Would you like to know what tweak I made?

I customized my Professional Headline.

LinkedIn defaults your professional headline with your current job title and company name. However, there is an option that allows you to change your headline and customize it with something more interesting about you or your expertise.

If you want to have more click throughs to your profile, customize your Professional Headline with something that is interesting and compelling.

Watch the video below to see how it is done.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkKwtYX2V6w

In his video, Bret explained how blogging allows you to document and articulate how you can help others with things that matter to them most. He stresses that as an owner of a blog, you are not trying to become a professional blogger but rather showcase the value that you bring to your viewers. Blogging helps you become a recognized expert in your field of industry.

Here are a few tips that Bret offers:

1. Don’t quit blogging
2. Follow other people’s blog in your industry
3. Read blogs outside of your field of interest
4. Continue to improve what you are doing

Watch Brit’s video for yourself:

Bret L Simmons: Personal Branding: Three tips for the new blogger from Bret Simmons on Vimeo.

A few months ago, I was listening to the local DJ personality on the radio. He mentioned that someone, whose name was the same as his, had recently uploaded a controversial blog comment. I don’t remember the exact details of the blog comment, but I do remember thinking to myself… Wow, he’s monitoring his personal brand and knows when anything is posted that mentions his name.

This led me to wondering if others actually monitored their personal brand. How many people even know how to set up a system to monitor their personal brand? The good news is that I know how to set a monitoring strategy and it only takes one minute to set up.

Google is the most popular search engine on the web today. While there are many search engines online, such as Bing, Yahoo and AOL; Google seems to be the lead dog in the search engine world. The strategy I will teach you uses a special Google tool called Google Alerts.

Google Alerts is a free content monitoring system that automatically notifies users when new content from news, web, blogs, video and/or discussion groups match a set of search terms selected by the user and stored by the Google Alerts service. Notifications can be sent by email, as a web feed or displayed on the users iGoogle page. Gmail accounts are not required in order to take advantage of Google Alerts. Notifications can be sent to any email address.

While Google Alerts only provides content from Google’s own search engine; Google has the largest global average usage share and is the most popular search engine on the planet. Using Google as your alert system gives you the greatest amount of monitoring coverage offered from one search engine.

Users can determine the frequency of checks that are done for new results. Three options are available: “once a day”, “once a week”, or “as it happens”. These options set the maximum frequency of alerts and do not necessarily control how often they will receive alerts. Alerts are sent only if new content matches the user-selected search terms.

Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts)

Setting Up Your Personal Branding Search

1. Visit www.google.com/alerts.
2. Type your name in search terms box. (Use quotations around your name so that Google returns the exact phrase)
3. Select comprehensive as type. (You want Google to search all content match alerts)
4. Select how often you want to be notified if something is found (Suggested – once a day)
5. Email length – (optional)
6. Enter the email address you wish the alerts to be sent to
7. If you signed up to receive Google Alerts to an outside email address other than Gmail, you will receive an email asking you to confirm your request.  Click the confirmation link.
8. Once you have confirmed, Google Alerts will monitor the web and email you sites that mention your name.

View video tutorial below:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYM5UorwTRA

The first place you can start branding yourself is through your name. Think about it for a moment, your name is one of the most consistent brands that you posses. Unless you are a woman who marries and changes her maiden name, you will more than likely have the same name for the rest of your life.

Purchasing your own name as a domain name is something that is highly recommended for personal branding. Even if you are not ready to host your own website, blog, or career portfolio, you should consider purchasing your personal domain name as a commodity that will have future value.

There are billions of people on the planet and chances are there is someone else who shares the same name as you. If you are lucky to find that your name is still available as a domain, I would recommend that you purchase it immediately before someone else does.

The first thing you should do is conduct a domain search for your name. If your name is common, there will be a great chance that your name is already taken. The returned search results will determine the strategy that you will use in branding your name.

The easiest and simplest way to conduct a domain search is by visiting the popular domain registrar, GoDaddy. On the front page of GoDaddy you will find a search box labeled, “Start a Domain Name search”. In the search box, enter your full name without any spaces. The search function is already set up to search the .com extension. Click the Go button and the system will let you know if your name is already taken as a domain.

If the .com extension is taken, you will have to brainstorm some alternative ideas about what combination of your name you will be able to register. You could check to see if other domain extensions are available such as .net or .info. GoDaddy will show you if other extensions (.net, .info, .org, .me, .tv, .mobi) of your name are available.

Another option is to add your middle name in your domain or add something onto the beginning or end of your name. An example might be www.bobhenryjohnson.com or www.bobjohnsononline.com. Whatever your choice, consider it carefully as this will be the brand name that you will build consistency with.

Personal Branding is the process whereby people market themselves as brands.

Personal Branding is the process whereby people market themselves as brands. It is a concept that suggests that a person’s perceived value comes from their “self-packaging”. This includes but is not limited to the individual’s appearance, knowledge and associations. If marketed correctly, it leads to an indelible impression that is uniquely distinguishable. Branding is not just about being better than your competition. It’s about getting prospective customers to think of you first and choosing you as the ONLY solution to their problems.

