100 Tips Tools and Secrets To Develop A Successful Personal Brand

Develop your personal brand, and you'll find that more doors are open to you. Whether you're searching for a job, trying to develop your career, or building a business, it's vital that you have a strong personal brand to represent yourself. Read on to learn about some of the strategies and ideas for building a personal brand that works for you.

Tips

1. Stand out: Market yourself as something different from the pack.
2. Be visible: To be successful, your personal brand must be seen over and over again, so take part in networking, writing, speaking, and other activities that will improve your visibility.
3. Share your public personal values: Create a well developed sense of your public personal values, and make them available so that others can relate to them.
4. Get an online presence: Establish yourself on the Internet to become more accessible and easy to find.
5. Develop your benefits: Make sure that your personal brand highlights the benefits of your "product."
6. Comment on blogs: Be sure to comment on blogs that discuss you and topics important to you.
7. Find your expertise: Develop your passion, become an expert, and establish yourself as the go-to person for that topic.
8. Be yourself: Don't try to be something you're not-make your personal brand truly you.
9. Fine tune your brand: If you're lost among the crowd, make your brand more specific by fine tuning.
10. Write an About page: Create an about page to help people quickly and easily find out more about your personal brand.
11. Develop easily distributed media: Share your expertise and ideas through videos, podcasts, ebooks, and other packaged media that can build your personal brand on their own and help you be more authorative.
12. Develop your charm: Find your mojo, and create a je ne sais quoi that will draw people in to your brand.
13. Be consistent: Once you've established your style, stick with it.
14. Don't be afraid to evolve: Although consistency is important, be careful that your brand does not get stuck in a rut, allowing yourself to grow.
15. Have strong self esteem: Be confident in your brand, and others will be as well.
16. Create a logo: Use a small image consistently to be more recognizable.
17. Write: Write articles, books, and more to show others that you are knowledgeable about your subject of expertise, and improve your image.
18. Consider what others are doing right: Look to those you respect for their strong personal brands, and find out what they are doing to develop theirs.
19. Ask questions: Turn to your community to learn more and interact with them.
20. Be reachable: Create a destination that helps people learn what you're about, whether it's a blog, Twitter account, or social media profile.
21. Use the same avatar everywhere: Keep a consistent avatar so it's easy for others to identify you through different channels.
22. Communicate effectively: Learn how to communicate so that people will listen to what you have to say.
23. Consider your appearance: Make sure that your outward personal appearance conveys the message that you'd like to associate with your personal brand.
24. Regularly create new content: Consistently and frequently create new content so that others can relate to and find you online.
25. Develop a succinct message: Create a message that effectively explains what it is that makes up your personal brand.
26. Be a part of conversations: Share your ideas, answer questions, and add value to the discussions in your community.
27. Consider using a more unique name: If your name is extremely common or associated with someone who has a bad reputation, think about slightly modifying your first name, or using your middle name to set yourself apart.
28. Claim your identity: Whether you intend to use it immediately or not, it's a good idea to snap up your name for domains, Twitter, usernames, and more so that others can't use them.
29. Be original: Avoid too many "me too" posts, instead creating something original to define you.
30. Identify your dependability: Make sure you're clear on what others can count on you for, whether it's innovation, humor, or organization.
31. Avoid using an alias: Make sure your branding is properly credited to you by using your real name online.
32. Improve your etiquette: Send hand written notes, return phone calls, and be sure to practice good manners with others.
33. Be generous: Give back to your community through charitable causes and associations.
34. Apologize when you mess up: Show that you're human and willing to admit when you're wrong.
35. Keep good company: Surround yourself with good employees, friends, partners, and clients.
36. Innovate: Do something new, and you'll get people interested in what you're about.
37. Identify your attitude: Think about the vibe you put out, and be sure to express it without doubt.
38. Build your personal ability: Develop your value by reading books, obtaining education, and gathering experiences.

Tools

• Make use of these tools on your quest to build a stronger personal brand.
• Twitter: Twitter is a great tool for establishing your personal brand through interaction with others.
• Career Branding: What's the Value of Your Personal Brand?: Take this quiz to find out how strong your brand is.
• Resume Bucket: Upload your resume to this site, and you'll be able to share, promote, and track it.
• WordPress: Use WordPress or other blog services to create your own blog to develop your personal brand.
• Ning: Create your own social network to take on a leadership role in your community using Ning.
• LinkedIn: Connect with your network, establish your identity online, and meet new contacts through LinkedIn.
• StatCounter: Find out who is linking to your sites by checking out your stats, and follow up on those links to build relationships.
• YouTube: YouTube will help you better connect with others, making them feel like they already know you without even speaking to them.
• TweetBeep: TweetBeep will help you find out when anyone writes a Tweet that includes your name.
• Facebook: Facebook is excellent for connecting with others because it is so prominent that you can find just about everyone on it.
• FriendFeed: Follow and share others on FriendFeed to get syndication of your activities in social media.
• Google Alerts: Set up a Google Alert for your name, aliases, and personal business to find out who is talking about you.
• Technorati: Technorati will help you find out who is linking in to and writing about your blog.
• Flickr: Post photos on Flickr to let people see what you look like, and that you care about them by posting photos of them or commenting on their images.
• Copyscape: Protect your personal brand by finding plagiarism of your intellectual property and taking it down.
• Google Scholar: Using Google Scholar, you can find out who has recently cited your papers.

