Building and maintaining a strong online presence is becoming critically important for business success. Recently our Vice President of Corporate Media Sales & Service, David Little, touched on this in his post on “The Importance of Listing Management.” He highlighted how having an online presence and maintaining accurate business listings helps build a level of trust with the customer. This is critical not only for the business but for the business professional as well. If you are a business professional you also need to establish and manage your own online identity. This is where you should highlight the areas that you feel distinguishes yourself from other professionals. If you are a real estate agent you might specialize in selling certain types of properties or properties in certain locations for your agency. If you are a lawyer you might specialize in certain types of cases for your law firm. If you are a doctor you might specialize in a certain area of your medical practice.
Five Tips to Help You Build Your Personal Brand Online
- Build a social media presence for your professional profile on sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. When given the option, make sure that you claim your personalized URLs. These are canonical links that are both search and user friendly. You also want to make sure that you completely fill out all of your professional social media profiles and highlight your areas of expertise in your description. If you are a heart surgeon who has perfected a certain surgery method then be sure to mention this in the profile.
- Share your knowledge and expertise. The best vehicle for this is through a blog. The most popular blogging platforms are WordPress and Blogger. Sites like LinkedIn allow you to blog without having to worry about managing your blog. The drawback is less control and lack of content ownership. Ideally you would want to have your own site that you blog from as a professional.
- Share and promote your content across social media. Engage with your followers when they comment or share your content. Also, be sure to share content that others publish.
- Market your professional name. If you have professional profiles then be sure to add links to your professional profiles on your email signatures, business cards, etc.
- Build your professional network. Connect with other like-minded professionals. Communicate with them and share ideas and other news that are relevant to your profession.
Not sure where to start? Just contact us and we’ll be more than happy to help with both your business profile and your professional profile.