Before I begin sharing tips, thoughts, advice, and musings on the exciting topic of personal branding online in more details, I decided to give you a quick overview of the top sources about reputation management to help you get started.

Personal Branding: definition

For sure our first go-to resource would be… Wikipedia! (By the way, as a part of building a very strong and influential online presence having a Wiki page dedicated to you is definitely a very good move. But we are not there yet).

So, it describes personal branding as

…the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. While previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal-branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging. The term is thought to have been first used and discussed in 1997…

To get more of the concept’s history, theories and approaches used in it, and a lot of reference material: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_branding

Top business trainers on personal branding

Best motivational speakers and business coaches in the world often refer personal brand as a starting and / or very important point in every business journey. Let’s have some advice from them here:

Brian Tracy on Personal Branding

With almost 70 books on sales and personal success, Brian Tracy is one of the most renowned speakers and coaches in the world. For personal brand, Brian has 8 step strategy:

1. Focus And Specialize In One Area
2. Become A Thought Leader In Your Field
3. Your brand must be built around your personality in all its aspects, including flaws.
4. Build A Distinct Brand
5. Your personal brand must be seen repeatedly and consistently.
6. Your behavior in the offline world must match your public brand.
7. Stick with your brand and ignore fads, trends, changes.
8. Build Good Will To Others

https://www.briantracy.com/blog/business-success/personal-branding/

Top marketers on personal branding

We approach personal branding as a digital marketing strategic and tactical activity. Many of world’s top marketing specialists agree! Let’s listen to them.

Neil Patel on Personal Branding

Neil Patel is a New York Times bestselling author and well recognized influencer in marketing, digital, and entrepreneurship. In his “Personal Branding: How to Go from Zero to Hero in No Time” he shares a very detailed step-by-step approach to building a brand online.

Gary Vaynerchuk on Personal Brand

Gary Vaynerchuk (also known as Gary Vee) is an entrepreneur, author, speaker and internet personality very well known for his achievements in digital marketing and social media. He shares his very practical advice on building a personal brand in the article 9 STRATEGIES FOR PERSONAL BRANDING ONLINE IN 2019. To cite his own words:

1. Good intent wins in a transparent world.
2. Have a media company mentality.
3. Hack culture and buy ads to distribute content.
4. Know what you are talking about.
5. Document over create.
6. Show different sides of your personality.
7. Prioritize your brand over sales.
8. Be your 100% authentic true self.
9. Be smart about how you distribute your brand’s content.

In this very short 2 minute video Gary speaks about exposing a brand… in 2008. And it still holds true!

Personal branding topic in major media

Let’s have some fresh and seasoned advice from top media journalists and contributors.

Forbes

Forbes’ contributor and a personal branding expert Goldie Chan shares 10 Golden Rules Of Personal Branding:

1. Have a focus.
2. Be genuine.
3. Tell a story.
4. Be consistent.
5. Be ready to fail.
6. Create a positive impact.
7. Follow a successful example.
8. Live your brand.
9. Let other people tell your story.
10. Leave a legacy.

You definitely want to have a deeper dive into her writing!

Fast Company

And finally some emergency case advice from Fast Company’s Gwen Moran: How to clean up your personal brand. In the piece, she explores the framework of assessing your online reputation and fixing issues while still being authentic and true to your inner purpose.

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Of course, it’s a very short and incomplete overview of sources and publications the topic of personal online branding, but I do believe it will help you get started with your reading and me — with my writing.

While working on the tips and advice for your own reputation management, I would love to hear from you on what topics interest you the most. Comment and share below!

Yours,

Natasha

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