR make it about something you can have a lot to say about. Which means as long as you write an informative and enthusiastic blog it will get a following and get you some attention.
4. Keep blog posts in the 250-500 word range. Shorter than that and it may not get indexed. Longer than that and it may not get read.
5. Stick with it. In other words post regularly (something I’m guilty of not doing this year) – perhaps once a week or twice a month at a minimum.
6. Plan how you will share your blog – this could mean via social media accounts and/or via email. And make sure social sharing buttons are always on your blog posts so others can share a post.
7. Join a blogging network – a place where members share each other’s posts- or find another place that welcomes blog sharers. See 15 Places You Should Be Sharing Your Blog Posts.
8. Discover sources of illustrative artwork for your blog. A blog post with at least one image is twice as likely to get attention and be shared by others. For a list of 20 sites and some good how-to-use-art tips see 20 Free Blog Graphics Sites and How To Customize Images For Your Blog.
9. Write out in a single sentence what the blog is about. Then a list of topics it will cover. Refer back to this list regularly
10. Develop a posting calendar. It can be flexible, but it takes a lot of pressure away to know what your next five to 10 posts will be about.
11. Be patient. All blogs take a little time to get established and win an audience.
12. Include two or more internal links to exterior, deeper content.
13. Be sure to include links to your previous posts – two or three per post once you have a catalog of posts.
14. Check to see how the blog displays in various browsers.
15. Interact with those who comment on your blog and, if necessary, delete spam comments.
So, do you have a blog? Will you start a blog? Will it be something you’ll add to your social media activities on a regular basis?
Related post:
Quality SM connections for personal branding
Personal branding – don’t leave it to chance
The Importance of Personal Branding for College Students #infographic
Thursday, August 20, 2015
The Importance of Personal Branding for College Students #infographic
Ahhhh … the start of a new college school year and the excitement of heading off to or back to college….
One thing many college students won’t be thinking about at this time of year, but they absolutely should be, is their personal brand.
By the time they’re preparing to graduate – hopefully at the latest they’re thinking about this in Year 3 – they should have a strong personal brand that is obvious to anyone who finds them on the web.
A solid personal brand means that a future employer, landlord or even significant other finds a well-rounded and positive (or at least 99 percent positive) image of you when they Google your name.
So how do you get a great personal brand? You build it over time and you do it methodically.
This means students entering college now have the greatest opportunity to build up that personal brand. And yet …
Many won’t think about this until it is too late – Year 4 – or not at all.
The time is now in terms of building that brand.
This infographic might help. It spells it out in basic terms anyone can follow. It seems particularly relevant to college students:
Infographic source: Original in Italian by Enrico Bisetto and the English version by Jorgen Sundberg
One thing many college students won’t be thinking about at this time of year, but they absolutely should be, is their personal brand.
By the time they’re preparing to graduate – hopefully at the latest they’re thinking about this in Year 3 – they should have a strong personal brand that is obvious to anyone who finds them on the web.
A solid personal brand means that a future employer, landlord or even significant other finds a well-rounded and positive (or at least 99 percent positive) image of you when they Google your name.
So how do you get a great personal brand? You build it over time and you do it methodically.
This means students entering college now have the greatest opportunity to build up that personal brand. And yet …
Many won’t think about this until it is too late – Year 4 – or not at all.
The time is now in terms of building that brand.
This infographic might help. It spells it out in basic terms anyone can follow. It seems particularly relevant to college students:
Infographic source: Original in Italian by Enrico Bisetto and the English version by Jorgen Sundberg
Friday, November 26, 2010
Social media branding: Discovering the real you
Before you can successfully plan a strategy for personal branding in social media you need to understand the real you.This is the fifth part of an ongoing series looking at personal branding (links to previous posts in the series below). Today I offer some suggestions on how to discover your own inner strengths and interests.
It sounds easy enough right? Just think about what really lights your fire and what you love to do? But it’s a little more complex than that.
We humans lose track of our true selves and we stop seeing our own strengths and weaknesses. So what to do? I’d like to suggest two relatively inexpensive tools that can help you get on the path to self-discovery.
