Part 1: Establish an Online Presence
Whether you are a student, professor or a staff member of an academic institution (like BCC), you can effectively create and maintain your own online personal brand in 3 simple steps. In this piece, I will share with you how to go about this quickly and efficiently. Now if you thought that an online personal brand just involves having an account on Facebook, I would just like to say that that is just one (perhaps very small) aspect of it.
But first, “why do I need to create a personal brand online?”, you may want to ask.
Here are a few reasons:
- Your potential employers (if you are looking for a job or hope to change or “upgrade” your current one) will most likely run a query (search for you) online. The problem is that if most of what they find about you involves your unscrupulous (“night out” parties, beach adventures and childish rants on Facebook, Myspace, etc), then you probably won’t go far as far as a job is concerned. Your whole world now exists online.
- Your potential partners will “google” you to make sure you are not a potential liability for them when your tracks are eventually uncovered. (This applies to both your professional and social life.)
- You may have namesakes that are criminals, felons, etc and who may have made it onto news items that are currently (and will continue to be) online. You may be mistaken to be the same Jose Garcia (not real name) who stole a car and was profiled in your local newspaper, or Rick Smith (fictional character) who defrauded a bank and got a “fair mention” in the New York Post.
- You may be thinking of creating your own online portfolio of activities, experiences, volunteer work, professional work (articles, papers, speeches) and presentations, etc.
- And many more…
In any of these cases, the only way to redeem yourself (when you have a misfit namesake) or create a lasting impression is to create your own personal brand online. You can do this in 3 simple steps:
- Establish an online web presence,
- Create and/or publish your content, and
- Develop a loyal and large following, both online and offline.
In this article, however, we will focus on the first of the thre steps-establishing an online presence-and cover the others in the next issues of the newspaper.
3 Simple Ways to Establish a Web Presence
The Internet thrives on content-text, images, videos, etc. But these don’t also exist out of nowhere. They are uploaded to the web by people, like you and me. There are a few ways to create a web presence, some with their own “pros and cons.” Here are some of the most widely used forms of web presence:
- Social Network Profile: If you have a Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Twitter account, then you have a social network (the technical term given to online socializing websites) profile. In the case of Facebook, you can further customize your profile page’s link and make yourself easier to find by going to www.facebook.com/username and customizing your Facebook page to something simpler like www.facebook.com/aminagarcia instead of the string of incomprehensible code that appears when you load your Facebook page.Now, while having social network profiles is part of the online dimensions of our 21st century personalities, these are not enough to create a sustainable and professional personal brand for yourself.
- A Free Blog or Website: You can do this in one of two ways, the free or the professional way. Websites like blogger.com, wordpress.com and others offer you the opportunity to “tag along” on their website. For example, if your name is Amina Garcia, you may create an aminagarcia.blogspot.com or aminagarcia.wordpress.com blog. You may not have access to all the tools you need to create a professional website, but it is a good place to start.
- A Professional Website: The professional way of creating your website or blog is to having your own “full domain” website. So, you may have www.Jalloh.com or www.AminaGarcia.com, for example. These portray a professional image and you have a host of tools and resources available to you to create your own personal brand.
- In this case, you will have to register a domain/website name (for a little less than $10/year) and pay to host (rent space for it online for) your domain (for as little as $5 a month). With a professionally-hosted website, you will also be able to create and use personalized email addresses. So, instead of having amina-garcia@gmail.com or talktoammy@yahoo.com (both fictional email addresses), you can simply create and use such emails addresses as email@emilygarcia.com or contact@emilygarcia.com .
(A snapshot of a sample professional website: www.Jalloh.com )
While this obviously costs some money (typically less than $70 per year for both the domain and website hosting), it helps you create a better and more professional image for yourself. Imagine having a line on your business card that says something along the lines of:
Amina Garcia
Phone: 718-555-5555
Email: contact@AminaGarcia.com
Website: www.AminaGarcia.com
That hands down beats a business card with an @gmail.com or @yahoo.com free email address any day and anywhere. It also portrays you as somebody who is very serious about their image, both online and offline.
What You Should Do Next
While you await the next article on how to easily and simply source, develop and publish all types of content (text, videos, presentations) for your own professional online brand, here are a few things you should do:
- Setup accounts with the major social networks:
? Facebook.com
? Twitter.com (Great for “micro blogging”. Think, “group texting gone online.”)
? LinkedIn.com (This one is especially good for professional networking. It is to your professional life what Facebook tries to be for your social life. It is a great site to network with potential employers and mentors, get recommendations, form partnerships, stay abreast of industry trends, polish your resume and land new job offers.)
- Setup Your Own Personal Website:
? Go to either of www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com (better option) to register your blog and learn how to set it up by playing around with the interface.
? You may find tutorials on www.Wordpress.tv (if you choose to set up your blog on www.wordpress.com) or at www.youtube.com/bloggerhelp (if you chose to use Blogger.)
? Place a link on your blog to your social network (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc) profiles.
? Frequent and watch this blog for a list of some free and recommended blogging tutorials, online branding tools and other resources. I will be adding more every week, God willing. 
That will be it for part 1 of the “Online Professional Branding Series.” If you have questions, comments or suggestions (on what you may want to see covered in the next issue, etc), please, do let me know by posting below. I am counting on your feedback. For all personal questions, please, send me a message using the Contact Form here. Thank you for reading. Now, go and start building your online brand!