A Step by Step Guide to Help Establish Your Online Personal Brand.

If you want to develop your personal brand and therefore grow a brand equity or social capital you must associated a name with a personality and expertise.  My brand Julia Pitkin helps me to build awareness, be visible and contactable, share experiences and knowledge. Remember we do business with people they like. A brand of you is portable, which you can build without it being about ego and cannot be copied by anyone. 

The Ground Work.

1. Develop a personal brand with a sound message. This is how people get to know you, like you, follow you, and want to work with you.
2. Develop your business website - this is the place you will create the desire to buy.
3. Register yourname.com (future success)
4. Identify 5 key areas in which you are an expert and your skills are special.
5. Create a ‘Personal Learning Network’ and follow people who feed your expertise in these areas.
6. Identity 5 social media platforms that you reach and support the people you want to respond.  Perhaps start with Twitter and every two weeks add another platform.
7. Find an online community and group(s) where your target clients hangout, listen and blog within the community answering their needs.
8. Find an area in your strategy that is weak and strengthen it each week.
9. Know how to use the social media tools and streamline the incoming information to save time.

Once all of the above is in place, do the following routinely:

1. Write 1 x blog per month on your website sharing rich content therefore developing your personal brand and business.
2. Write 1 x blog per month on a piece of work, service or product with its benefits to others.
3. Follow up comments on your blogs every day and follow those people.
4. Follow up conversations with followers who use your name as a @mention and Re-tweet (RT) and Direct Messages (DM).
5. Write a comment on someone’s blog at least once a week and follow up the response.
6. Share some part of you expertise once a day on one of your social media platforms and follow up the response.
7. Contribute to conversation on twitter a minimum of 5 each day.

Once you have mastered the above routine watch your Klout and PeerIndex scores start to climb, and your telephone will start to ring more often.

I know you are saying, "I just haven’t got the time."  Just compare the time you spend and what this is worth to the cost of one static advert in one publication for one month.

Tell me what works for you?

Julia Pitkin,

Social Media Coach for Artists, Designers and Makers

Promoting and supporting the creative enterprise

julia@artisansinthehills..co.uk

http://www.artistansinthehills.co.uk/ online gallery space for the UK Crafter

http://www.juliapitkin.co.uk/  online gallery space for British Contemporary Art and Craft