Strengths Finder
This little book may be the best $10-$15 you’ll ever spend.
To help people uncover their talents, Gallup introduced the first version of its online assessment, Strengths Finder, in the 2001 management book Now, Discover Your Strengths.
The book spent more than five years on the bestseller lists as it helped millions to discover their Top 5 talents. In Strengths Finder 2.0 Gallup unveiled a new and improved version of its popular assessment and sorted strengths into 34 themes.
You read the first 30 pages of the book and then submit to an online test. A computer-generated report is then emailed to you. Based on your Top 5 you can quickly see what approaches come naturally to you and which will likely give you the greatest satisfaction.
My strengths as determined by Strengths Finder are (in order):
• Ideation
• Learner
• Context
• Achiever
• Includer
And while none of this was surprising, the way these strengths play off each other and people with different strengths was a huge insight.
KolbeA Index:
The Kolbe A Index is a little more expensive (about $50) and measures a person's instinctive Method of Operation (MO), and identifies the ways he or she will be most productive. It is only taken once, because these innate abilities do not change over time.
The index was developed by Kathy Kolbe and identifies four human instincts used in creative problem solving. These instincts are not measurable. However, the observable acts derived from them can be identified and quantified by the Kolbe A™ Index.
These instinct-driven behaviors are represented in the four Kolbe Action Modes. For each you will be rated on a scale of 1 to 10. The combination of these scores tells you where your strengths lie.
My KolbeA Index results are:
Fact Finder: 8
Follow Through: 3
Quick Start: 8
Implementer: 1
What all of this means is that I now have a solid sense of what my natural tendencies are and what really gets me fired up. Armed with this I’m ready to start planning my social media personal branding approach.
What do you think? Are these outside tools helpful?
Earlier posts in the series:
1. Personal Branding in Social Media: First Steps
2. Social Media Optimization for Personal Branding
3. Words to live by in social media personal branding
4. Blogs are the cornerstone of personal branding
Friday, November 12, 2010
Blogs are the cornerstone of personal branding
Using social media to help your personal brand stand out is a smart move, but where do you start? Can I suggest a blog?Here then is the fourth installment of my personal branding series of blogs (links to the previous three are at the end of this post).
5 key steps to get you off to a good start with a blog:
1. Pick a topic that is uniquely you: Think passion and interests: You will not be able to sustain a blog on a topic that you don’t feel strongly about. And you should define the scope of your topic. Think Goldilocks and The Three Bears: Something that’s not too big and not too small. For example, don’t just decide to write about public relations, but maybe about public relations for non-profits who are looking to include social media. Then you should be able to sum up your blog’s purpose in a single-sentence elevator pitch that spells out why your blog is unique (and therefore worth following).
2. Be authentic: Write about what you know, what you find out and where you find it. Be human and allow your blog to grow intellectually as you grow. Become THE expert over time. Followers will gravitate to a blog that is making a journey they can tag along for. Be sure to link to appropriate sources and give credit where it’s due.
3. Be smart: . Post your best work. There will be posts that need more time for review and rewriting. Make sure you have several blog posts on the go so that you can keep to a posting schedule. But, also, don’t over-second-guess yourself. No post will ever be perfect. Listen to that inner voice. If you think you’ll regret a post a week from now don’t post it. Also make sure your posts inside the magical 250- to 750-word range so that search engine spiders will find and rank your posts.
4. Be interesting and/or newsworthy: This is easily said, but maybe not so easily done, right? What’s interesting? I found this definition at YourDictionary.com. What’s newsworthy? I like the definition here at Merriam-Webster.com. If you can appeal to these main definitions of interesting and or newsworthiness you will very likely gain an audience.
5. Stick with it: A blog can be relatively easy to start and sometimes painful to maintain. You never seem to have enough time. You run out of things to write about. Some solutions? Plan an hour or so a week to write and review. Set a realistic goal (say, posting a 250-to-500-word piece weekly) and stick with it. Start a list of potential topics and keep adding to it. For each idea that becomes a post you should add two more to your list. Jot down ideas whenever they hit you. Maintain this list. Stick with it.
