1. Set yourself up with a profile on the high traffic social networking sites that are relevant to you. You want to make sure that if someone Googles your name that you will be easily found.

2. Ensure that you fill out your profiles as completely as possible, remembering to include a head shot photo.

3. Put some time aside to familiarise yourself with the bigger social networks. They can be very powerful and useful for you in terms of progressing your career so a little time investing up front could pay dividends later. Quite literally!

4. Always use a professionally taken photo. You have to look your best remember. Ensure that your photo is a recent one so that you are recognisable. And, aim to use the same photo across all your profiles, to build consistency. The photo needs to be close one, as the images often appear quite small. We want to see your face!

5. When choosing a username for sites such as Twitter, pick a name that is obviously you – i.e. your name, or variations of. Using cryptic names or using lots of numbers will in time begin to look quite unprofessional. They are also much harder to remember, which means you are unlikely to be found.

6. Try to use the same username across all sites. This can be hard so take some time to find a username that is likely to be available. Consistency in username means that if people connect with you in one site or network, that they are more likely to find you in others.

7. Buy your name as a web domain. You might not want to do anything with it, but at least no one else can use it to create negative or irrelevant content. Managing your digital reputation is about damage limitation too.

8. Decide what you want to be known for. This is a big one and not to be rushed. Once you put information online it stays there so only put things up that you’re happy with and that enhance your career and life prospects.

9. Engage in the rich tapestry of the web, don’t just stand from the sidelines and watch – no one will see you there. Comment on other peoples’ blogs, maybe write your own, but take part!

10. Set yourself up with Google Alerts to track instances of your name online. This enables you to find out quickly if some negative content is doing the rounds so you can sort it out. You might also want to track key words in your area of expertise or your industry. If you blog this helps you to blog about subjects as they arise and can help you to be perceived as a thought leader.

There are many more things that can done, if you have any more that you’d like to add, please pop them in the comments section. Thanks!

Whenever I get an alert of a new twitter follower, I always take the time to read their bio. And, depending on what I read, I may click through to read their recent tweets. If their tweets seem interesting at that point I may decide to follow. But, not always. Just because people are interested in what I’ve got to say doesn’t mean I’m interested in what they’ve got to say. Right? It’s worth pointing out as not everyone gets that.

So, with all the bios that I read, I continue to be amazed at what people choose to say in the 160 characters that Twitter have given us.

Now, before I start, it’s probably worth mentioning that I’m assuming that people want followers. Not in a ruthless silly numbers kind of way, more an organic gathering of loyal engaged followers. After all, why would you spend time tweeting if it’s just to yourself?

So, back to the bio. You’ve got 160 characters to make an impact and let other people know WHY they should follow you. For me this means that every word and comma needs to earn its space in your bio and add something. Just like with a CV. There’s no room for flouncy indulgence here!

The key thing is to ensure that your bio helps to communicate who you are. So this might be things like what you do to earn money, what you like doing when you’re not, what you’re aiming for, great stuff you’ve done, how you help people. You get the drift. It’s also worth conjuring up a bio that helps you to stand out so that people will remember you. People who stand out are more likely to be followed back. Blandness does not tend to draw people in.

Now, you probably want to read a post that tells you how to create the perfect bio, but I’m not going to do that because we’re all different and formulas don’t work with individuals. So, instead I’m going to tell you what to avoid.

Your family status

I’m talking about words like husband, father, mum, dad of 4, husband to lovely wife. Seriously. We’re not interested. We all know people like that. So what? How does that make you interesting? What unique perspective does that give you on the world? When you introduce yourself to people you don’t know, is the first thing you say “Hey, I’m a great wife to my gorgeous hubby, and a loving mum to my 4 boys… and you?”.

Where you live

For a start, Twitter gives you a dedicated spot to tell us just that. So to reiterate the fact that you are “based in Solihull, West Midlands, UK” is just being silly and shows that you’re just not paying attention. That’s 36 characters that you could have used to tell me more about you.

Social media enthusiast

What the hell does this mean? It’s a bit like saying you like socialising and talking to people. Social media is just another way of communicating. The fact that you’re on twitter kind of suggests that you might be into social media. But beware – if you only have a handful of followers you can’t really be that much of an enthusiast. Or maybe you’re just late to the party, and now you’re here you think it’s fab. If this is you, be careful. There’ll be another fad waiting for you just around the corner that you’ll get really enthusiastic about too and then you’ll talk about that. Put your stick in the ground!

Proper long and windy sentences

“I am a husband and father to three gorgeous girls who really likes to go for long walks and drink fine wine. I am also a social media enthusiast and entrepreneur.” Jeez! It’s OK. You’ve only got 160 characters, so we’ll forgive you if you want to be a bit more punchy and concise.

Now, this list is just for starters. I’m sure there are many more! But, I just had to get these ones out of my system. If you want to add any to my list, go right ahead!

If you want help working out what makes YOU unique and different, then get in touch. That’s what I do! I help people to find their story and tell it with confidence.

With use of social networking becoming even more popular, apps are springing up everywhere enabling you to update all your social networks in one go. This feature is even being incorporated into certain social networks. For example Twitter enables you to update Facebook and LinkedIn simply by adding #in or #fb to your tweet. Great news, right? Wrong!

But before I go on to explain myself, let me first ask you this. I want you to think about the following question: 

“What sort of person are you?”

Now, you might find it tricky to answer this question. Well, for a start, who’s asking? Do they know you already? How well do they know you? What sort of person are they? How long have they got? Your answer will very much depend on the conclusions you reach in answering these questions. Not only that, what is the reason that you’re answering this question. Is it conversational, or are you trying to sell yourself or are you trying to get rid of someone? Again, depending on your objective, you will have different answers.

