Personal Brand Audit: What’s Your Facebook Score?

This is the second in a series of Personal Brand Audits (see Part 1: LinkedIn Audit), where we’ll make sure you’re keeping the touch points of your personal brand up to date.

Facebook is a vital part of your personal branding efforts online. If you don’t have a Facebook account yet, start by reading Dan Schawbel’s How to Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook.

Personal Brand Audit: Facebook

1. Is your profile picture up to date?

If you want people to remember you, a picture is worth a thousand words. Have a photographer friend snap a few pictures to keep things current. You don’t have to be in a suit, but you should be captured in a way that relates to your brand.

2. Is your profile 100% complete and current?

Tell people what you’re all about. Interests, activities, employment – these all help paint the picture that make up the Brand Called You. It’s how people find out more about who you are, what you’re all about, and what you’re up to today. Keep it concise, compelling, and current.

3. Are you using your status updates to build your brand?

Use status updates to post tips, ask questions, and engage your connections in ways that reinforce your personal brand.

4. Are you using RSS to display your blog posts on your friends’ public feeds?

Promote your content to a captive audience: your own Facbook connections. Pipe your blog posts into your Facebook profile by adding an RSS app like http://apps.facebook.com/simplyrss/srss.php. Aggregate the external touchpoints of your personal brand into one place on your Facebook profile with apps.

5. Have you claimed your public profile URL?

Claim your public profile URL so you can promote your profile in your email signature, resume, business card, blog, etc. in an attractive and easy to read format.

6. Have you joined relevant groups?

Join relevant groups and discussions to connect with major players in your industry by using the search tool to find groups by industry. Join groups, post relevant articles and participate in discussions. Meet people with common interests by participating in discussions related to your personal brand. Make yourself known as someone with thoughtful insights and a willingness to participate.

7. Have you set your privacy settings appropriately?

If you decide not to use Facebook to build your brand, make sure that your privacy settings are letting only appropriate people see your private life. If that means everyone, that’s fine. If that means just your college buddies, Facebook’s detailed privacy settings make it easy to make it so.

8. Have you started your own page or group relevant to your brand?

Facebook pages and groups bring people together around your brand and become and outpost for your content, ideas, questions and discussions. As Dan Schawbel notes in his Mashable post, it also gives your brand the opportunity to go viral because it holds a spot on other people’s profiles.

9. Have you tapped your network in the past two weeks?

Let your network know what you are looking for. Searching for speaking gigs? Organizing a workshop? Building a mastermind group? Message people directly and set your Facebook status to reflect what you’re looking for to build your brand.

Tally Up: What’s your Facebook audit score?

Tally up your answers to determine your Facebook audit score. If you scored 0-4, take a few minutes right now to improve your standing. If you scored 5-7, set some time aside this weekend to improve your score. If you scored 8-9, you’re on the ball – keep up the great work.

Here are the audit questions, to recap:

1. Is your profile picture up to date?
2. Is your profile 100% complete and current?
3. Are you using your status updates to build your brand?
4. Are you using RSS to display your blog posts on your friends’ public feeds?
5. Have you claimed your public profile URL?
6. Have you joined relevant groups?
7. Have you set your privacy settings appropriately?
8. Have you started your own page or group relevant to your brand?
9. Have you tapped your network in the past two weeks?

Good luck, have fun, and remember: a little personal branding effort now pays off dividends later.

Author:

Pete Kistler is a leading Online Reputation Management expert for Generation Y, a top 5 finalist for Entrepreneur Magazine’s College Entrepreneur of 2009, one of the Top 30 Definitive Personal Branding Experts on Twitter, a widely read career development blogger, and a Judge for the 2009 Personal Brand Awards. Pete manages strategic vision for Brand‐Yourself.com, the first online reputation management platform for job applicants, named one of the Top 100 Most Innovative College Startups in the U.S.