We live in one of the most exciting times in the world’s history where you can build a personal brand faster and broader than anyone has even imagined. Most people are underestimating the reach and power of the internet that has really only been available for barely 15 years. Facebook marketing is less than 2 years old and YouTube and Twitter have only been in existence for a few years.
The previous generation built their personal brands on television, radio, magazines and newspapers. You now have the opportunity to build a personal brand utilizing the power and leverage of social media and blogs that can accelerate the process.
The potential of the web is still evolving and will continue to surprise us as it continues to grow and challenge established thinking and disrupt business models.
So what are 23 steps to build your personal brand in a digital world?
1. Identify Your Passion
2. Think of 20 or more blog topics that you can write about or video on your passion so you can have plenty of content to publish when you are ready to launch your blog
3. Ask yourself the questions “Can I talk about it better than anyone else?” and “Am I so passionate about it that I can get up at 4.30am, 5 days a week to do it?”
4. Name your personal brand eg “The online gaming guru” or the “The place to get your scrapbooking tips”
5. Buy your user name (as a domain name) preferably a .com and or .tv at Hostmonster.com
6. Choose Your Medium eg video, audio or the written word as some people can write, others are better on video and some can communicate their passion through speech
7. Buy a hosting account and a WordPress theme that suits your medium
8. Hire a web designer so that you can present the most professional brand you can afford to the online world as it is the global front door for your digital online brand
9. Make it easy for people to share your content and include a retweet and Facebook share buttons as a minimum as well as making it easy for fans to subscribe via RSS and email
10. Create a Facebook fan page
11. Sign Up for Ping.fm ( multichannel social media promotion and publishing software) or Tube Mogul (online video distribution platform) then select all the platforms you want to distribute your content (Twitter and facebook are absolutely essential) choose others depending on your interests
12. Publish and post your content to your blog
13. Write, video or record your posts regularly preferably once a day 5 days a week.
14. Create community by leaving comments on other peoples blogs and replying to comments on your blog
15. Use Twitter search to find as many people as possible talking about your topic and communicate with them
16. Follow people on Twitter who are following leaders in your niche (they have already identified themselves as being interested in your subject area)
17. Use Google Blog search to find more blogs that are relevant to your subject
18. Join as many active Facebook fan pages and groups relating to your blog topic as possible
19. Repeat steps 12 to 18 over and over and over and over
20. Monitor your brand with Google alerts or Tweetdeck so that you can thank people that publish your content and protect your brand from misconceptions
21. Find and use tools to make it more efficient to publish and promote your blog content such as socialoomph.com
22. When you have feel that you have gained enough traction and attention and you have fans that are spreading your message then start reaching out to advertisers and begin monetizing
23. Place a big button on your site that invites and makes it easy for people to do business with you
These are the key steps to start creating the brand “You” that will create opportunities and open doors that were previously closed.
This blog post was inspired by Gary Vaynerchuk’s book “Crush It” I would recommend that you go and buy it!!