I came across Meagan Burns, a Junior at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, when she followed me on Twitter. After checking out her web presence, I was struck how well she’d successfully hit on the fundamentals of personal branding.
She’s also built a seriously awesome online presence. You should take a page out of Meagan’s book. Here’s why.
Visuals
I was immediately drawn in by Meagan’s Twitter background choice. Talk about visually branded. Her Twitter profile visuals are also consistent with the background of her personal site, MeaganBurns.com. Are you using unique, consistent visuals to reinforce your personal brand?
Bio
Meagan’s Twitter bio reads: “I’m a SVA Graphic Design Student living in NYC. I love typography and bright colors!”
It’s refreshing to find a two-sentence bio that hits the facts and shows the human side. She’s a student, she’s studying Graphic Design, she lives in NYC, she loves typography, and let’s face it – “I love bright colors” – she has personality. Are you using bios on your web profiles to effectively give a taste of who you really are?
Web Portfolio
Meagan does killer work. But her presentation of her work is what really caught my eye. It’s obvious that she really cares about what she does. Do you have a web portfolio that powerfully showcases your accomplishments, and conveys the effort you put into displaying it?
Reachable
Meagan’s contact info, web profiles and downloadable resume are right at the top of her site. She’s made herself ridiculously easy to reach. How easy are you to reach? If I wanted to, how easily can I find your contact info, profiles and resume online?
What You Can Learn From Meagan
Meagan is an excellent example a young careerist blazing her own trail on the web. Over 75 million people a day do people searches in Google. If you don’t capture their attention in the first five seconds, you’ve probably already lost them to another website. So take this page out of Meagan’s book and be sure to:
- Use unique visuals consistently across the web to strengthen your brand.
- Craft a short bio that reveals your personality.
- Develop a web portfolio to showcase what you’ve done.
- Make your contact info and resume dead simple to find.
Meagan’s full bio:
I’m a Junior at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve learned the ins and outs of typography, color, and most importantly the good, the bad, and the plain old ugly. I am fluent in the Adobe Suite, know HTML, CSS and am currently learning flash. I’ve been designing websites on my own for about 7 years. My typography skills are borderline obsessive; poorly done type makes my eyes hurt and I get way too passionate about typefaces. Most importantly, I am an extremely flexible designer who knows the importance of understanding the client and audience.
Check out Meagan’s work at MeaganBurns.com.
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.
