Building a Better Brand Part 2

0:01 hello and welcome to building a better 0:02 brand 0:03 personal branding why it matters and how 0:05 to make it work for you 0:07 we've already covered segment one where 0:09 we really dove into 0:11 what is personal branding so for this 0:13 segment we're going to talk about 0:14 controlling your brand 0:16 steps to gain that control and then how 0:18 to improve your brand overall 0:20 because as i mentioned before it's going 0:22 to take some work and it's going to take 0:23 commitment 0:24 to make sure your message and what you 0:26 want to communicate 0:27 is clear to anybody that's searching for 0:29 you 0:31 so how do you control your personal 0:33 brand we've already mentioned ways that 0:35 you might have contributed to that brand 0:37 things you might have posted out on 0:39 blogs social media 0:41 anything that you've put out there but 0:43 what are the steps to really gain 0:44 control 0:45 and take advantage of this because 0:47 ultimately you want to make this work 0:49 for you 0:50 so let's dive in playing the name game 0:54 as i 0:54 mentioned is really important to 0:56 understand what is out there in terms of 0:59 who shares your name 1:00 now you can be very intentional with 1:02 this as well so what i have here 1:04 is i did a search for jeremiah bauman my 1:07 first and last name 1:08 what comes up are four accurate links 1:11 and one photo 1:12 but i'm not really the owner of this 1:15 kind of presence in google 1:17 again i mentioned jeremiah bauman in the 1:19 government that's always going to kind 1:21 of rise above 1:22 and so i'm not going to have necessarily 1:25 the ownership 1:26 over that title that i want so i had to 1:28 get a little bit creative 1:30 i spent a lot of time looking into what 1:32 my options were because 1:34 the goal here is to own that full first 1:36 page of google 1:37 if you can so i made one slight 1:41 adjustment 1:42 jeremiah t bauman using my middle 1:45 initial 1:46 gave me full ownership over the entire 1:48 first page of google search 1:50 so knowing that i wanted to move forward 1:53 using my middle initial and being 1:55 consistent 1:56 across a lot of different things i want 1:58 people to look for me including my 2:00 middle initial because then 2:02 all the things that come up are things 2:03 that i want them to see 2:05 it's specifically associated with me and 2:07 that's where taking this kind of 2:09 under your control helps so spend some 2:12 time in google looking and figuring out 2:14 what gives you the advantage where you 2:16 could then take ownership 2:17 and then stick to that as you move 2:20 forward 2:22 now as i mentioned consistency is key 2:24 here 2:25 if you have a certain way you want to be 2:27 referred and it works 2:28 well with the google algorithm you 2:31 should use that throughout 2:32 everything make sure that that is what 2:35 comes up 2:35 and stick to it if you can get those 2:38 usernames if you can 2:40 refer to yourself in that way it's going 2:42 to help because for google 2:44 the more repetition the better your 2:46 ranking is generally going to be 2:48 so make sure you stick to whatever you 2:50 decide 2:51 and also make sure it works for you 2:53 don't feel like you have to pick 2:54 something that's non-representative of 2:56 yourself 2:57 just to win at the google game 3:00 ultimately you should be comfortable 3:01 and you should move forward with that 3:05 now if you don't own your name so say 3:07 you google search and nothing's coming 3:09 up for you maybe it's other people that 3:10 share your name instead 3:12 there are some ways that you can own 3:14 this and work your way up 3:15 in those rankings so the first easy one 3:18 is actually buying your url 3:20 so your first and last name or whatever 3:22 you're going to use by that 3:23 as a url and then redirect it you can 3:26 redirect it to linkedin if you have a 3:28 profile there which you should 3:30 you could redirect it to a website you 3:32 could redirect it to 3:33 a facebook page if you wanted to but by 3:36 owning that url which generally speaking 3:39 is somewhere in the 3:40 12 to 20 a year so very affordable 3:43 um that gets you into the rankings as a 3:45 starting point 3:46 again using your name consistently is 3:48 key interlinking your profiles 3:50 so if you have multiple social profiles 3:53 making sure that they link to each other 3:54 in some way shape or form if you have a 3:56 website 3:57 obviously