“Too Much Is Never Enough” – Top 5 Ways to Establish and Activate Personal Brand

“Too much is never enough” was an adage that periliously saw me through my college years and most of my 20’s.  Now a decade has passed, and I thought I’d outgrown it.  However, now it is back – but in a more mature manner and is proving to be helpful.

 

 

See, too much good news and positive press online is never enough – you can always use more.  Still, most of us don’t have the time to post something everyday.  Most of us don’t have the cash to join all groups, and build, host and maintain our own website.

 

So, what are the top 5 things you can do to help develop, hone and activate your personal brand, and begin to self-promote without breaking the bank, losing tons of sleep or simply choosing the wrong tools?

 

1.    Make sure they find the right you…at the top of the search engines.  So, how do you do that?  (Hey – just a reminder – I thought you just said this wouldn’t take long or cost a lot of money!) – check out QAlias – where for $9.95 a month, you get a 3 page web view, with a photo, customizable bio page, bulletin and online business cards…and oh yeah, page one presence on Google and Yahoo EVERYTIME someone searches for you by name online.  This is the best way to tie the other 4 things we suggest together.  You can even import any video or audio you’ve done!

2.    Make sure you are on, and using properly, LinkedIn.  From hunting jobs, to finding old college friends who are “someone” now, you can get a lot done here.  One thing to be sure of – ask for and write recommendations.  They carry a ton of weight with the people who search for you.

3.    Be sure to stay away from the social and business networks that do not provide a “professional representation of you.”  So what if everyone else is doing it!?!?!?!   I can hear your mother rolling over in her grave.  You  are no better than the company you keep and certain business networks and social scenes online are not going to represent you well, especially over time.

4.    Comment on blogs and forums with salient solutions to issues raised in the blog articles.  Sure, you don’t have time to do the work of keeping a full blog.  But you can still gain some traction and perhaps clients and certainly online listings with some comments.  These comments are especially helpful if they end up pointing to articles you’ve written on the same subject.  Want press?  Be sure to check out Webwire.com – an amazingly inexpensive – comparatively – service for PR and News Releases.

5.    Find blogs, newsletters, radio shows or other online ventures where you can get a little press.  It goes a LONG way when someone looks for you online, is almost always free, and returns a huge value in elevating you as an expert.  Be sure to sign up for Help a Reporter (and follow the rules!), be sure to stay alert to local opportunities, and when you can, give quick talks or luncheons about your subject matter of expertise.

 

Andy “Google Me” Greider is a marketing consultant and new business director with Carroll/White and radio show host of business growth solutions show, Uniqueness is Power. Andy is also Brand Manager with qAlias, plus he is a Self Promotion maven, serial entrepreneur, author, blogger, and inventor of the Gorelephant, first eImpressions and networthing.