Top Nine Ways to Create Your Personal Brand

1. Social Media Platforms - There are countless options. Choose three and use them regularly. I prefer Facebook, LinkedIn, and Blogger. All are free; all are powerful.
2. Privacy Settings - Use the options and controls in social media to determine who sees what. Some information or pictures are just for friends. Others are for the public. Still others are for professionals.
3. Focus - Just like limiting social media to three platforms, focus on one or two topics. These topics may be posts for your blog, articles you choose to share, or conversations you decide to join. This will help set you up as a thought leader in your field, and it is actually easier to write about one thing than multiple things (according to Deckers and Lacy; source 5). For example, it would be exhausting to discuss all aspects of study abroad -- pre-departure, cultural immersion, language, shock, travel, safety, etc. However, if you decide to focus on Marketing Ur Experience, the BAM! You can write a book, create a blog, give a presentation, and get a million dollars. (okay, not that last one, but the rest are true...)
4. Maintenance - You can set-up LinkedIn in a day. But it takes activity to make it truly work for you. Be sure to engage with someone or something (links; articles) a few times a week on your chosen social media sites.
5. Create Content - You have platforms with your background information. You are engaging other users. Now it is time to add to the conversation. Find something you are passionate about, write a few paragraphs, and post it. Another way to create content is to comment on other posts.
   
   Again, find what interests you.
6. Don't Be So Serious - "There is no one alive who is youer than you." -Dr. Seuss. Be yourself and have some fun. That is how your brand will shine.
7. Question Authority - The fast is that many articles and posts about your interests already exist. That doesn't mean they are right. Question the way things are. When everyone is going left, try going right. Know your competition and find our what you different. (Source 5)
8. Persist - Nothing happens overnight.
9. Network - Always. Everywhere. Make connections before you need to make connections. They will come in handy later, I promise. Shake hands, say "damn glad to meet ya" and most importantly remember names. 

The mighty Google

In order to build something, one must have a foundation. Since we are talking about how to build your professional career, it is important to know where you are starting; perhaps you already have a foundation, which could be fortunate or unfortunate. What is the best way to figure this out? Google yourself. It sounds strange, but just type in your first and last name and hit search. What are the top five results? More importantly do you find those top five results acceptable? Would you like a future employer to know those things about you? There will most certainly be links to your Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ if you have those accounts. If you are a student there will probably be some obscure article from your college paper as a result. Then there will be the standard 'profile engines' that claim to know everything about you such as: White Pages, or The Profile Engine, or Pipl Directory. Just ignore these. The important lesson is that employers may be able to see your social media activity. Think of your pictures on Facebook, and whether these are good or bad if seen by employers. You can edit settings in all your social media to limit access, and I hope you already do that. However, how could you provide a meaningful link that will appear not only in the search results but right at the top? LinkedIn is the answer.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is to your professional life what Facebook is to your social life. In my presentations I often say LinkedIn is a professional Facebook. People are usually more familiar with the latter, and it serves as a good way to explain the former. It starts like any other social media site, you may log-in or create an account. All you need is an email address and a password. After you create an account you can start to build your LinkedIn profile. This is basically like building your resume. In fact, if you have a resume you may wish to just use that information. It is important to keep information consistent. Personally, I try to keep my LinkedIn profile and resumes in sync. They are not exactly the same, however. Resumes should be tailored to a specific position, whereas LinkedIn can serve as a comprehensive outline of your background. The added bonus of LinkedIn is that it appears at the top of Google searches.

There are many books about the details of how social media works, and these books cover specifically Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you are new to technology, check out one of these books. I would recommend "Branding yourself" by Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy. It is straight forward and easy to read. Also "The Tao of Twitter" by Mark. W. Schaefer, which will change your social media life. If you are already familiar with some social media, just jump into LinkedIn. You will be able to figure it out. Here are some of the highlight to get you started:

• Connections - In LinkedIn you 'connect' with people instead of friending or following. The secret to connections is maintenance. It may be cool to have five thousand Facebook friends. However in the LinkedIn world you want quality not quantity. Choose connections that benefit you professionally and interact with them on a regular basis.
• Profile Sections - You can adjust which sections appear at the top of your profile. Choose the sections most relevant to your career field and place them at the top.
• Companies - LinkedIn has a company tab at the top. Here you may search for companies that interest you, or you may just search keywords like Study Abroad, for example. Then a list will populate of companies which have pages on LinkedIn. You can follow these companies for updates. Find a few you are interested in and follow them. Or maybe even some outside of your field. I follow John Deere and Caterpillar; side effect of living in Iowa, I suppose. If you work at a company, which has a page, you may list that page in you work experience and a nice logo will appear next to you job title. Company pages also list current employees of that company. Did someone say new connections?
• Groups - Groups are similar to Company pages however they may be started by anybody. It is a great way to find like-minded connections. Just search, join, and engage.