Personal branding is all the rage these days. We’re all doing it to a certain extent every time we log into a social networking site, and blogs and the rise of self-publishing have made it easier than ever for businessmen to brand themselves as authorities in their niches.
Unfortunately, that also means that there’s plenty of competition. That’s why, if you want to cut through the noise, you need to learn from the best in the business and apply what you learn to your online presence, whether you’re networking on LinkedIn or making friends on Facebook.
Personal branding is an unusual area. It’s easy to find inspiration just by looking at what people are doing, but it’s hard to learn the fundamentals because most sites tend to focus on business branding and marketing as a whole. Luckily, we’ve done the hard work for you. Here are just two sites that share personal branding best practices.
Spin Sucks
Headed up by CEO Gini Dietrich, Spin Sucks is the perfect site for PR tips, personal development advice and musings on marketing. It’s technically owned and run by Arment Dietrich, Gini’s PR company, but it’s still independent enough to avoid shying away from potentially controversial topics.
The result is a blog which tells it like it is, providing actionable tips about social media, communication, marketing, entrepreneurship and more. It isn’t a half-cocked attempt at content marketing – it’s a valuable hub for practitioners which attracts plenty of comments and discussion whether they’re talking about Kesha, SEO or Reverse Mentoring.
Better still, if you’re finding that the site offers value then you can take out a pro membership which allows you to download resources and supplementary material such as their Modern Blogging Masterclass. Either way, there are also plenty of free downloads available so you can get a feel for their quality before you pay to access them.
Find out more about Spin Sucks.
iSocialFanz
This site is the brainchild of Brian Fanzo, as you might have guessed from its name. Fanzo is a successful public speaker, change evangelist and community builder, and he also hosts several podcasts which can be downloaded or listened to on the site. It’s just one of many good reasons to stop by.
iSocialFanz is great because of the vast array of different media types available. Fanzo himself is an advocate for the millennial generation and tailors his content towards them, and that includes by providing video content, audio content and written content to match their needs. And, if you want to give it a go yourself, he also links to the equipment that he uses.
If you’ve got a little budget and you’re keen to further develop yourself, it’s worth spending the $199 Brian asks for his “Creating and Monetizing Your Digital Story” course. It comes with over four and a half hours of video content that’s designed to inspire, educate and motivate, and you can download four modules from the course for free to get a feel for his presentation style. What’s not to love?
Find out more about iSocialFanz.
Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.