Did you know that you are a brand? Yes! No jokes. For the sake of conversation, look over your shoulders. What do you see? Can you can identify a South-Indian from a Punjabi or a Hindu from a foreigner.

If you watch closely at the way each individual dresses, eats food, and speaks, you’d come to the conclusion that all of them have a unique style that’s reminiscent of their culture and beliefs.

Now, look at yourself. How are you any different? What makes you unique?

This, by far, is the easiest way to distinguish one individual from another – by their appearance. It’s precisely how we associate with brands. Brands leverage our inner beliefs and values. People associate with like-minded brands.

That said, everything you do and choose not to reflect a certain kind of an image about who you are. The way you answer phone calls, participate in office meetings – keeping a low profile or raise issues, replying to emails, going that extra mile with your business card – which, by the way, is one of the most important tools of building a memorable brand You.

This brings us to how you can become a powerful brand by taking advantage of the social media boom – Facebook, Linkedin, Blog, Twitter and Youtube.

If you’ve got a hold on writing, begin by building your Blog on a domain address that is either yourname.com or something people can identify you by: For eg. themanagementguru.com etc.. By doing so, you can voice your opinion, engage readers in a conversation as well as build brand You.

And, if public speaking is your domain, start shooting your seminars, keynotes etc and upload them to Youtube. Usually, and most commonly, it’s difficult to take the first step. Once people see you as a genuine leader and find your inputs worthy, they’ll share you across social media – leading to a snowball effect.

This is where Linkedin and Facebook make the scene. They will increase your social network and give you access to a large audience for the content you generate on your Blog and Youtube page. Linkedin will give you the advantage of joining relevant groups and discussion panels. Although Facebook faces privacy issues, it is an excellent source for people-led information.

Lastly, to synchronize and smoothly align all your online profiles, use Twitter. It will help you generate leads, understand trends and news, share content and build a strong network of people as followers.

By doing the above continuously and regularly, over a period of time with fine-tuning and tweaking, you can develop a strong brand You.

Note: This article has been originally published in Sector News (See it here).

Image: Corbis

Tags: blog, blogging, brand, brand you, facebook, linkedin, social media, twitter, wordpress

This entry was posted on Monday, July 5th, 2010 at 1:52 pm and is filed under Blog, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.