The Internet has given more steam to the already powerful conversation surrounding a powerful concept: The Personal Brand.
It’s also served as a platform for some of the most respected thinkers of our time (Seth, Guy, etc.) to not just build, but to proliferate their brand to the utter reaches of the earth. It’s even offered opportunities to motivated Gen Y professionals like Ryan Healy, Ryan Paugh and Devin Reams at Employee Evolution, Rebecca Thorman at Modite, 19-year-old entrepreneuer Ben Casnocha, personal branding guru and now magazine publisher Dan Schawbel begin to establish strong personal brands - in a way perhaps never available to young workers before.
We can even use web-based tools to discover our personal brand equity. Want to know more about the value of your personal brand? Check out these two tools:
1. Online Identity Calculator – thanks to Career Distinction for this great tool that can help you diagnose the strength of your online identity. It bases your online identity on the Google algorithm and a basic Google search of your name. What’s interesting about this tool is that at the end, it asks you what best describes the career level you are aiming for. It adjusts your score down the higher you aim, which is a great way to quickly evaluate the strides you need to make to build your personal brand to a level that will help you achieve your career goals. For even more depth into personal branding, check out the book, Career Distinction.
2. Blog Worth Calculator. This one is courtesy of Dave Carlson at Business Opportunities Blog. It’s based on Technorati’s blog authority system, and it puts a dollar amount to the url of your blog. This one’s more of a novelty, but you can motivate yourself to build your blog’s authority by simply putting in the URL for Engadget (the most popular ranked blog on Technorati) and noting that it’s worth $16,974,024.18, according to the calculator. Now, compare that to the calculated “worth” of your blog. Almost everyone has room for improvement in that kind of umbrella of potential!
So, take a look at the equity of your personal brand. Then, set a goal for yourself on what you want to improve. Then, figure out how. Here are some quick strategies for building your personal online brand:
- Blog - If you don’t already, start now. A professional blog is the best way to create, proliferate and control your personal brand. I’m not talking a personal diary here, unless that’s the brand you want to establish for yourself. If it is, go for it. But be aware that every place you put your name online will impact your personal brand.
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Comment - One of the quickest ways to spread your name around is to comment on blogs. Lots of them. Check out these ideas on how to comment to build your personal brand.
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Network - Build relationships with bloggers in your niche and outside it. Use LinkedIn to document these relationships so people can see the value of your network.
Now you’re ready to uncover the equity of your personal brand and harness the power of building it. Go ahead, embrace the power of now.
Now Read This: Personal Branding Magazine
August 2, 2007
Personal branding has been getting a lot of buzz lately, and rightly so. With so many issues that social media brings into the mix, it’s great that so many people are writing and blogging about the topic to help us all understand the complexities of our identities in our modern age.
That’s why I’m excited to tell all my readers who don’t know already about a great resource on the subject now available thanks to my friend, Dan Schawbel of Personal Branding Blog.
Personal Branding Magazine’s inaugural edition features an interview with Donald Trump, articles from Guy Kawasaki and other prominent bloggers, and amazingly enough, proceeds from the magazine benefit the American Cancer Society. How’s that for CSR getting personal?
Dan’s definitely an emerging thought leader on the topic, and he certainly practices what he preaches. Even Fast Company says so, so you don’t have to only take my word for it. Oh yeah, and he’s 23. So, check out the magazine and stop by Dan’s blog to check out his personal brand and let him know what you think. You know you want to.
