In order to stand out among your peers, you need to find ways to brand yourself. Think about what you would like people to know you for and then work hard to build some credibility around your chosen topic. You should choose to brand yourself on one of your skills, something that you are an expert on, or a topic that you have a lot of knowledge about. Whatever you decide, make sure that you have a lot of passion for the subject and enjoy sharing your knowledge with others. For example, if you are an expert on Internet marketing, then you should spend time branding yourself with techniques such as creating a Website, writing articles, speaking, and developing a newsletter.
While the above techniques are all important, one more that has exploded over the last few years is blogging. For those of you that aren't as familiar with blogs, they are essentially a way to share your thoughts online in a journal format for the public to view. Interested people can subscribe to your posts as well as comment on what you have written. Essentially, blogs have created online communities, which allow you to brand yourself with a wide variety of people.
As you know, I am a recent entrant into the blogosphere. Up until recently, I only engaged in the branding techniques that I listed above around business networking. While those techniques are still important to me, I was looking for another way to connect with individuals. After talking with several people and reading "Naked Conversations" by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, I decided that creating a blog was my next move.
If you are considering starting a blog, then read "Naked Conversations" before you start. By reading this book, you will have a better understanding of why you should start a blog and the power of blogging if done correctly. The authors of the book do an excellent job of explaining blogging and sharing best practices from dozen of bloggers. After reading their book, I was even more motivated to start a blog.
So, blogging is an excellent way to share your brand to virtually the world. Take the time to think of a subject of interest, read other blogs, and get to know the blogosphere before you start. Blogging does require a commitment so make sure that you devote adequate time.
Good luck and let me know about your blog.
Thanks for these very kind words on our book. It is gratifying when people testify that it did for them what we had hoped it would do.
Posted by: shel israel | December 25, 2006 at 11:51 PM
You are welcome Shel. I really enjoyed your book and will recommend it to others. Your book was a must for me before I started my blog.
Posted by: Jason Jacobsohn | December 27, 2006 at 07:38 PM
blogging is your direct and personal connection to your audience. It is meant to be real and interactive, so it is a HUGE part of your personal brand.
Posted by: Dan Schawbel | May 08, 2007 at 06:10 PM
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Posted by: Inn San Francisco | January 06, 2014 at 11:07 AM