A couple of weeks ago we began our quest to creating our own personal brands. Now that you have had a little time to think about it and start to develop your personal brand, it is time to discuss the next stage; how to promote your brand.  This step in your search to develop your personal brand is where you display for the rest of the world who you are, what you’ve done and where you exist online.  If no one can find you or your brand, then you have not effectively promoted yourself.

Your personal brand should be consistently interwoven into all aspects of your career. Start with your resume, bio and cover letter. Each of these should reflect the language of your personal brand. Once you are happy with these three items, it is time to begin working on your web presence. Establishing your visibility online is critical to brand recognition and ultimately assisting you in your next career move. Jumping in and really engaging in the social media environment can be fun and exciting, but you should start slowly, pick one site at a time and don’t let yourself get overwhelmed.

Places to put your personal brand information:

• Website profiles: Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, Ning, Ziggs, Zoominfo, Naymz, and Plaxo.
• You should also post your bio on Wikipedia, Knol, and Squidoo

Other Sites to get familiar with:

• Twitter: You should use this site as a micro-blogging service to network, ask and answer questions and share and learn.
• Del.icio.us: This is a social book marking site where you can book mark articles related to your profession or interest. 
• Digg: Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web.
• Mashable: Mashable is the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Networking news.
• Technorati- Filled with tons of blogs.

What not to do: ·      Don’t be a pseudo connecter—someone who signs up for a site, connects with lots of people and then never logs back on. This is easy to spot and does not look good.  ·      Don’t leave your sites unfinished– Once you have picked a few sites to sign up on, make sure you complete your profile. Don’t fill out the bare minimums.  Include your headshot; include your bio, etc. The goal is to truly create a web presence, not just build a façade that makes you look like something you are not.  When people – hiring managers, potential client – Google you, you want them to take an interest and connect with your brand.  This will not happen unless you make the effort to build and promote your brand. ·      Don’t mix professional and personal—for those of you who are already engaged in social media (such as Facebook) in a personal (i.e. friends & family) capacity, do not use the same site for your personal (professional) brand.  You do not want a potential employer sifting through your tweets to friends to find the content they are looking for.  If your current profile is set up under your name, then use it for your professional web presence and inform your friends that your personal profile is changing names.  It is important that you can be easily found through search engines and the best way to do this is using your name.

Have fun building up your online profile!