Personal Branding

The first thing you want to look at is how much of your web presence overlaps with where these conversations are taking place. Where do you want to be that you already have a presence or a foothold? List those starting points. Next, list one to three blogs, social media conversations or networks where you want to be, but are not yet active. Choose a small number to start with—building a new presence or reading habit will take time and it’s better to start small and grow from there.

Trying to commit to doing 10 new tasks, like reading a new blog or participating in a new online conversation, is too much, and your chances of not following through are too great. Start small and focused, and follow through. Building a consistent presence in one ongoing online conversation or commenting presence on one or two key online blogs is more effective and important than spreading your time thin and scattering your influence.

By the end of your digital audit, you should isolate two or three key places where you want your online presence to be that you are already present, and add to that another two or three new places you want to work on. These five or so online destinations are where you will focus your time and attention for building your personal brand.

Learn more about personal branding

The Internet is a great place to start, but if you really want to build your personal brand then you should read a few books when you’re done with your audit, then do your audit again and compare the differences in how you conducted the audit.

Jim Kukral and I wrote a book about personal branding that will help you learn how to build your personal brand and leverage it to make more money:

What is Personal Branding?
by Jim Kukral & Murray Newlands