TNTJ: What have you done to build your brand online?
This month's topic over on Tomorrow's News, Tomorrow's Journalists is an interesting one and one that I voted for in our very democratic way of deciding December's topic. What have you done to build your brand online?
See where you are online
The first thing I did was go and see what is out there about me on the internet. A quick Google of my name 'ed walker' made me realise first of all: a) I have a really common name b) There's a 'Sir Edward Walker' - not me. Having a common name is the first hurdle in building a brand online, because if you're called Japhael Jiminez - chances are you're pretty unique.
Start a blog
Starting a blog is a must. This should be the core of your brand online. This is where you live and breath online. If possible try and buy your own domain and a bit of hosting, as having your name as a yourname.com/.co.uk/.net will help massively when it comes to boosting yourself up those all important Google rankings. After starting your blog and making it look pretty, get posting. Post about stuff that matters to you, it'll probably matter to other people. Your blog should be your living CV, blog about stuff you're working on, your success' and even some of your failures. Make sure you've got an ace 'About' page, so that if people want to know more about you they can find out.
Link to people
You're not going to build this brand alone. When posting on your blog, link out and link far and wide. If you link to people, they will probably come and look at your blog and see who you are. They might even link back if they like your stuff!
Have a good presence on LinkedIn
Forget Facebook, Bebo, MySpace etc, LinkedIn is the professional networking site and it can be used by potential employers to find you and see who you are and what you do. Ensure your profile is fully filled out, keep it updated reguarly and you'll be surprised how much traffic it can bring to your blog and also how highly LinkedIn profiles rank in Google and other search engines.
Claim your blog on Technorati
Technorati is the bloggers website. It's important to claim your blog as this will tell you who is linking to you and give you an authority ranking. As more people link to you, your authority grows.
Listen to those who know
I suggest people like Chris Brogan and Adam Singer, who aren't journalists, but have built up highly successful blogs and follows online. They have built a brand around themselves online, and as a result have benefitted financially but also in building up a big and useful network of contacts.
Network offline and transfer online
Face to face is still and always will be the most powerful communication tool in the world. Make use of it, at a networking event? At a party? Social media is reasonably in right now and while it may not be the best conversation starter it's a great conversation finisher. Make sure you leave people you've been speaking to with your blog address, or if you're a guest speaker make sure it's on your slides.
Twitter and other social media
Make sure you're using social media such as Twitter to join in the conversation, find and follow relevant people. Give people a reason to follow you by posting regularly and by posting interesting links to Twitter. Don't tell us what you had for breakfast, that's what Facebook status updates are for. Make sure all your social media presences link to your blog and that your blog links to all your social media presences. Think of your blog as the continent with lots of little islands around it.
Join relevant networks (like TNTJ!) and get networked
If there's a network for your industry, join it and meet people. You'll be surprised how interested they'll be in what you do and what you may be blogging about.
Image in this post is used under creative commons from flickr user See-Ming Lee