It’s a Brand You World:Build Your Personal Brand With Social Media

Presented by Laura ShortUniversity Relations SpecialistUniversity of Wisconsin-Stout

Why personal branding?

• Builds a credible presence online

• Makes you publicly viewable so clients can find you

• Encourages you to learn, improve and build up your skills

Why social media?

•Social and professional networks are becoming widely used by all age groups

• The viral nature of these networks makes it easy—and cost effective—to position yourself as a resource for others, possibly gaining you and your company more customers

Top recommendation: Become LinkedIn

• It’s resume-type information, so no embarrassing photos to worry about

• Can be integrated with other social media uses

How to make the most out of LinkedIn

• Join groups

• Participate in Q & A

• Invite personal contacts

• Write and request recommendations

• Update your status bar with current work; keep up with others

• Use LinkedIn applications

Put your best face forward with Facebook

• Join and participate in groups and pages based on your industry and interests

• Monitor the status updates of your friends, groups and pages for business opportunities and examples

• Stop there on your personal profile

Create a Facebook page to promote your brand

• Share tips related to your products

• Share industry news

• Announce promotions, especially discounts for Facebook fans only

• Link your page to your LinkedIn profile & Twitter

• Integrate other social media into your page through applications

Blog your work. Work your blog.

• Demonstrate your talents

• Practice thought leadership by sharing your ideas regarding current trends and future directions of your industry

• Share thoughts on popular books or articles from which you draw inspiration

• Add a Share This button

• Import into other social media

I tweet. Therefore I am.

• It’s not about what you’re eating; it’s about sharing resources

• Find and follow people with similar interests

• Find and follow people locally

• Use to read industry news and gain free professional development

• Contribute to the conversation

• Import into other social media

Digg for gold

• Socially bookmark articles that you feel are important to your profession or industry

• Establishes you as someone current on industry trends and best practices

• Import into other social media

Star in your own YouTube video

• You do not need expensive video equipment

• Make your mission visual

• Have a friend or coworker videotape you as you demo a task (or a product)

• Walk and talk your resume; demonstrate speaking skills as well as your knowledge and talents

• Import into other social media

Share and share alike

• Upload Powerpoint presentations

• Create an online portfolio

• Tell your story

• Import into other social media

Other social media tips

• Integrate your social media

• Build upon other content already created

• Choose the same user name across all media

• Let your personality shine through; use a conversational tone in your messages

• Be transparent

• Make regular updates

Resources and featured links

• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com • See the Extreme LinkedIn Profile Makeover at

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/01/linkedin_profil.html• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com• Facebook custom name: http://www.facebook.com/username/ • Wordpress (blogging software): http://wordpress.com/• Blogger (blogging software): http://www.blogger.com• Encourage others to share your blog entries: http://sharethis.com• Feed your blog to Twitter: http://twitterfeed.com/ • Allow e-mail subscriptions to your blog: http://www.feedburner.com

Resources and featured links

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/• Search for key words on Twitter: http://search.twitter.com/ • Search for local Twitterers: http://www.twellow.com/twellowhood/ • Digg (social bookmarking): http://digg.com/ • Delicious (social bookmarking): http://delicious.com/ • YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ • Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/ • Monitor your name or company brand online:

– http://www.google.com/alerts – http://socialmention.com/alerts/ – http://tweetbeep.com/ – http://www.backtype.com/

Where to find me online

• Laura Short– shortl@uwstout.edu– http://www.linkedin.com/in/laurashort – http://www.facebook.com/laura.short1 – http://twitter.com/laurashort – http://digg.com/users/shortdigs/history – http://www.slideshare.net/shortdigs

• My Menomonie– http://www.facebook.com/mymenomonie – http://twitter.com/mymenomonie

• University of Wisconsin-Stout– http://www.facebook.com/uwstout – http://twitter.com/uwstoutnews – http://uwstoutnews.blogspot.com/ – http://www.youtube.com/uwstoutedu