147: 7 Personal Branding Fundamental Steps

Welcome to the digital age of marketing where you are the brand. You can run, you can hide but you can't escape the need to build your personal brand.  We all know people buy from people.  People also tweet with other people. They connect on LinkedIn with other people. They live video stream, Instagram and SnapChat with other people as well.  When a new potential client contacts us to do business, the first place go to learn about them is the internet. We will start with a Google, Facebook or Twitter search. We then immediately click through to LinkedIn.  In a matter of seconds we can find out who the person is and if they are who they said they are in the contact form. We can find out where they work now and where they have worked the past 10 - 20 years. We will within seconds know if they have a blog, if they have kids, where they went to school and the list goes on.  Yes, you may be sitting there reading this and think... "Pam,  you will never know that about me because I will never post all of that information."  I want to ask you why? Why would you not want me to find out the best information about you? Why not ensure your digital persona is a true representation of who you really are?  It is becoming a requirement , not an option to develop your personal brand. If you want to be trusted and rise above the noise you must connect with people as a human being, not just a logo.  Building your personal brand doesn't happen by jumping on Facebook or creating a fancy Twitter background or highly edited profile photo of yourself.  You don't build your personal brand in minutes or hours. You build your personal brand over days, weeks, months and years. You must earn trust, establish credibility and authority.  You must know who you are. You must know who your audience is and how you can serve them.  Even if you are just getting started online, it is important you start somewhere. It only takes a seed. it's how you nurture your personal brand that will bring success.  Check out episode 147 of the Social Zoom Factor podcast for 7 fundamental steps to build your personal brand.  Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud! In this 23 minute podcast you will learn:  7 fundamental steps to build your personal brand  Why you must be self aware of your strengths and weaknesses  Why personal branding is a requirement, not an option  Why you must stop excuses and start building your personal brand today  Why you are the media  The difference between authenticity and transparency  Why you must know who you are and what you stand for  Why you must know your audience and what they need from you  How to be aware of your digital body language