Your brand is your business. If you haven’t claimed it online, you cannot have control over it.
Here are 5 ways to take control of your brand:
Set up Google profile
Google recently rolled out a new program, Google Profiles, that allows you to set up your own profiles that will be displayed at the search engine result page when anyone “Googles” your name. To begin using Google Profile, you’ll need a Google account (free). If you’re using Gmail, then you already have an account with Google.
- While registering, mention your full name in order to get a Google Profile URL.
- Check the “Display my full name so I can be found in search” option while changing your Google profile.
- Include more information about you – links to blogs and social network profiles – and make it descriptive and specific as possible to get higher rankings.
Make your brand available on social networks
Aside from having a website, blogs, and Google Profile, make sure to create a profile on most popular social networking sites. Use knowem.com or Namechk.com to check on which social networking sites your brand name is available and claim it now before anyone does it.
In addition to creating your brand profiles, these sites will keep track of your brand mentions on popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, and plenty others so that you know right away who is talking what about you online.
Create a central place
Besides using free tools to monitor your online reputation, you could also create a central hub where people from all over the Internet could merge and know more about you and what you do.
For example, you can create a personal website where people could visit to learn what services you offer, what you’re expert at, or read more blog posts, tips and tricks on your trade. As your brand starts to become popular, most people will start to visit this section, comment on it, share with their connections, and basically become your own virtual marketer.
Make sure to include your brand name because it makes people easy to figure out where they are, instead of making them confused and watch them walk away. While choosing a brand name, make it short, sweet, and memorable.
Keep track of your online reputation management
A single person can either make or break your brand online, whether they are your employees or a competitor. A negative comment, mention, or review can spread the online media in a matter of minutes, and if you do not have an online reputation strategy to keep track of all these mentions, soon you’ll not only lose your customers, but will be out of the business forever.
Have you sign up for Google alerts or use search.twitter.com to see what are being said about you and your brand right now? Do you have a strategy in place on how to react to negative comments from anyone online? Do you know how to handle negative comments, reviews, and in a polite and assertive way, or do you simply respond back being aggressive?
If someone says positive thing about you, you must at least say “Thank you!” in a way that could land you another customer. On the other hand, if someone writes something negative that is not true, you’ll need to contact them personally and find ways to resolve the issue in a positive way.
Promote Your Expertise
In order to get attention from people who might be interested on what you have to offer, you’ll have to make them see, hear, and feel you. Setting up a site or a blog could be one of the ways to get noticed in front of targeted audience, but there are several alternatives to take control of your name online.
For example, you could create a social media profile, probably something like Facebook fan page, or profiles on Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn to share what you have to bring on the table – i.e. your unique experiences, talents, and skills to people who might be interested in.
In your personal branding campaign, there are plenty of ways to get your experience out there, including social media resume, twtjobs (twittering your resume), and LinkedIn posts, Facebook status, among others.
It’s your brand name and are you taking control of it? If not, you must, starting today.