Personal Brand Recognition

Companies spend a lot of time building their “brand” and they spend a lot of money protecting it, but as an individual, it is important to develop a “personal brand”? Blogging, micro blogging, social and professional networking, they all go hand and hand. How does your presence in one carry over to the other or does it at all? I know I do two particular things to try to build my “personal brand” but is it worth it?

Almost every site you go on has a place for a “profile picture”.  Sometimes these are square, sometime they are rectangular, but they almost all have one. Many of the sites also use a thumbnail, or smaller version, of that picture next to items you post or actions you perform.  One thing I try to do is keep my profile picture consistent across multiple sites. This allows people who “know me” from one site to quickly “recognize” me on another site.  Take Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook for example.  If you were my friend on Facebook and clicked one of my links which brought you to Twitter seeing my face next to a comment immediately tells you it’s me.  If you Google my name and my company you’ll likely get a LinkedIn profile.  Before even reading a word you would see my picture and know you were at the right place.  This really helps to provide consistency between my many Internet presences.

The other thing I try to do is secure the same user name or profile name.  If I can, I try to get the matching URL for the service I am using. Again, not as quickly recognizable as the picture, but it provides people with a way to say, “He uses that name everywhere. It’s likely him.”  No big surprise I try to get “Marcucci” as a profile name, which is getting harder as more people in Italy get connected. (I can’t image trying to get “Clark” or “Smith”.)  This is really helpful for places where profile pictures aren’t used as often, like instant messaging or user listings.

Still, with everything on the Internet being indexed and search engines providing summaries on almost everything in a search result list how important are these two items?  Are people already getting enough info to be able to find and recognize me? Are there other things individuals are doing when trying to build a personal brand online?  Let’s face it, we’re not out here blogging, networking, and tweeting to not be found, so why not spend a little time to help others find you.  Please comment with your own thoughts and suggestions.