Bonus tips:
• Make it easy to spread share your blog: Add code (easily found in a Google search) that allows people who like your posts to share it with others across social networking and social bookmarking sites.
• Get to know your regular blog visitors: Thank them for their comments (if they leave them) and check out their blogs if they follow yours. You never know where one of these online relationships might lead to a future opportunity.
• Collaborate: Ask others to occasionally guest post on your blog and offer to reciprocate. Your name on other blogs gets it in front of fresh eyes.
• Be patient: It may take weeks or months of posting to build a following and some relationships. Just understand that it will pay off.
So, are you ready to blog? I hope you try it because as the cornerstone of a social media personal branding strategy it is hard to beat. What didn’t I mention? Please let me know.
Related posts:
1. Personal Branding in Social Media: First Steps
2. Social Media Optimization for Personal Branding
3. Words to live by in social media personal branding
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Words to live by in social media personal branding
When it comes to personal branding in social media what you say is as important, if not more important, than where you say it. In this third part of my look at personal branding in social media (links to the first two are below) I’d like to focus on what you say and where you say it.
Those who are relatively new to social media may not realize that whatever you say on most platforms can be found not just by people looking for you but also by those who may not even know you exist.
Among this latter group are prospective business partners, future employers and possible social acquaintances. You, and what you say, are often “found” thanks the search engines’ “spiders” – the automated software programs that crawl the web to gather and categorize data. If these spiders see your name associated with terms such as marketing and sales that is how they rank you – and how others are likely to find you – higher in search results on sites such as Google.
Can you influence what words (and therefore industry, expertise etc) your name is most-commonly associated with? Of course. Do you want to take steps to make sure your personal brand is appearing in search results the way you’d like it to? Absolutely. But how?
Five ways to use keywords to make your personal brand distinct:
1. Have a keyword list: Keywords are single word or multi-word phrases and you need to have a short list that sums up you and your interests. Mine, for example, include social media, social media strategy, social media tactics and social media best practices. Whenever I’m writing something for the web (like this blog post)I always want to include one or more of these phrases in the headline, the first paragraph and the last paragraph. That way the spiders are more likely to associate those phrases with my name.
2. Blog: The easiest way to have your thoughts published in an easily found and cataloged way is a blog. Come up with a theme that you’ll write about, be sure to use your keywords, write posts of between 250 and 750 words (the widely believed minimum and maximum searched length of posts) and post regularly (at least weekly).
3. Share something: You need to know where to find good content by others so you can be a curator of content around the topic you wish to be associated with. Then share links via social platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin and be sure to drop in some of your keywords in the postings. If all your social presences are linked (as they should be) this helps the spiders understand your close ties to the subject matter and likely boosts you up the search results.
4. Add something: Know who the thought leaders in your field are and learn about where they post content. Then find appropriate opportunities to contribute to the discussion of a blog post or on a Linkedin group, for example. You might also look for example to virtually introduce two people you know on social networks who might benefit by getting to know each other. This adding value will get you online mentions, which in turn raises your profile online.
5. Have a plan: Doing all of the above as opportunities present themselves is fine, but why leave it all to chance? To get measurable results you need a plan. That means writing a piece of content once and finding multiple ways to repurpose it across various social platforms. It means building in time to engage with others in social media. It means, most of all, making sure you stay on topic and use your keywords.
Bonus: Want to know how you’re doing using keywords on your blog, for example? Go to Wordle and enter the URL for your blog. The resulting word cloud highlights the words you are most often using. The image above, for example, is a Wordle word cloud of this blog.
If all of this sounds like work, it is. But to succeed with personal branding in social media what you say is an important social media strategy.
Related posts:
Personal Branding in Social Media: First Steps
Social Media Optimization for Personal Branding
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Social Media Optimization for Personal Branding
If personal branding unlocks the many benefits of social media participation then search engine optimization, or SEO, is the key to that lock.To follow up on my Personal Branding in Social Media: First Steps post I’d like to look at a few ways to ensure you’ll be found – whether it’s for a job, for your business or just to network with others.
