How to Build Your Brand With A Common Name

  • 1 min read

After completing a quick Google search of yourself and seeing your name, but none of your matching sites or profiles, how can you make sure your personal brand can be spotted? For those who have a common first and last name, this problem is constant battle.

If others with your name are overshadowing you online, it can lead your personal brand down a path to nowhere. Even worse, you might get confused for someone else who may have a completely different (or inappropriate) brand. If you find yourself competing with others to get recognized, consider these three ways forbuilding a unique and easy-to-find brand:

Make a Change. If you decide that you don’t want to stick with your name, consider changing it for getting recognized in the online world. Personal Branding Blog contributor Erik Deckers lists some ways to reinvent your name to make finding you much easier.

Get Your Own Space. For the most popular social media sites, you can be sure that there are hundreds or thousands of Daniel Scotts or Sarah Millers. Though you can’t be the only one on Facebook, consider creating your own personal website. That way, you can have a space that is free from confusion and can link all your different profiles for others to see. Also be sure that you are choosing the best domain name for yourself.

Get Above the Rest. Besides being active with your online presence, you still want your name to be found as easily as possible. With SEO (search engine optimization), you can increase your chances of being seen along with the right keywords that describe you. Personal Branding Blog contributor Nance Rosen lists how to choose the right keywords.

Completing one or all of these steps can help differentiate you from your others with your name. Managing your online reputation, however, remains the most important factor, even when you are not the only one online.

Picture of Heather R. Huhman

Heather R. Huhman

Heather R. Huhman is a career expert and founder & president ​of Come Recommended, a career and workplace education and consulting firm specializing in young professionals. She is also the author of#ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), national entry-level careers columnist forExaminer.com and blogs about career advice at HeatherHuhman.com.

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