Thought & Theory

I thought it would be interesting to start a series of posts on building your own personal brand. Over the last few years, I have been inundated with “brand building”. I’ve done a lot of work in my 9-5, working with men’s professional tennis (ATP) and for the past year and a half with Thought & Theory.

First, and most important over anything else that I will mention, is that if people want to find information out about you they are going to use Google. Depending on who you are and how much information there is out there about you, Wikipedia may come in to play. So what are the key factors to building your brand on Google and keeping it informative? Each week I will explain how I have used a tool or service, along with specific details and tips I’ve picked up.

Start a Blog. Revolutionary idea huh? Well let me give you a few more tidbits of info that should help you climb the Google rankings.

• Learn the basics of SEO. You don’t need to know the ins and outs, but you should have a decent foundation. Click here for SEOmoz’s beginner guide. Feel free to skip the HTML/CSS pieces if you aren’t web savvy and are fine with using standard layouts/templates.
• Use Wordpress or Tumblr as your blog foundation. You can use Blogger or a variety of other tools, but WordPress and Tumblr are simple to set up and even easier to use on a daily/weekly basis (not to mention free!). I started my own Tumblr a few weeks ago to see how quickly it would climb the rankings in Google search results. I went from Page 6 when the Tumblr started to the 6th result on Page 1 within 3 weeks.
• When creating information about yourself or your company (blog title and about info), make sure to think about how people will read this information and where it is displayed. Make sure to use your name or company name. This may sound very basic, but it’s all about the basics when growing your brand.
• Consistently add content. You don’t need to be creating pulitzer prize winning articles or finding the most obscure information, but you do want to create and talk about content that is unique to your personality or to your company. Give people an idea of who you are or what your company stands for.
• Market your brand (sharing your blog in this case). Focus on people that might be interested in your company and in your content. Brand awareness is all about giving people the opportunity to get to know you and what you/your company is all about. Send e-mails to friends and contacts, make phone calls, etc. Last but not least, don’t be shy.

Next week I will touch on dipping into large networks of people waiting to hear about your brand!