Branding is making your name recognizable! And if people know this or not the more recognizable the name the better chance you have of making future earnings. Just a few years ago we could do things and not really worry about it coming back to haunt you, however today your name is all you have in the business world.
Making your name recognizable is as easy as blogging and connecting to social networks. But you do have to be careful of what you put on these networks, because it can and most of the time will catch up to you. A lot of people think its harmless fun, but what happens if your boss or future bosses also belong to these networks and find out your real personality. This could be the deciding factor of whether or not you get the job and not to mention respect.
As a college student almost everyone including myself has done something that they would not be proud of as an adult or working business person. And back and the day the only thing we had, was maybe a picture or two that could easily be destroyed. But today once you put a message or a picture on any of these social networks it's their forever.
Name recognition and respect can be more powerful than any amount of money. Once someone gets known for a certain thing it's hard to get that out of people's mind. We all know Oprah as the Queen of the Talk Shows. Magic Johnson had made his first name branding in basketball, but today he's known as a very smart business man. Name recognition is so important, so be careful. You do not want to be known as the young lady with the nasty mouth on Face book or the guy who drinks too much at parties.
Branding yourself and your name as a professional is the key to success. Make sure your website is professional and also make sure you keep your social networks like Twitter, Face Book, My space and Linked In as clean as possible.
Writing articles and blogging is a sure fire way of branding yourself in your area of expertise. People will start to look at you as the person to go to if they need help in that area.
I am known as the Marketing expert and not only have I written a book about marketing, but I've also written articles and started blogging on networks like Black Enterprise and Forbes and have been giving free links to my website on both.
Not only is this free advertisement, but it also is a way of branding myself. If you want to use the Internet as a way of making yourself and your name recognizable always remember these two things and that is to always be careful WHAT AND WHERE you post, because you never know when it will come back to haunt you!