Advice

• Read these articles and blog posts to learn all about personal brand development.
• A Dozen Things You Must Know About Communicating Your Career Brand: Learn more about communicating your career brand from Quint Careers.
• Develop a Strong Personal Brand Online: Chris Brogan shares the basics of personal branding and beyond in this post.
• 13 Important Drivers to Developing Your Personal Brand: In this post, you'll find 13 things you can do to develop your unique personal brand.
• Develop Your Personal Brand: Yahoo! Hot Jobs explains why a personal brand is not a luxury, but rather essential for success.
• Maintaining Your Personal Brand Online: This post will help you learn how to establish your personal brand on the Internet.
• Personal Branding Basics: Read this post to learn the essentials of personal branding.
• Transitioning Your Tween Personal Brand Into Your Desired Adult Identity: In this post, you'll find out how to make your personal brand grow up.
• Finding Your Mojo: Tara Hunt explains how you can find your own personal charm.
• Brand Management = Who's Talking About You?: Anne Ruthmann highlights a variety of useful tools and strategies for managing your brand online.
• Your Personal Brand: On Coding Horror, you can learn why IT professionals should focus less on skills, and more on personal branding.
• Explore Successful Personal Brands: Check out this post to find personal brands of successful people with strong personal brands.
• Gain a Competitive Edge by Establishing a Personal Brand: This post explains how creating your personal brand can help you be more marketable in your job search.
• Your Personal Brand is Equal to Your Google Results: Stepcase Lifehack explains why Google often defines your personal brand.
• How to Define a Personal Brand: Here you'll find a how-to guide to creating your personal brand.
• Personal Brand Awards: Get inspired by these award winning personal brands.
• Developing a Successful Personal Brand: Learn how you leave a fingerprint on others through this blog post.
• The Brand Called You: Fast Company explains how to take a lesson from the big brands when developing your personal brand.
• Managing Your Employment Brand Online: This post will help you stay on top of your online brand.
• 100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media: Learn how to best use social media for branding with the help of this post.
• Develop Your Personal Brand to Land a Job: Read this post to learn how to translate personal branding into a job.
• Develop Your Personal Brand-Twelve Tips: Here you'll get 12 tips for your personal public relations.
• Now for My Next Trick, I'll Turn My Brand into Cash: Sarah Lacy explains the difficulty of making your brand translate into earning money.
• Elements of a Personal Brand: Chris Brogan breaks down the important parts of personal brands.
• Developing a Compelling Personal Brand Image: Make your image more prominent with the help of this post.
• Personal Branding Strategies: Check out this post to learn how to build a personal brand for your business.
• 1 or 100: How Many Social Networks Should You Join?: The Schipul Blog offers some good advice for diving into personal branding social media.
• Building a successful personal brand: what we can learn from Will Smith: Find out what Will Smith has to offer for personal branding advice.
• Daily DIY: Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape: You'll find lots of great advice and tools for using social media to build your personal brand.
• Three Key Steps to Developing Your Personal Brand: Erik Folgate's post explains how to make personal branding work for you.

Books & Blogs

• Make use of these great resources for a wealth of personal branding education.
• HorsePigCow: Tara Hunt, author of The Whuffie Factor, explains "whuffie," the social capital of your personal or business brand.
• Personal Branding Blog: Dan Schawbel maintains this blog about personal branding for Gen-Y.
• Career Warfare: 10 Rules for Building a Successful Personal Brand and Fighting to Keep It: Read this book to learn to distinguish yourself from other employees.
• Managing Brand You: In this book, you'll find 7 steps to creating a successful personal brand.
• Be Your Own Brand: A Breakthrough Formula for Standing Out from the Crowd: David McNally and Karl Speak show you how to apply branding from business to your personal identity.
• Make it Happen! Live Out Your Personal Brand: This book shares life lessons, words of advice, and stories that will help you learn to live out your personal brand.
• Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand: Find out how to build and nurture your personal brand to establish or secure your status as a professional.
• The Brand You 50: Find 50 nuggets of personal branding gold within the pages of this book.
• Get Slightly Famous: Become a Celebrity in Your Field and Attract More Business with Less Effort: Read this book and learn how to build visibility and credibility.
• UR a Brand! How Smart People Brand Themselves for Business Success: This book is full of advice and tools for establishing your brand.
• Make a Name for Yourself: Eight Steps Every Woman Needs to Create a Personal Brand Strategy for Success: In this book, you'll find a step by step program for establishing a strong identity.

Videos

• Check out these videos to get a look at personal brand development.
• Web 2.0 Expo NY: Gary Vanerchuk (Wine Library), Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape: Watch this video to learn about Gary Vaynerchuk's approach to personal branding in social media.
• Business Tips: How to Build Your Personal Brand Online: Penny Power's video offers methods for building your personal brand.
• Building Your Personal Brand with Video: Find out how you can use the power of video to build your personal brand.
• Personality Project: Frank Gruber Shares How to Build Your Personal Brand: Find out how Frank Gruber built his personal brand from this video.
• (Self branding) vs. Product Branding: Check out this video to learn the difference between personal and product branding.
• Robert Scoble Teaches Personal Brand Building: This video offers a lesson on personal brand building from Robert Scoble.