First, have you Googled yourself lately? You do Google yourself regularly, don’t you?
If you do a web search (and by Google I mean all search although we all know who dominates this space) on yourself you will fairly quickly see how others see you on the web. And for the purposes of this post I’ll assume you want to be found.
As it relates to personal branding it is very important that you are found quickly … preferably at or near the top of the first page of Google search results. So how do you get there? I’m glad you asked …
5 Steps to a Search Engine Optimized-Personal Brand Through Social Media:
1. Own the URL of your own name: If your name as a “.com” is still available run out (no sprint!) and buy it now. You get one shot at this – seize it. If your name is already taken find a way to get a distinct version of your name as a URL. The closer you can tie it you as a person, the better. For example, I was lucky to grab mikejohansson.com when it was available, but if it wasn’t I was willing to settle for MikeJohanssonNY or MikeJNY (I live in New York).
Having your own name as a URL (and some kind of website about you at that address) is quite important. On this website you will link to all of your other web presences. Elsewhere (social networks included) you will link to this website. All of this helps the web spiders that in turn help Google Search understand that you are THAT individual and not some other person with the same or a similar name and then rank you and the search results you appear in.
2. Use your name consistently across the web: Whatever name you use in life, on a resume, on the web or across your social networks needs to be consistent. That way someone looking for Bob Harris won’t be confused when they find Robert Harris. For example, if you Google Mike Johansson you should find a lot of stuff about me. At least that’s what SEO efforts in personal branding should be getting me.
3. Use keywords: Make sure you have an elevator pitch (the 30-second statement about who you are and what you do) that has your essential keyword phrases in it. This pitch should set you apart from others. All or part of it should be used as your bio across all social networks.
4. Link all of your online presences: This seems obvious, perhaps. Whatever platforms you are on you should highlight the others on which you can be found. For example, on Facebook tell people how to find you on Twitter and Linkedin or how to find your blog. Some social networks allow you to post clickable links while others (such as Twitter) do not. Post clickable links where you can or incorporate your Facebook and other links as part of the background image on sites such as Twitter. This cross-linking will pay big dividends when someone searches for you because no matter where they first find you they instantly know where else they can connect with you.
5. Check, and recheck, how others see you: You should Google your own name at least once a week. Look for how you do, or don’t, show up in the first page of results. Notice what other results show up further down. Are there some that you want to get rid of (I’ll blog about that soon). Look for clues to see who else shows up in that search and try to determine if a change in your keywords or adding one more social network might put you ahead of them in the race to be found.
Practice all of these steps in social media and you will see yourself rise up in the search engine results. But maybe you know of other simple steps in personal branding SEO that I haven’t covered here, please share them …
Related posts:
Personal Branding in Social Media: First Steps
Be a Giraffe in Social Media
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Personal Branding in Social Media: First Steps
Personal branding is the topic of a presentation I will be giving thi
s week and it got me thinking how social media has changed everything.
We used to be able “tell” a future employer, client or customer about ourselves with a resume, a college transcript and/or a list of references.
Today we are more likely to “show” them a little about ourselves with all our online presences (whether we intend to or not).
I’m not saying the old way is dead, but it may well be on life support.
So in the next few posts I’ll look at some aspects of personal branding with social media – since that is likely to dominate most of our online visibility. I’ll start with things that assume you want to be found and then deal with how to handle the things you’re not so proud of and how to deal with that proactively.
Let’s start with Five Personal Branding Basics in Social Media:
1. Have your avatar be the same across all presences: That little image of you needs to be instantly recognizable. We recognize a face before we recognize a name. And, even if you have a common name, your face is distinctive. Also, make sure your face is what dominates the space. Anything less makes it hard to recognize.
2. Have your name be your real name OR a consistent name with a consistent bio: Your name on your social media presences should be the same. This may not be practical if you have a very common name or a long or difficult-to-remember name. In that case come up with a memorable name for your account and be sure your real name is prominent. For example, I am mikefixs on Twitter, but my real name is right there at the top of the bio. In the bio say concisely who you are and say it consistently across platforms. This consistency will ultimately help with the search engine optimization (SEO) of your name.
