There are a lot of places to promote your skills online today for free. Social media sites are a great place to increase your personal brand awareness. Top of this list in social media is Linkedin followed closely by Facebook and Twitter.
There are even sites like about.me and WordPress.com where you can have a more robust personal brand page. These link to all your other social media accounts.
While I recommend maintaining at least a social media account for each service (not necessarily active) and an about.me page (and other similar services), that’s not going far enough to maintain a professional image online.
The focal point of who you are, what you can do, or what you’re pioneering should be your website. If you don’t have that website then you’re missing out on showing the details of who you are.
A personal brand website allows you to do this without trying to link together several websites that look different and without working with companies that have a different agenda than yours.
Your Hub
A website gives you that hub that you control with a consistent look across all pages, even from a mobile device to a desktop.
A person will know whose website they’re on, what they’re all about, and be impressed no matter where they’re coming from.
Your website is your online presence that you want to promote, above all else. It should be on your resume (or CV), your business cards, your social media accounts, and everywhere else.
Everything should link back to your personal brand website whether online or offline. Your website should link back to your most active pages also, but probably not all.
Show Your Work Off And Promote Your Skills
Some social media sites are doing a better job of letting you show your work off from within them. Linkedin for example now lets you embed projects from other websites into your profile. The problem is that Linkedin has limited abilities to describe, format and do other things to your work.
Imagine your own website where you’re able to put your work and format it however you’d like.
Think about the experience you want a potential employer or client to have:
You’ve been having some discussions on Twitter with some great ideas for your industry.
The discussion catches the eye of Beth who’s a manager at a company you’ve been wanting to work at for a few years.
Beth is inspired and interested in what you’re saying, so she explores your Twitter profile and sees you have a link to your website. She decides to explore a bit more.
Beth has a great experience and sees only the information she’s interested in on your website. After being introduced to your website she decides to see what you’ve been up to over the years.
Your portfolio is easy, clean, and without distraction. Beth finds that the friendliness of your website makes her want to look even further.
She finds several projects you’ve been working on and loves your work. It shows you’re not only an expert in your field, but you’re trying new things to move the field forward.
By having a portfolio on your website, it’s cleaner, easier to use, and is limitless in what you can put on it.
There isn’t a better way to present your information than what fits your project and your field.
Think Forward
Beyond what you can do and are doing right now, there’s always the future and pushing the boundaries of what can and should be done.
Thinking about the current state of your field and expressing your ideas about improving it is vital to staying relevant in your industry.
I want to take that experience from the portfolio and extend it into a blog which could be on your personal brand website:
Imagine Beth loved your portfolio so much she also decided to explore your blog which is a click away.
She finds that she agrees with much of what you say and decides to comment on your material therefore becoming your biggest fan.
You’re now conversing regularly with Beth on social media and your blog.
Beth knows she must get you on her team as soon as she can.
The most loyal reader of your blog could be your new boss!
Maintaining a blog and posting regularly puts you out there in your field. It cements you as someone who’s on the cutting edge and willing to try new things.
You have fresh ideas, you are passionate about what you do, and you want others to see that passion.
Find Your Way
You’ve put a lot of hard work in and are passionate about your work. Other’s can’t see that unless you put yourself out there.
Building a personal brand website is the best way to do that. I’ve spent the past five years building mine and fine-tuning it to be exactly what I want.
My new course walks you through the entire process of creating your website. I start with a template but help you personalize it so it’s uniquely you rather than me or a big company.
The course helps give you the foundation for an awesome website that you can then take in your own direction to make it even better. You’ll also have a community behind you to help your journey.
This website is what I’ve created during the course which has now taken a unique direction in helping further extend the capabilities of your website
I regularly write posts and create new videos to help extend the abilities and make your personal brand website even more helpful to your professional development.
I hope to see you in the course and look forward to helping you create your personal brand website.