Respect Ma Authoritah!

While I might have whinged about personal branding earlier, watching the birth of a personal brand has opened a lock in my mind.  Silly thing is, I should have known this already…

Who is your daddy and what does he do?

It is simple to create a personal brand, once you make it simple. Rather than an AHA moment, this was more like a “DUH!” moment for me when I realised this (yes I tend to over-think things sometimes). The simple thing to do in pinpointing your personal brand is to ask two crucial questions only

“What is your focus and what can you contribute?”

Taking myself as a case study, you would be hard pressed to know what my focus actually is if you are following me here, and on Twitter, and on FriendFeed, Facebook etc. My output is so eclectic that I must seem like a jack-of-all-trades and probably master of none. It IS possible to show focus on more than one area, but you must establish credibility and authority in ONE area first.

What’s the plan? You do have a plan don’t you?

Starting now you are going to see a marked change in how I communicate via social media. My focus will be all about helping local small businesses with their internet presence (which is the business I am in). I am going to make sure that I incorporate that focus in 80% of what I communicate. I want people to equate local small business web presence with me.

No longer is the work I do behind the curtain to be hidden. There will be tweeting from client meetings, Foursquare checking in from their premises, knowledge galore in links to resources. My current large stable of sites will be sold off via Flippa in the new year and everything will come down to the focus on my offline business, with my online persona.

Don’t think we won’t be doing the same over at the SWBN either.