Put simply, your answer will depend on your audience and your objective. So, now, think about who your audiences are on each of your social networks and what your objectives are for each network.

Facebook is likely to be your friends. If they’re not friends, then they’re at least people that you’ve met. LinkedIn on the other hand is going to be people in your professional network. You may have worked with them, met them at networking events or linked up with them through a group. Twitter, well, who knows who follows you on Twitter. They could be anyone, but essentially they’re interested in what you’ve got to say.

It might be easier to think about how what we say differs based on where we are. So, if we were to try and draw an analogy with real places, you know in the real touchy-feely non-digital world, what would that look like?

Well, Facebook is like being at the pub with your mates. LinkedIn is like being at a networking event, and Twitter is like being at a social event where you don’t really know many people, you might even be on a long train journey!

So, you’re in the pub. Your mate next to you is wittering on about stuff he always witters on about. He’s pretty dull when he gets going. But, you’ve known him for ages, and, he’s a really nice guy, so you put up with it. If you were at a networking event and you didn’t know him, you’d be making a beeline for the drinks table. The same goes for the social event. So, back in the online world; on Facebook, this means your status feeds are full of boring dross (sounds familiar?) But you can’t un-friend them, because they’re your friends. On LinkedIn, maybe you don’t care, because you only visit it once or twice a week and you probably miss most of it. On Twitter, you un-follow. Period.

Now the same applies to you. Speaking in a networking stylie at the pub will make everyone roll their eyes. They probably don’t even know what you do let alone care that you pitched to such-and-such and presented to whoever. On Facebook, you’ll share certain stories because people know you already. You feel safe saying certain things, offloading your crap day, because they’re your mates. And you’re not trying to impress in the way that you might be on LinkedIn. But, you whinge too much on Twitter and you come across as a whinge-bag. Your followers haven’t met you and don’t know that you’re usually the life and the soul of the party.

Now let’s go back to the real world. Imagine you’re at a wedding. Maybe you have some friends there. But if not, you think it might be a great time to meet some new people, you might even pick up some new work contacts. To avoid being sat on your own all night, you might be keeping your ears peeled for some interesting conversations that you could join in, or you might just strike up some random conversations. Either way, your goal here is to come across as interesting, so that you get to meet people. After all you never know who you might meet. The things you decide to say in this environment will be very different to those that you talk about at the pub, or indeed at the networking event.

Thinking about your environment, your audience and your objective is crucial in forming your response to a question.  So, the next time you answer the questions “What’s on your mind?” or “What’s happening?” are you going to give the same answer?

You might want to read these other posts on personal branding…

Personal Branding and your digital identity

Why Personal Branding isn’t all about the digital space

Why Personal Branding is relevant to business

3 reasons why you should NEVER use video on your site

Don’t hire a Personal Branding Pro until you’ve answered these 5 questions

The 5 perils of personal branding

The thing with Twitter is, you’re either on the bus, or you’re not. Those that aren’t think it’s just a passing fad and don’t really understand it. But, it’s becoming increasingly important as part of any brand building strategy.

In a recent article, out of the 100 most mentioned brands on Twitter, less than half have a Twitter account. And, some of those aren’t really making the most of their presence.

It seems crazy to think that there’s a whole heap of conversations going on about these brands in the twitterverse and these brands aren’t even listening, let alone participating. You can bet your last dollar that if these conversations were happening in print, they’d be watching, reading and taking notes. But here, they choose to ignore.

So, if you are one of those brands that is not taking part in the twitterverse, you’re probably wondering where to start. So here’s my beginner’s guide to brand building with Twitter in 6 easy steps.

1. Clarify your objective!
You must first decide on what basis you are going to participate. Is it to enhance your brand story and add personality, or is it for customer services? Are you going to have just the one twitter account or are you going to encourage employees to tweet. Word of warning with the latter: make sure this is part of a wider social media strategy that permeates the business so that everyone concerned is clear on best practices. Reputations can be destroyed online in seconds, both personal and corporate.

2. Decide on the nature of your tweets
It may be worth having some guidelines in place as to the sorts of things that your brand will tweet about. It’s not about sell, sell, sell, but about listen, engage, listen, and engage. So how are you going to engage? And, when you listen, how will you respond? There are 6 main types of tweet;
a. Brand news
b. Customer support
c. Feedback
d. Special offers
e. Interesting info or resources
f. Random thoughts

You will need to be clear as how you will employ each of these and if you will actually use all of them. Some say, it’s best to reserve using the last one for personal brands. But, if random titbits is part of your brand story then why not?

3. Register your brand name twitter profile
Make sure you pick something that sounds right. You may want to use your name to reinforce your brand message in some way.

4. Create your Twitter page
Use the background to display your brand assets and key brand messages. You might want to use the profile pic to display your logo. Some brands put a pic of the person managing the account. This reinforces the personal nature of twitter and can be a good tactic if twitter is a key strand of your customer services strategy.

5. Allocate resource to maintain your twitter account.
There’s nothing worse for a brand than lack of consistency and the same applies here. The person who’s job it is to manage your twitter account must be very clear on the brand values and proposition. Twitter can enhance your brand if used correctly. It can also destroy.

6. Listen, listen, listen
I know, I’ve mentioned this already, but it’s a biggie. It’s important to track what is being said in the twitterverse, so make sure that your twitterer is using an application that allows you to keep track of your brand mentions. It’s also a good idea to listen to what’s being said about your competitors as well as your product/service category. You could pick up some great ideas for new product development or service improvements.