Personal branding: how to promote myself online?

In today's world, web presence and personal image do matter.

Sending your resume isn't enough anymore: recruiters will "Google" you, "LinkedIn" you and try to find out more about who you are and what the internet has to say about you. Investors spend more time finding out who is behind the company they are about to bet on and customers are interested in the people behind the product.

The true question is: how to maximize your online image?

With one bad review potentially crippling someone's web presence it doesn't take much before you can run into issues with your reputation management online. When it comes to improving your overall online image there are some great things that you can do as well as some help that's available to you for meeting new people, building your social media accounts and more.

In this new digital world it is time for you to expand your online presence and improve your personal branding to generate more engagement online. Here are some top strategies for improving your personal branding through web marketing.

Social media accounts

Simply creating a profile on a social media isn't enough to generate ongoing engagement. Use your social media account to the fullest and make sure to build a complete profile. Be sure to link multiple accounts so that that all of your profiles are up-to-date with the latest information.

Some Social Media platforms are more relevant than others. You definitely want to have a LinkedIn profile. Linkedin should be the place where you connect with people you met. It should display your portfolio and abilities. More importantly, you should use it to interact with people, not just use it for self interest. If you wish to improve your understanding of LinkedIn, you can read this article: "How to choose between Facebook and LinkedIn?".

You also want to have a Viadeo profile if you live in France or western Europe. You should build up a Google+ profile. Not so much because Google+ is a great and popular platform (who would believe that?) but because it does have an impact on your SEO results and you don't want to miss that opportunity!

Do not forget to lock your personal media - if you use Twitter, Facebook or Instagram for personal purposes, make sure these are set as private. You do not want a potential customer or employer to find your last party's pictures when looking you up online!

If you are looking for the best Social Media platforms for your business model, you should look into the following tool: what Social Media should my business use?

Last but not least, your Social Media strategy requires some regular and frequent posting. If you can't come up with new ideas each day, looks into automation tools, such as Social Unicorn, to get your LinkedIn and Twitter channels active.

Building a website or blog

Building a website or blog for your own personal needs is a great way to establish a proper online reputation as well as advertise products. You can write ongoing articles and updates so that your entire network knows what you're up to, provide new portfolio updates and more useful information that could earn you more sales or credibility.

Building a blog is the first step to an efficient content strategy that will boost your online reputation.

You could also use your website or blog to promote your past customers or employers and share your portfolio or resume with the world.

Guest blogging on another person's website

If you are looking to break into another marketplace or simply increase your notoriety, being a guest blogger is an amazing way to meet new people. Publishing just one guest blog could allow you to build your contact list and showcase your abilities to a whole new market. Publishing your work on an already popular blog will help you to get known in your community and build up back links to your own portfolio websites and social media accounts (if you wish to become guest blogger on my blog, click here).

If you are committed to improving your personal branding don't be afraid to start with these three directions or employ the help of a professional to guide you through the process of creating high quality social media accounts, webpages and guest posts.

If you are looking to advertise your own profile at minimum cost, you can consider using advertising banners for a specific target group.

Julien Rio.