Making Your Personal Brand Stand Out Online

The opportunities in this growing online space are limitless, if we chose to be active participators, and take the necessary steps to ensure that we are building a personal brand that people will, like, know and trust.

Of all Internet users, 65%?see online search as the most trusted source of information about people and companies. That’s a higher level of trust than any other online or offline source.

Let's look at this quote and even just think about how we navigate the online space for own personal and professional purposes. When you meet or hear about an individual, or discover a product or a service, the next step is usually to jump on your mobile device or computer and do a quick online search to learn more. What we discover or do not discover online typically helps us to make a decision to move forward or not.

This is exactly what is happening when someone is looking for you in an online search. People are actively making decisions about engaging you, working with you, hiring you, recommending you, learning more about you, 'following' you - simply based on what shows up in an online search.

Let's even use LinkedIn as an example - every week in your profile you can see how many times you showed up in search results - searches that you weren't even aware were happening - these could all potential opportunities for you ... if the right information is showing up.

So you want to start with these 5 steps:-

1. Do a quick online search to see what is already showing up for you, your company, and even more specifically your industry - what key words would people use to find you online?
2. Make a note of the 1st link that comes up for you online - is it your LinkedIn profile, website, social media or an article that was published. It's important to know so that you ensure that this page has all the right information and you can also use it to direct people to where they need to go.
3. Update your online profiles - ensure that all of your online profiles (active and in-active) are updated with current and relevant information about you, who you are, what you do and the problem that you solve.
4. Pay attention to your LinkedIn profile - why? Because if you are on the platform, chances are your profile will come up as the 1st search result or at least in the top 5 - so you want to ensure that this page is updated
5. Add Value - use these online spaces to share value to your audience. Connect with others and provide useful information that shows your knowledge and expertise.

The online world especially in the past 2 years has opened up so many great opportunities for me to really connect and grow my audience, but also to help position me as a thought leader in #personalbranding.

Creating social proof by sharing content, creating videos, connecting and collaborating in a consistent manner is also what lead me to becoming a contributor for Entrepreneur.com - believe me, if I had applied and they couldn't find anything to support my expertise - I wouldn't have been given the opportunity.

I'll be launching my 4th book: PR Chick's Guide To Building Your Online Brand Workbook on Monday, March 21 at 7:00 p.m. CST with a virtual webinar where I'll be speaking with some amazing guests about the opportunities online and I would love you to join. This workbook is a step-by-step guide to help you to position, package and promote your personal brand - the webinar is totally free, so please share with a colleague or a friend that you think will benefit.

Register here: https://bit.ly/PRChickLaunch