Every person is different but not all people realize it, humans often swept away and follow the trends that eventually becomes the same as anyone else and no longer become a different person. Do we really need to be different? Does a freelancer must be different from another? In terms of personal branding, surely the answer is always: "it does!" and "Yeah!".
Lets have a look at the example of the analogy of beverage packaging products: Pepsi & Coca Cola, all people have the understanding that the two brands are different, just to hear their name people can directly know, but both are equally Carbonated soft drinks. So how do for our clients and prospective clients can have an understanding about you just by hearing your name only, and instantly know that you are a freelancer who offer services, or at least about your expertise. For all that of course you need to build self-image.
The discourse of personal branding or effort to build self-image has a lot on the internet and can easily be found through the Google search engine, therefore I do not want to discuss personal branding in general and broad, in this article I will only explore the little things that might commonly underestimated or less taken seriously. Some things that I will discuss is the light tips about:
1. Name selection
2. Create a consistent name
3. The use of avatar
4. Trademarking words or language
5. Short Profile
let us refer to a brief description of each of the above points as follows:
1. Choose a unique name
Before buying a domain or before creating a blog, you have to think of a unique name, a short, dense to be easily recognized, remembered by the client / prospective client - surely that can represent the image about us and our business. Look first in google and see if the search results with the name you want already widely used? better make up new words your own version, so that your name is really fresh and just your own. (Avoid names that have been widely used in google)
2. Be consistent with your name
After selecting a new name and new domain, register it immediately to the various social networks that are popular, try to stick with the same name (username). if it is not available make a variation name by adding numbers or characters on the back of the username, and use the same way on other social networking when you encounter the same problem. In an effort to build the Online Personal Branding, It is not advisable to have a variety of different username, because it can cause difficult to identify. Conversely, if we always use the same name then we will be more easily searched and identified at least by the Google search engine.
you can use the same username to handle such contacts: Yahoo! Mail / Yahoo Messenger, Google Mail / Google Talk, Skype, etc., this is certainly neater and easier to memorize.
3. Do not often change your avatar
This may sound a bit strange, and maybe someone asks: Is it wrong if I often change my avatar? It is not entirely wrong, but it would be better if you keep using the same avatar for a long time until finally you get a strong self-image.
Internet communities have their own perspective to you through an avatar, if you changed the avatar 100 times, then 100 times the people change their view of you.
4. Create a Trademark
Trademark words will be easily found in a variety of advertising a product, television, internet, outdoor media, print media and others. The words are created to build the brand in a product, the words were repeated continuously embedded in the memory for viewers. Apparently we are also entitled to make its own trademark words, eg if you are a blogger you can put a signature on each post, I stumbled on this kevinandamanda blog, you'll see the same signature at each end of the article.
5. Prepare a brief profile
Has it ever occurred to you that among the social networking online, there is one thread that is too important to ignore, I mean it is a brief profile on various social networks, a profile of the owner of the account that is displayed on that page (usually located under the avatar), a brief description is limited to average in 140 characters. I recommend that you prepare your brief profile and use it repeatedly in various social networking services over the available space for it. this is certainly effective in the effort to build self-image.
There are many other ways to build your personal brand online and there are still many points that I have not mentioned above. We'd love to hear your feedback! And hopefully this can be useful for you all.
