Personal Branding - Taking Control of Your Brand Identity

In the process of doing research for our upcoming eBook on personal branding, we became even more aware of the impact that a personal brand can have on everyone, including you.

You may not be aware of it yet, but if you are on the Internet with friends and others, you inevitably have created a personal brand without knowing it.

As an Internet user, your friends as well as strangers can put information about you on the web. Again, this means if you are a regular Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace user, anyone can post just about anything they would like regarding you or those you know.

Have you Googled today?

If you haven't Googled yourself yet; then take a few moments to do just that. You may be surprised to see yourself represented in their search engine. One thing that might interest you to know is that many companies have their Human Resource departments Google potential employees. What you have posted or what others have posted about you may influence their decision. In fact, this is becoming more and more commonplace.

Not only are employers doing the Google'ing but colleges are joining in as well. So the next time your young adult posts some great party pictures where everyone is playing beer pong or holding "red" cups....warn them of the potential danger to their "personal brand!"

How do you protect your brand identity?

Well, first make sure that your personal profiles are kept private and not made public. Be conscientious and aware of what you write or post in public places on the Internet. What you write goes a long way with helping others form an opinion of you and this being the case, affects your brand identity.

If you have a business that you want to promote and want people to discover you on places like Facebook, then create a fan page that can be made public.

What does this mean if you have a business presence on the Internet?

If you have a business that you want to promote on the Internet then it is very important to create and manage your Personal Brand. Your brand will affect whether or not potential customers buy your services or products.

Whether you are personal branding yourself, your business or both remember your personal brand is just one thing....YOU!

Deb Marsden and Lee McVey are best friends and business partners whose goal is to save you time and money with your computer projects.