3. Have all your social media presences linked (as much as is practicable): Reference all of your social media presences (as much as you can) from each of your social media pages. There is a whole blog post in how to do this for SEO value and that will come later. For now it’s enough to say that anyone finding you on one social media platform needs to know all of the other places they can connect with you.
4. Have a consistent stated reason for being in social media: It says a lot about some people who are on Linkedin to find their next job but on Facebook to recall all the partying. It may reflect your true nature, but it sends a mixed message. Decide why you really need to be in social media, spell it out in your bio spaces on each page and stick to it.
5. Have a clear vision for how you add value in social media: This is trickiest part if you’re relatively new to social media on many platforms. Do you know how you are adding value to others by being here? It may be to answer questions from others. It may be to share great stuff you find. It may be to help others connect. How you are perceived on the “giving” side of social media will have a huge impact on the likelihood you will be on the “receiving” end of good things in social media. What kind of good things? Introductions to new networks, tips on great jobs, leads on the latest information in your field … the list does go on. The important thing is that ultimately this may be the real reason to be in social media.
So, does this list do a good job getting you started? To the more experienced out there: What did I forget from my list for social media newbies?
Possibly related links:
Part 2: Social Media Optimization for Personal Branding
10 Commandments for Social Media
5 Really Useful Sites for Social Media Newbies
s week and it got me thinking how social media has changed everything.We used to be able “tell” a future employer, client or customer about ourselves with a resume, a college transcript and/or a list of references.
Today we are more likely to “show” them a little about ourselves with all our online presences (whether we intend to or not).
I’m not saying the old way is dead, but it may well be on life support.
So in the next few posts I’ll look at some aspects of personal branding with social media – since that is likely to dominate most of our online visibility. I’ll start with things that assume you want to be found and then deal with how to handle the things you’re not so proud of and how to deal with that proactively.
Let’s start with Five Personal Branding Basics in Social Media:
1. Have your avatar be the same across all presences: That little image of you needs to be instantly recognizable. We recognize a face before we recognize a name. And, even if you have a common name, your face is distinctive. Also, make sure your face is what dominates the space. Anything less makes it hard to recognize.
2. Have your name be your real name OR a consistent name with a consistent bio: Your name on your social media presences should be the same. This may not be practical if you have a very common name or a long or difficult-to-remember name. In that case come up with a memorable name for your account and be sure your real name is prominent. For example, I am mikefixs on Twitter, but my real name is right there at the top of the bio. In the bio say concisely who you are and say it consistently across platforms. This consistency will ultimately help with the search engine optimization (SEO) of your name.
3. Have all your social media presences linked (as much as is practicable): Reference all of your social media presences (as much as you can) from each of your social media pages. There is a whole blog post in how to do this for SEO value and that will come later. For now it’s enough to say that anyone finding you on one social media platform needs to know all of the other places they can connect with you.
4. Have a consistent stated reason for being in social media: It says a lot about some people who are on Linkedin to find their next job but on Facebook to recall all the partying. It may reflect your true nature, but it sends a mixed message. Decide why you really need to be in social media, spell it out in your bio spaces on each page and stick to it.
5. Have a clear vision for how you add value in social media: This is trickiest part if you’re relatively new to social media on many platforms. Do you know how you are adding value to others by being here? It may be to answer questions from others. It may be to share great stuff you find. It may be to help others connect. How you are perceived on the “giving” side of social media will have a huge impact on the likelihood you will be on the “receiving” end of good things in social media. What kind of good things? Introductions to new networks, tips on great jobs, leads on the latest information in your field … the list does go on. The important thing is that ultimately this may be the real reason to be in social media.
So, does this list do a good job getting you started? To the more experienced out there: What did I forget from my list for social media newbies?
Possibly related links:
Part 2: Social Media Optimization for Personal Branding
10 Commandments for Social Media
5 Really Useful Sites for Social Media Newbies
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