AS our economy gradually transforms into a knowledge economy, more and more people are becoming freelancers and self-employed entrepreneurs. That being the case, it is now more important than ever to develop a strong personal brand through the Internet.
Your personal branding is essentially how people perceive you. It’s what they think of you when they hear your name. It’s not too different from how people react to famous companies. Some brands evoke positive emotions while others evoke negative ones.
Obviously you’d want your personal brand to be viewed positively. Having a positive brand not only helps you to win projects and land clients, it helps you get the right projects and the right clients.
In the past, personal branding was cultivated offline through word-of-mouth. Associates and clients would tell others about the experience they had dealing with you and if enough people had positive impressions of you, you’d end up with a good reputation.
Today, we have the Internet and it has made it all that much easier to do personal branding. Of course if handled incorrectly, it can result in very negative branding, which can also spread far and wide very fast. So, the Internet can be a double-edged sword. Here are five tips to help you work the Internet so that you end up with a good personal brand.
1. Think of yourself as a brand
First and foremost, you must think of yourself as a brand. Think about all the famous brands out there that you admire. What do you associate with those brands that make you admire them? Now, think of yourself not as you, the person, but as you, the brand. Then decide what kind of feelings you want to evoke when people think of you. What values do you want them to associate with you? What kind of expertise do you want to be known for? And how are you different (and better) than your competitors? Only when you start thinking this way will you be able to make the right moves to enhance your personal brand.
2. Google yourself
It may sound like a very vain thing to do but Googling yourself is crucial to understanding what the Internet thinks of you. I’ve often said that Google does not lie. That’s because its algorithm paints a pretty accurate perspective of who you are, what you do and what you’ve achieved so far.
When someone Googles you — and you can be sure many potential clients, suppliers, associates and business partners will do this — the results, for better or for worse, will colour their perception of you.
So don’t hesitate to find out what the Internet thinks of you. If it’s largely positive and impressive, you’ve obviously been doing the right things — doing good work and getting recognised for it. If, on the other hand, there’s not much to see or if the results are largely negative, then you know you need to start adopting best practices to gradually improve your Google results. Read on.
3. Do projects
If you Google my name, you’ll find plenty of results. That’s because over the years, I’ve done all kinds of projects — online and offline. I’ve published books, written articles, made blog postings, given speeches, conducted workshops, taught classes, created podcasts, edited videos and so on. Some of these things were done as part of my work and others were passion projects. But I’ve been busy and many of these things have been captured by Google. You can do search engine optimisation (SEO) as much as you want but at the end of the day, it’s not as good as genuine organic results that show off the achievements you’ve made.
4. Maintain a personal website
In the age of social media it might seem anachronistic to have a website. But don’t underestimate the importance of having an online central hub where people can easily find information about you.
It doesn’t have to be a fancy website nor does it have to cost a lot of money. These days, you can easily subscribe to a template-based service like Wix.com that allows you to develop a very professional-looking website which contains basic details about yourself, past clients, samples of your work and contact details. It should also contain links to all your social media pages.
The URL or web address should ideally be your name. If your name is somewhat unique, then you can probably register it. If, however, you have a very common name like Michael Tan, then you’re probably out of luck. Someone else would have probably registered that domain name already. In such a case, include some initials or add an additional word that describes what you do e.g. MichaelTanCartoonist.com. There’s a better chance of securing such a domain name.
5. Be active on social media
In this day and age, you have to be active on social media if you want to develop a strong personal brand. You can be sure the people you’ll be dealing with will be on social media and besides Googling your name, will also be checking you out on social media.
It’s crucial that if you’re using social media for personal branding that activities you do there are all geared towards fostering the branding that you wish to have. Don’t simply post whatever’s on your mind.
That’s fine to do if you’re using social media for social purposes — go ahead, share that picture of the meal you’re about to have — but if you’re using social for branding, every single posting must be purposeful. Ask yourself before posting anything: What does this posting do to enhance my brand?
Of all the social media platforms out there, the one that is most relevant to your career is LinkedIn, which is fundamentally your online resume. But of course it’s much more than that since it is a social media platform.
Enhancing your personal branding
You can share content and updates that could potentially go viral and thus help to establish you as a thought leader for your core domain. You can also contact and connect with other professionals in your field. It’s not as busy as Facebook or Twitter or even Instagram, but it’s got a focused user base. Everybody in there is there for professional reasons. And that’s what makes it valuable for career purposes.
I asked Frank Koo, Head of Southeast Asia Talent Solutions at LinkedIn, what people could do to enhance their personal branding via LinkedIn other than listing their achievements and qualifications. He highlighted three things:
Firstly, complete and optimise your profile. The more complete it is, the more you’ll stand out. Interestingly, LinkedIn has revealed the most overused words found on Malaysians’ profiles. For this year, Malaysia’s top five most commonly-used buzzwords include “specialised”, “leadership”, “passionate”, “experienced” and “responsible”. In doing up your profile, try to avoid such cliches.
Secondly, make it a point to publish articles on LinkedIn and share stories of your professional journey. This will help drive more traffic to your profile and add further credibility to your personal branding.
Thirdly, make meaningful connections with others in the network and engage with them regularly. This will help increase your visibility and open up more doors for your next opportunity.
If you take note of the five things I’ve mentioned above and do them diligently and consistently, you’ll find that in time your online personal branding will improve tremendously.
Oon Yeoh is a consultant with experiences in print, online and mobile media. reach him at oonyeoh@gmail.com