One’s brand plays a very prominent role in the success voyage. No doubt about that. If you have ever bought anything online, do you remember making few research using Google and going through reviews just to make sure that you are taking right stuff off the shelve?

Today, whether you are going for a job interview, or looking to make a business deal – either you are making Google search to find more or your prospective employer/partner is doing the same activity on you. Your reputation reaches to the destination before your physical presence there. So the point is, your personal branding today is more important than it has ever been before.

What is Personal Branding?

Personal branding is the approach of promoting yourself. It is something related to your credibility. It pertains to the way your peers see you. A couple of relevant questions enumerated below could clear the clouds of your doubt regarding personal branding:

•     What do you represent?
•     What ideas pop in others mind after hearing your name?
•     Are you expert in what you do?
•     What do you stand for?
•    Are you trustworthy in your group?

The days are long gone when Branding was limited to big names . Absolutely everyone bears a brand value and social networking makes it highly recommended for you to develop your brand respectability so that you can have your worth in the marketplace .

How To Do Your Personal Branding?

Organizations spend hundreds or thousands together with their time and effort to build a brand value for themselves online . Entrepreneurs thereby ought to focus on making the most of this trend and build their own brand identity and leverage social networking to influence the marketplace .
Among many different ways , let’s keep this discussion to the social networking methods and technologies and ways to make use of them the right way for your Personal Branding .
Allow me to share some elementary steps to start to establish your brand value online using the social media channels :

1. Create your Facebook profile : Yeah I do understand that it sounds funny to ask you guys setting up Facebook profile. Even my little cousin has one . But I know a few of my friends who still don’t have one. According to a report , the Facebook’s population is as big as entire world’s was in 1804 . Therefore it is considered one of the efficient ways to develop your web presence . Set up your Facebook profile if you don’t own one. Remember that anything you say or carry out online turns into a
   public record of your personal brand . Keep a hawk eye on what you post/update/like
2. Set up your G00gle+ profile :  Till date, Google keeps the number one place as search engine . Therefore don’t undermine the potential of Google+ to incorporate a rocket speed to your Brand Value . For those who have a google account(gmail account), you are already on Google+ . So take a moment to fine-tune your Google+ profile . When you are logged in your Google account , you will find your Google+ account option as a ‘+’ followed by your name . For example
3. Set up your Twitter account : I have seen a number of my friends complaining that they don’t understand Twitter. There is no much fun out there as on Facebook. But if you really care about your brand value then you must have a twitter account. Twitter is a micro-blogging service where you can share insights and links on the topics that demonstrate your area of expertise and professional knowledge. Write your Twitter bio describing yourself in 160 or less characters. Follow influential people of your industry. Provide link to your online resume in the website field of your account.
4. Set up your LinkedIn profile: This should be your first stop if you are a student or a professional. It is the closest thing to your online resume. You should set up your LinkedIn profile with utmost care. Fill out the profile completely. Do not skip out any experience or details. The default headline describes your current job title. You can and should change it manually if you are not happy with the look of your profile headline. Your summary should include a brief paragraph summarizing your work experience and your career aspirations.
5. Set up your Website/Blog : This is the most powerful step of all. After your social profiles on all these mainstream social networking sites is in place, it begins to create an image of a genuine person for you. That is a great beginning. However, there is more to personal branding than having a bunch of social media profiles. Your own website, your own blog starts to make that difference for you. In my next post I am going to discuss how to set up your website and how to start blogging step by step.

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