Responses to recent tweets by people about personal branding and SEO, rebranding, Facebook and more.
Joe Hunter, @joesoldout, twittered: Any SEO experts out there know how I can grow and expand my whack-ass personal brand?
Jacob Share, @jacobshare: If your personal brand relies on an active web presence, especially if you’re using a personal website or blog as your personal branding hub, knowing some SEO is critical to growth.On the one hand, you’ll want to make sure that your website & social media profiles use the keyword phrases that you want to be found for, and that you discuss those topics frequently wherever you publish new content, tweets and status updates.
On the other hand, that same knowledge will make it easier to find other people to connect with over those topics, including experts or just people looking for answers who might become clients or refer you to clients.
If you have a stats package such as the free (and excellent) Google Analytics tracking visitors on your site, the Traffic Sources > Search Engine Optimization > Queries report will tell you the keyword phrases that generated the most visits recently.
If you can’t figure out what the most popular keyword phrases are, or if what they are doesn’t help your personal brand, order an SEO consult on a freelance marketplace like Elance or vWorker.
Sherlock Homeboy, @xMellow_out, twittered: If personal branding is a thing, is personal re-branding a thing too?
Jacob Share, @jacobshare: Absolutely. People change their personal brands all the time, such as when they change career directions or develop a completely new passion.
▲▲ǝɹoɥʇɐɹ ˙s uɐıs▲▲, @helpimburnt, twittered: will being in love ruin my personal brand?
Jacob Share, @jacobshare: Only if you let it. In 5 Ways to Destroy Your Personal Brand, I explained how Nine Inch Nails’ frontman Trent Reznor almost did just that. What saved him was that even after all the tweeting about his love life, he shrugged off all the negativity and just kept building his brand until people had forgotten about the whole incident.
Michal Baranowski, @MikeEmber, twittered: What you think about Facebook as a tool in personal branding process? Is that necessary?
Jacob Share, @jacobshare: Many people built great brands before Facebook was invented so no, it’s not necessary to use Facebook as part of your personal branding. However, in most cases, it would be a smart thing to do. Building your brand is about marketing yourself, and any smart marketer will tell you that it’s easier to go where people are (such as on Facebook) than try to convince them to come to you.
Geoff Reiner, @geoffreiner, twittered: What do you think? Are we experiencing a shift from people identifying with a corporation to people focusing on personal branding?
Jacob Share, @jacobshare: That’s not how I would describe it. Depending on where they work, many people will still happily (and proudly) mention their employer as part of their elevator pitch e.g. “I’m a user interface designer at Google.” The shift that has taken place is more general; we have all become more aware of personal branding by necessity as a consequence of how much we all expose ourselves online in this era of social media.
Author:
Jacob Share, a job search expert, is the creator of JobMob, one of the biggest blogs in the world about finding jobs. Follow him on Twitter for job search tips and humor.
