Creating a Personal Brand (Part 3)

Now that you know what your personal brand is, and you've created your '"tagline" or personal brand statement, what things can you do to get it out there?  So that you actually get visitors that are interested in what you have to offer (therefore turning into paying customers)?

This is Who I am

7 Tips and Tools to in Creating Your Brand Identity.

1. Be Real - Part of the idea behind personal branding is that your customers wants to deal with a real person.  Tell them about you.  Tell them about things you're good at, things you love, things you would really prefer not.  Tell them how crazy busy life is, or how quiet your weekend was.  These little tid-bits go along way in helping people to identify with you (and your humanness).
2. Be Consistent - Use the same image, the same name (your real one is always first choice), the same tagline.  All of those things will create an online presence that people identify with.  Don't use one picture of yourself on your website, a different one on your gravatar, and another even yet on your social media accounts.  That's just confusing!  Be consistent,  and if you want to share different photos of you, that great, but do it in a photo album, or in your 'about me' on your website.
3. Create a Website or blog - Again depending on the purpose you need to fill.  Are you selling product, or selling information?  Is there enough information to keep a blog up to date with fresh content?  Look at all of these things and then decide if you are best suited to a blog or a more static website (because the information doesn't change from day to day).
4. Create a Tone of Voice - In your writing or online presence that people will identify with you.  If you are a very professional business writer on a Monday post, and then a very casual trying to be funny blogger on a Friday post, it will confuse your audience. (This again just goes back to be yourself, that way you won't forget who you are).
5. Get involved through Social Communities - Make sure that you are involved in the major social media sites, like Twitter, and Facebook. GET a GOOGLE ACCOUNT and get a google profile set up.  This one is sooo important with the new Google Wave just starting to appear.  Become part of Google Friend Connect, and actively promote that you are by joining other's communities and inviting them back to yours.
   

   Your Community

6. Be Available, and Helpful - This is your business. Answer your customers email and comments right away.  Be helpful, and give them more than what they ask for.  Spend time out in the community of your online niche, answering questions, commenting on blog posts, and just generally getting to know your clients.
7. Be Trustworthy - People want to know that they can trust what you say.  Trust is something required in any lasting relationship.  Show your customers that you are who you say you are.  This can be the difference from having a surfer stop on your page one time, and a long term reader or customer. Long term are the kind you are aiming for - because they will keep coming back to you over and over when they are looking for something.

Cool.  Now that you have done all this work, and made a plan.  Go out and start creating your brand.  But a word of caution - don't get discouraged. The brand name people that you know and recognize have been doing this for years.   Copy Blogger, Problogger, Jack Humphrey, Alice Seba are names that you recognize, because they kept working on it and didn't give up.

This is a process, and as with anything else it needs to be nurtured so it has time to grow.  If you have any questions, fire them off to me in a comment, I'd be happy to talk more with you about it.  Meantime, - I hope you will join my communities (Google Friend Connect, My Bloglog, Networked Blogs, and Mom Bloggers Community) and keep in touch!

Hope this helps,

P.S. - After doing all this work on the personal branding series this week, it has really got me re-thinking a few things.  At Home with Heather is missing a huge chunk of what I want it to be about.  So during November, keep your eyes out while I change it up a bit.