displaying all those together 3:59 the more connectedness 4:00 connected you are in the network the 4:02 better also as i mentioned delete any 4:05 unused profiles if there's just things 4:07 that you're not going to use anymore 4:08 honestly from a security standpoint it's 4:11 better to just delete them instead of 4:12 worrying about those passwords being 4:13 hacked anyway 4:14 but make sure you stay current on what 4:16 you're actively using 4:18 stale accounts are never a great thing 4:20 to have out there and so 4:21 you want to make sure that it's clean 4:23 and ready to be displayed 4:25 also if there are web pages out there 4:27 that refer to you and maybe they're out 4:29 of date 4:29 so something you don't openly control 4:32 make requests 4:33 email those people email the developers 4:35 whoever it is and just request that they 4:37 either take down your information 4:39 or update it so it's current all these 4:42 steps together will help you in your 4:44 google rankings and will help 4:46 complete that total personal brand 4:47 package that will take you 4:49 really far as you look into internships 4:52 career changes 4:53 new jobs etc now 4:57 one of the cool power tools that i like 4:59 to refer people to 5:00 and i've got no affiliation with them 5:01 it's just an amazing tool is 5:03 namecheck.com 5:05 namecheck.com will allow you to type in 5:07 a username and it'll search 5:09 all kinds of different digital platforms 5:11 to see if that username is available 5:14 now as i continue to stress consistency 5:16 is key when picking a username 5:19 it's best if you can land that username 5:21 on all platforms right 5:22 one less thing for people to have to 5:24 think about something easy for them to 5:25 memorize 5:26 so by using namecheck.com you can 5:29 actually search 5:30 find out if it's available and then 5:32 click through and actually reserve it 5:34 it's a great step and it's a great way 5:36 to identify a starting point or if you 5:38 should pivot 5:40 i realized i couldn't nail down my 5:42 jbalman 5:43 anything because they were mostly taken 5:46 so i had to get a little bit creative 5:48 in how i came up with my names my social 5:50 media names 5:51 are separate so they aren't all 5:53 identical but they run with the common 5:55 theme and that's worked really well for 5:56 me in the past so 5:58 take a look at namecheck.com and see 6:00 what's available 6:01 and it'll kind of help you get creative 6:03 moving forward with how you want to 6:05 label that brand 6:07 so what do you do next now that you kind 6:10 of know what's out there you have some 6:12 ideas on how you can kind of get in 6:14 there and get some control back 6:15 what's the next step how do you take 6:17 this to the next level 6:18 and ultimately i've got some great ideas 6:21 to help you build up your brand 6:23 now that you have figured out a way to 6:25 kind of own it and start ramping up 6:28 so some things we're going to cover 6:30 getting your name out there 6:31 reserving your accounts being true to 6:33 yourself creating content 6:35 and brand audits all of these things 6:37 kind of fit into that workflow 6:39 especially when i talked about 6:40 commitment and having to follow these 6:42 steps through 6:43 to make sure you have the best optimized 6:46 personal brand possible 6:48 so getting your name out there what i 6:50 mean by this is 6:51 start to make sure you're getting in 6:54 some sort of content 6:56 if you can write some blog articles if 6:58 you can get your name on other people's 6:59 websites 7:00 any sort of coverage across the digital 7:03 world of the internet 7:05 the more your name shows up the better 7:07 so start to think of ways that maybe 7:09 you can get your name out there and have 7:11 that then reflected 7:12 in google search analytics reserving 7:16 accounts is another big one 7:18 whenever a new sort of digital media 7:20 tool or or 7:21 new social media account system comes 7:23 out jump in and reserve your account it 7:26 doesn't mean that you have to actively 7:27 use it 7:28 but you want to make sure that you can 7:30 own those names ahead of time so someone 7:32 else doesn't get one of those names that 7:33 you're looking for 7:34 this does take work because there's a 7:36 lot of new platforms that come out 7:37 all the time and you have to basically 7:39 weigh out is it worth me 7:41 spending time to reserve that name is it 7:43 something i might actually use 7:45 you never really know