Here are five advantages to having a strong personal brand:

1. Individuality and separateness in the marketplace
   You want your prospective employer or client to be able to easily differentiate who you are, the skills you offer and the benefits of hiring you over your peers who work in the same industry.
2. A reputation of integrity and character
   Your personal brand should be a reflection of who you are as a person. Branding helps define your reputation of integrity and character. It is an expression of the ideology of what you stand for; it is your opinions, values, beliefs and moral character. It’s not just what you say but what you do.
3. Control of Perception
   The branding process gives you the ability to take control of your identity and influence the perception others will have about you and the services you offer. When you properly manage your brand, you essentially paint your desired image that you want others to have of you.
4. Magnetic Attraction
   When you have created a strong personal brand, you will find that you can attract clients and opportunities almost effortlessly at your will. You will establish yourself in the mind of your industry peers and clients as the recognized authority figure of choice. This branding statement will afford you the ability to dominate your market and command higher salaries and consultant fees.
5. Celebrity Status
   Proper branding can give you local and even national celebrity status within your industry. Work your brand so that you gain name recognition in your area of expertise where it counts the most – in your customer’s mind. Make a lasting impression and you will become a sought after expert and highly compensated for your individuality.

Trust, respect, and admiration will follow when your name and message are embedded repeatedly into the consciousness of your target market. You will be perceived as an expert the more you are visible to your target audience. Your brand will propel you to the top in your marketplace.

SEO is the acronym for “search engine optimization”. It is a process of improving the visibility of a document when certain keyword phrases are searches for using a search engine. Documents that are optimized properly for the right keyword phrases have a greater chance of appearing in the top search results. Documents in the top results are the first viewed and often receive a high volume of traffic.

A LinkedIn profile is nothing more than a resume populated with keywords that describer  an individual’s employment background, skills, and experience. LinkedIn users search the social network’s database to find professionals based on keywords that accurately identify an individual’s qualifications.  Connections are made via this business-oriented social network for a wide range of purposes to include job opportunities, business relationship building, company research and so much more.

A fully completed profile can help a individual effectively network with others who are looking to establish direct business connections. In addition to landing career opportunities, LinkedIn can provide the benefits of building strong relationships with potential mentors, customers, and individuals with whom you can share intellectual capital with.

Items that should be included in your LinkedIn profile:

• Schools you attended
  - Full school name as well as abbreviations (University of Georgia/UGA)
• Companies you were employed by
  - Parent company, subsidiaries, mergers and acquisitions of defunct companies
• Job related skills you posses
  - Industry keywords, software, tools and acronyms (enterprise java beans/EJB)
• Associations you are a member of
  - Any relevant business associations including fraternity, sorority and civic community groups
• Elevator Pitch
  - Write your elevator pitch in the summary of your profile
  - Announce the solutions that your background and experience solves
• Recommendations
  - Request endorsements from managers, colleagues and clients (these are like product reviews)
  - Writing recommendations for others increases your exposure by being on someone else’s profile
• Public Profile URL
  - Change the LinkedIn default assigned value to something closer to your identity (www.linkedin.com/in/otiscollier)

It is important that special attention is given towards the specific keywords that are used in a profile. Users should carefully examine their background and use industry specific keywords that describe their work experience.  A great rule of practice is to write out a list of all the keywords that will show up on the user’s profile before it is created. This list will often serve as a memory jogger for keywords not initially thought of. Finally, users should conduct searches for individuals like themselves to observe what others are using on their profiles to be found.

Establish yourself as the recognized authority figure in your industry and you will be swamped with business.

You’ve heard the saying; it’s not what you know but who you know. In branding that saying is twisted even further to say, it’s not who you know but who knows you. Your brand is your name, it’s your logo, it’s your color combination and it’s your reputation. Your brand is the message that you want to convey to others when they think about you.

Before you create a brand you must decide what image you want your brand to have. What is the message that you want others to have in their mind when they think of you? What logo best represents that image? What is the color scheme that best reflects your style?

Once you determine what that brand is, you need to put it to work. There are several key elements of a brand that must be in effect in order to consider your brand successful.

1. Grab Your Audience’s Attention
You could be the best plumber the world has ever seen; however, if no one knows you exist you might as well not. Branding is about letting the world know that you are here and that you are the top professional in your field. If you are a plumber, you must find a way to let the people in your town know that you are the best plumber in that city.

Grabbing people’s attention is not that difficult to do. The key is to capture it in a way so that it creates a recognized authority persona. That means you must brand then market your unique competitive advantage.

2. Create an interest in who you are and what you do
The best way to get people to buy into your competitive advantage is by getting them interested in who you are and what you do. This is often done by educating your audience.

Your audience must have ownership in your product or service. They must be involved and engaged. The easiest way to get people involved is by having them acknowledge a specific problem that they are having and then educating them on how you can solve their problem.

3. Establish your Expertise
Once you have captured the interest of your audience, you must then establish your expertise. People do business with those who they trust. Nothing creates trust more than when you can educate someone and then continuously deliver on your promise to solve their problems.

4. Market Saturation
Getting your brand to show up in multiple venues takes time and work. Market saturation is something that is creatively planned. You goal is to have your brand to seemingly appear everywhere. Customers should feel that they have heard about your brand from several different validating sources.

To accomplish this, you might consider blogging and writing articles for industry niche publications. Validate your expertise by setting up and recording interview sessions with other well known industry professionals.  Volunteer and book speaking engagements at industry associations.

This strategy requires that you constantly find opportunities where you can showcase your expertise.  Fostering brand recognition keeps your message on the minds of those who are important to you. It builds your status as the recognized authority in your field.