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Using Social Networking to Build Your own Brand

There’s a lot of talk these days about personal branding. Although there are many ways to define this, I think a personal brand is the image you portray to others on a professional level.

Can you easily identify your own personal brand? A recent article on Knowledge@Wharton encouraged me to blog about building your own brand through social media. According to the article, “social networking is that rare sector of the economy that seems to be booming in the midst of the recession. MediaPost reported that businesses spent $2.2 billion on social-networking in 2008, nearly twice as much as they did in 2007, primarily through advertising on popular sites like MySpace and Facebook.

While you don’t need to advertise to get on someone’s radar, there are a number of ways you can use social media to build your brand. Everyone’s personal brand is unique, of course, but you can use social media to help position you as an knowledgeable source and service/product provider.

In my case, I use social media to position myself as an expert in accounting firm/industry growth through technology and practice management.

Make yourself a list of what you’re trying to convey and then begin using Twitter and Facebook, start a blog, and use other social media to build your brand. In a very short time, you will have followers keeping up with your observations – and, as a result, your personal brand will shine through.