This event got me thinking that developing your reputation is nothing new – but doing so on such a global basis is what brings the overwhelming nature of personal branding to many business owners. Throughout my entire career, I have had to manage my reputation and “brand” from job to job. How many times were we told never to burn bridges because you never know when you will cross paths with that person again?

Now with the Internet and social media, crossing paths with past acquaintances is much easier and of course, much more likely. Finding out about your next boss or employee is as simple as searching for them on Google (or Googling them in the new lingo). The Internet and its social media tools have certainly shrunk the world and have made reputation management a very important part of our business lives. Managing your online and offline reputation today should be as much a part of your marketing plan as keeping your resume up-to-date was 10 years ago.

But like with everything, getting started may be hard but staying engaged is even tougher.

What should you do to dive into personal branding?

• Determine your goals for developing your personal brand
• Identify which social media tools will work best for you
• Develop a full, professional profile with picture
• Experiment with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and other social media tools if they make sense for your business
• Learn the culture of social media
• Listen to what your ideal clients are saying
• Join in the conversation

If this seems like a big challenge, engage the help of someone who can short circuit the learning curve and get you jump started into personal branding for you and your business. But by all means, get started. This stuff is not going to go away anytime soon.

©2010 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Personal Brand or Online Reputation

I think if you’re remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn’t have a resume at all.

The rationale? It’s an excuse to reject you. A resume makes you ordinary.

And I agree.

Having a boring, play by the rules resume can be the kiss of death. When I was a hiring manager at my last company, I had a recruiter begging me to meet with a candidate of his for a technical marketing position I had open. I told him based on her resume, she didn’t have the qualifications. But he convinced me, I met with her and we hired her because of her personality (she fit right in) and she was extremely intelligent. In the end, she was a rock star! What a shame it would have been to have passed over this candidate (and thank goodness the recruiter was a good sales person!).

If you are remarkable, you need to market yourself in a way that you stand out from the ordinary and be noticed by those who are interested in your products and services. Whether you own your business or are marketing yourself to a company to get your dream job, you need to develop and nurture your personal brand to build visibility and credibility.

But just like the world isn’t totally ready to abandon traditional marketing activities for a plan of exclusively social media, the world is not totally ready to abandon the traditional resume for a purely social media portfolio. Even Google requires a resume!

Everyone, whether you are an independent professional, business owner, or entrepreneur, should have the following in your social media portfolio:

• Complete profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks relevant to your expertise.
• A blog written with authenticity and expertise.
• An about page on your blog that gives the reader a sense about who you are.
• Comments on other blogs within your expertise that are thoughtful, professional and add value to the blog.
• Put presentations you’ve given up on SlideShare and link to them from your About page. If you have a recording of the presentation, you can sync the audio with the slides.

For those seeking a new career opportunity, add your well-developed resume to the mix.

There is certainly more you can do, like develop a regular podcast, but you should create the basics and keep adding to them.

Then when someone is interested in what you have to offer, hand them the resume with a list of all the places they can find examples of what you can do on the Internet.

©2010 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Showcase Your Skills with Social Media
2. Social Media Marketing – Myths or Reality?
3. Social Media Jungle – Event Wrapup