Personal Branding: A Vital Element of Online Business

Personal branding is without doubt one of the most important components in your online business. Without it, you'll simply be another little boat lost in the vast ocean of would-be entrepreneurs! So let's look at personal branding and what it means to you today.

You need to brand yourself properly- if you want to stand out from the crowd, you're going to have to set yourself apart from the others. You'll need to differentiate yourself from your competition and to do this, you're going to have to take some steps to change the way you go about things.

Ok, first off, you need to ask yourself some pretty searching questions. You want people to notice you but why should people listen to you? What makes YOU so special? What have you got to offer them? There are some simple steps you can take to ensure you head in the right direction and get where you want to be!

Take charge of yourself - make sure you understand both your strengths and weaknesses. You need to be totally honest with yourself. Make a list of points - what do you love, what are you good at? What exactly do you want to achieve? You just need to get yourself "out there", to be seen and to get your name recognised. Don't always wait until everything has been perfected, sometimes you just need to take the bull by the horns and put out what you've got so far, warts and all. In this way too, you can keep your content fresh, without re-working or re-hashing it. If you feel you must, you can always tweak and perfect as you go along. It's part of the learning curve.

Personal branding builds your online presence - this is undoubtedly true. How you come across to people is often a deciding factor as to whether they will listen and digest what you have to offer or whether they just click off your page/video/article. You only have one opportunity to make that first impression, so make sure it's the one you want!

Don't forget that body language is vital when you're dealing with people, either face to face or via a webcam. Personal meetings are often easier, as the direct contact helps but you're still able to inject your personality through your videos if you remember a couple of simple rules:

· Be yourself! Don't try to be someone or something you're not

· Keep your eyes focused on the camera at all times. Eye contact is essential to engage your audience

· Smile! If there's only one thing you remember and only one thing you feel confident about doing, make sure it's to smile. A friendly, welcoming and open face will open more doors for you than a dull, listless face

· Make sure your arms aren't folded across your body. This is a defensive gesture and sends out the wrong signals to those around you. No matter how nervous or shy you may be feeling, let your arms relax but feel free to use your hands - gesticulate and emphasise with your hands to bring points home

There is far more to personal branding than meets the eye and any would-be online marketer should be working on improving his or her branding to ensure they stand out amongst the vast competition.

You can find out more from my free report at http://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaBrandingUK which shows you how to begin your own journey to successful personal branding.