In 2009, one of the big catch phrases is “personal branding”.  As social media reaches mass appeal, the growth (and importance) of personal branding has experienced a parallel trajectory.  Some key reasons now is the time to take control of your personal brand, aka your online representation:

+ Potential employers can “google” your name and get a snapshot about your life based on your digital foot print.
+ An individual can have as much leverage as an entire company in social media. President Obama epitomizes what a personal brand can be.
+ As a consumer, companies will change the way they engage with you. The way we shop for products and make choices is evolving to engage consumers based on their personal brand.

A company builds its brand around a logo, company name and tag line. Your personal brand centers around your avatar, screen name and online voice. If you think of your avatar as a logo, consistent use of that image across multiple social portals will give your personal brand strength. Consistency is important for companies, and it’s important for you. Think how strange it would be if UPS changed their color to green. It was completely throw people off because they’re color is brown.

The same holds true for your “brand”. Consistency over time build brand strength. Whether you’re on Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed or MySpace. Many of these social sites allow the user to create a profile. Your audience will see your brand in places you never thought of, and that’s part of the power of web 2.0. Just because your profile is here, doesn’t mean it won’t show up there. And when it does, you want the person viewing your profile to have a consistent impression of your brand just like UPS will always appear as brown no matter where in the world you see it.

Some examples of a good personal brand. Close cropped, smiling faces project an engaging image. Part of the point of social media is to engage others.

good avatars

Some examples of a personal brand that don’t work as well.  What are they?  What do they project about each of these people?

not as strong

This is only the beginning.  Social media is here to stay, and because everything is digital, that means it’ll always exist.  Kind of scary if you think about it.  Everything you do online will exist either as an archive or a piece of data stored somewhere.  Over time you control what your personal brand will become.  Why not start now?

Tagged as: Brand, Facebook, FriendFeed, Google, MySpace, Social media, twitter, Web 2.0