what's going to 7:46 blow up next so just think about this 7:49 and be aware 7:50 as you try and build out that reach 7:54 ultimately be true to yourself be 7:56 intentional what you're putting out 7:58 there 7:58 and reflect accurately who you are don't 8:02 feel like you need to start up a tick 8:03 tock account 8:04 if you have no intention of dancing 8:06 around singing around having that type 8:08 of fun 8:09 uh content out there because there's no 8:12 point right 8:13 we don't look for certain people out on 8:15 tick tock if you're not going to have 8:17 that content out there so 8:19 be true to who you are and what your 8:21 goals are think truly about what's your 8:23 message you want to you know convey 8:25 to people that are searching for you and 8:27 roll with that 8:29 as long as you're intentional when you 8:30 do that and you're conveying yourself 8:32 accurately 8:33 by being yourself you will have success 8:37 generating content again super easy the 8:40 more you put out there the better if you 8:42 have open accounts 8:43 make sure you're posting regularly make 8:45 sure you're putting content 8:46 intentionally out there 8:47 because that's what people are gonna 8:48 find yes you can have a website that's 8:51 relatively static 8:52 you can you know have these accounts but 8:54 if you're not doing anything with them 8:56 what is that really telling people if 8:58 they search for you and they don't see 8:59 any activity 9:00 they're not getting any insight and the 9:03 goal here is really to convey your 9:04 personality 9:05 because hopefully that then leads to an 9:08 interview 9:08 and internship you know whatever the 9:10 next step is of what your goal what 9:12 you're looking for 9:13 so make sure you're putting something 9:15 out there if you don't want to put 9:16 anything out there you might want to 9:18 consider 9:18 just you know shutting down your account 9:20 you don't have to delete it 9:22 but there's ways that you can just clean 9:24 things up so that there's no expectation 9:26 again looking at stale accounts is 9:28 always rough because you 9:29 it makes you basically makes you wonder 9:32 why 9:34 finally an annual brand audit every year 9:38 set some time aside to go through and do 9:40 this process again 9:42 look and see what's out there look and 9:43 see what's changed in google analytics 9:45 have you been you know reaching your 9:47 goals and you've been taking over that 9:48 search page 9:49 have you seen your name showing up more 9:51 and more uh maybe you find some things 9:53 that you're lacking that you want to 9:54 refocus on 9:56 but ultimately spend some time every 9:58 year to take a look what's out there 10:00 and don't just do it once a year if 10:02 you're actively going into the job 10:03 market if you're actively searching for 10:05 a new career 10:06 you should do this first and make sure 10:08 whatever is going to come up you're 10:10 comfortable with 10:11 but the big thing is don't let it go 10:13 stale make sure you stay on top of this 10:15 and ultimately that'll lead to success 10:18 so to wrap up we talked about 10:20 controlling your brand 10:22 we talked about ways that you can do 10:23 that using the name game owning your 10:25 name 10:26 namecheck.com and then what to do next 10:28 how to generate content how to work your 10:30 way up 10:31 ultimately these are all super important 10:33 things that'll help you 10:35 take your personal brand to the next 10:37 level 10:38 so as i mentioned before maybe you're 10:40 new to this maybe you're coming right 10:41 out of college 10:42 maybe you're looking at a career change 10:44 understanding your personal 10:46 brand what it says to others about you 10:48 and taking advantage of it 10:50 to work for you is all extremely 10:53 important and something that we all need 10:54 to do 10:55 in this digital society because again 10:58 your digital persona and that personal 11:00 brand that's out there 11:01 is exactly a reflection of who you are 11:04 as a person 11:05 ultimately if you're looking for more 11:07 tips and tricks be sure to browse 11:09 michigan online 11:10 see what other courses we have available 11:12 anything will help you because 11:14 knowledge is power and ultimately you 11:16 want to always keep learning 11:17 because i know when i'm looking to hire 11:19 people the more i see that they're 11:21 active in learning and wanting to better 11:23 themselves 11:24 the more interested i become 11:33 you