Brand Yourself Now

Your business cards, your website, your Facebook page, everywhere that you plan to have a presence needs to be branded for consistency, clarity and a personal touch. These marketing tools are the first impression that contacts have of you and are just as important as if you were dressed in your best suit, with your best smile and your firmest handshake.

Your brand is more than just your company logo.  It is the words that you want people to think of when thinking of you.  Start by doing some thinking about your professional expertise and your personality.  Come up with list of adjectives that describe who are you and what you do.  Words such as persistent, energetic, trustworthy, hardworking, honest, bold are examples to get you started.

Next, think about all the places that someone might look for you and make sure that you are there.  What happens when someone "googles" your name?  Looks for you on Facebook? Linked In? Twitter?  You need to have your brand in as many places as you can think of that someone would look for you.

Now it is time to make everyone aware of your brand by networking with other professionals.  A great way to do this is through social networking with peers and your prospective audience, comment on their blogs,  post on their pages, grow your brand through them.

Don't be afraid to ask people you are close to what they think of your brand.  What comes to mind when they think of you as a professional? If your message, your brand, is repeated back to you, then you are being successful in branding yourself.  If not, take another look at your branding.

Develop your brand Write down those positive adjectives that describe you and your business expertise - take the time to be creative but honest.  A good brand will tell people what they can expect when working with you, a little bit about who you are as a person and what results you will provide them professionally.