Monday, June 28, 2010

Cool online profile tester

Our partner, Reach Personal Branding has devised a super cool tool to test your online brand 'distinction'. As we all know, it is not all about quantity, it is quality that matters. How distinct and relevant is your brand? Take the Online ID Calculator test.

Your profile: bigger than the sum of its parts

Finding your authentic, niche voice is key to defining your profile online. It will drive what you talk about and define why people want to listen. Your profile is bigger than the sum of its parts but the parts are important. So what goes into a profile?

1. Your personal brand-- the brand called you. What is it at its core that makes you unique? Note- it doesn't matter if you are in a corporate position or are an entrepreneur-- we all have a personal brand.

2. The content, perspective and media that surrounds your brand and builds it every day. You need to keep it alive and fresh. Is it relevant, consistent and unique? The content surrounding your brand is your digital thumbprint online. How many places do you live online? How easy is it to find you and the information surrounding you that we want to know? Articles you have been published in, your professional profiles, your website, your videos and other digital assets?

3. Your community. Those who listen. Those who are your fans. Those who follow. Those who extend your brand. It is your community and network who ultimately will define your profile online.


Monday, June 7, 2010

Your online profile is not your brand

Your online profile is the reflection of your brand as understood by your community and managed by you!

You've heard the expression.... 'she's very high profile'. Well what that means is that she has a high degree of visibility and brand recognition in the market.

This profile comes from how you manage and develop your brand in the social media world. Your online profile is a moving target that takes lots of time, care and nurturing on a day to day basis in order to have it viewed by others in the way you hope it will be. If your online profile is measured by those who know it then we never ultimately be in control of it. But we will be the CEO of its development strategy and 100% accountabile for the consistency of its execution (both on or offline), which most certainly will impact the way it is viewed by others.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

The online profile setup

Google, Bing, Yahoo all have one thing in common. They have a lot of power over what people will find out about you when searching on your name.

What they find when going out in a search query against your name is a culmination of all activity you have had online associated with your name. For better or worse, you have an online profile. And once you do it is tough to change. So, the good news is that it can be managed but you have to know what's out there and how it works!

Over the next months I am going to publish a series of posts that will help you to understand how the online profile works and how to take control back and manage your repuatation online before someone or something else does!