Following on from our last personal branding blog, this blog will explain how to maintain your personal brand. You have established your brand and brought it online so here are 4 steps to a sustainable and strong personal brand:

Step 1. Manage LinkedIn actively

LinkedIn profile is the single most important branding tool online. With 175 million professionals, this is where people start when they want to know about you professionally. Don’t write it only with a job in mind; write it to showcase you to the world – your strengths, experiences, capabilities, interests and passion, group affiliations, etc.

Step 2. Use Twitter to build your knowledge community

Twitter is probably the most confusing social networking tool – it is not very clear how best to use it professionally. But with its more than 500 million users, it is a potent tool for branding. Follow a few personalities and news sources that align with your interests or world view. To make sure your network stays fresh, make sure you actively stay on the lookout for fresh sources of information, and prune or augment your list as needed. Once you have this list of people and topics you align with, make sure you engage in the conversation by commenting, sharing and retweeting.

Step 3. Showcase your talent via blogs

This is arguably the most important tool you can use to significantly impact your personal brand. Blog gives you an authority and influence based on your knowledge and/or passion. It also provides you with a platform to creatively express your thoughts, thereby creating a set of followers and like-minded peer group. While writing frequently is hard, if you can write first 10 posts, rest will come naturally through habit.

Step 4. Stay active in your domain and interest areas

There are lots of online resources catering to any given domain, including discussion groups, news portals, influential blogs, industry forum sites, etc. Make sure you are active there, both in reading as well as in commenting and sharing.

Final word

Strong personal brand needs a regular maintenance, otherwise it becomes weak. Remember to take care of it on a regular basis.

What questions do you have?

We are happy to help.  Please post your comment below or contact our friendly and knowledgeable team on 01 677 9000 or email: info@cooneycarey.ie To keep in touch, connect with us on LinkedIn. If this article helped you, please share it with other businesses.