Now a days it seems everyone has a blog, a twitter profile, a linkedin profile and a Facebook page. Of course some people do it for fun but the smart people are doing to brand themselves. In this ever connected time, personal branding is more important that ever. Personal branding has helped to launch careers and even make the famous even more famous, think Justin Beber.

Personal Branding is creating a brand but the product is you. When you are creating a personal brand think of some key questions such as; how can creating a personal brand further your career ambitions? What is it you want to accomplish? Who is your target market?

For example I have my company, Stiletto Marketing, which has it’s own brand. Stiletto Marketing’s brand has a blog (which you are reading), Facebook Page and a twitter profile @stilettomrktg

In addition I have a personal blog called The Wandering Dumpling, a twitter profile ( @brittanyyu ), a Youtube Channel and of course a Facebook profile. The twitter profile, Youtube channel, Wandering Dumpling blog and sometimes Facebook profile are all used to create a personal brand that is me.

For both blogs there is an underlying personality that is the same, but certain personality traits are highlighted on different blogs. For example with The Wandering Dumpling the personality characteristics I show are down to earth, unpretentious, brutally honest, fun, outgoing, and adventurous. In a perfect world I would love to attain a mixture Bethenny Frankel and Anthony Bourdain (maybe less verbose).

However, some of these qualities may not be as appropriate to have on my Stiletto branding. My Stiletto brand personality is professional, knowledgeable about SMM while still maintaining some humour and personality. Ideally Guy Kawasaki (with less tweets, the guy tweets way too much) but with my own personality. I particularly resonate with his Enchantment speech he gave the Ad Tech conference.

So how do you get started with branding yourself?
1. Figure out what it is you want to accomplish
2. Start to follow industry leaders, read their tweets and blogs. Learn from them, engage with them and use what you have learned in your social media channels.
3. Think of what makes your personal brand unique and be sure to feature it often
4. Be yourself. If you try to fake it you will have a social media fail like politician Advani. Advani used the social media as a political campaign but failed due to his spammy advertising like messaging.