I attended a CMA (Certified Management Accountants) seminar one night and during the event they had a speaker present on the topic of developing your personal brand. The speaker’s name was Kendra Reddy and she gave a great talk on how in today’s day and age, progress in your career has more to do with developing your image than it does your technical skills. Without undermining the importance of your skills, I agreed with Kendra and I realized that with all of the available tools online, it’s easy to get your name out and display your talents. I remember looking around in that room of CMA’s and realizing that among the 500 professionals on hand, only a handful would put some effort in creating an online presence. The point being, your skills and knowledge are irrelevant if no one knows about them.

So how do increase your online visibility? Here are a few practical steps you can take right now:

1) Glamour Shots

First, get yourself a nice looking photo. If you’re creating a number of profiles online, you want to demonstrate a professional image. If you’re more laid back or the creative type, you can always use a fun or interesting photo, but at least make sure it’s high quality and legible. After all, a picture says a thousand words.

2) LinkedIn

Make sure your profile is close to 100% complete. Set aside some time and fill out all of the information on LinkedIn. Just by doing this step, your profile will show up in more searches ahead of your competitors. Get as many recommendations as you can. Message your fellow colleagues and ask for a recommendation. In return, you can write one for them. If you think about it, these are genuine testimonials and give credit to all the hard work you’ve put in.

Here is what LinkedIn considers a complete profile.

3) Get a site

There are tons of ways to build a website these days. You can use tools like WordPress to build out a website or a blog. There are a lot of free resources online including templates that require little to no design or development experience. If you’re even more serious you can hire someone to build one out for you. A website is a good central location to store your contact information, work examples and more. Plus if you manage to get a domain that contains your full name, you will rank well in the search engines.

Check out this presentation to get started with your own site

4) Blog

Even better than a website is a blog. If you’re willing to commit to writing, setting up a blog and writing about your area of expertise will definitely get you noticed and increase your online presence. This single step alone makes you an authority figure on your topic immediately. And don’t fool yourself into thinking that no one will read or be interested in your blog or what you have to say. If someone is in the same field as you they will more than appreciate your thoughts and opinions.

5) Guest Blog

Ok so you don’t want to create a website or a blog. Another easy way to get noticed is to write for another blog or a ‘guest post’. Put together a solid pitch and approach a blogger who already has an active audience and ask to write a blog post in your area of expertise. Make sure to include a byline near the bottom of the post including your name and ways readers can get in touch with you. This will make you look like an authority figure in your field and increase your visibility.

6) Visual Resume

This is a new concept that a few people are trying. It’s extremely noticeable and if done well can make you stand out. Essentially you create a visual representation of your resume or the history of your career using a tool like PowerPoint or Key note. You then embed that presentation into a program like Slideshare and include it in your LinkedIn. It’s a quick and easy way for a recruiter or potential employer to get a sense of who you are and what your accomplishments have been. I wouldn’t recommend using this method to replace the traditional resume format but rather use it to accompany it.

Here’s a tutorial from the master of presentations

7) Do a search

If at the very least you don’t feel like doing any of the above, you should definitely perform a search for your name in both Google and Bing (search engines). Take a look at the results and see first hand what a potential recruiter or employer may see. If for example a listing to your Facebook account appears, consider tightening the privacy settings so that your personal pics stay personal. If you find that you’re not showing up in the search results at all, then it’s definitely time to implement a few of the items above.

Wrap Up

There really are a ton of ways to develop your personal brand online. Most of the methods are simple and affordable. They require a little effort but can definitely pay off. Try them out and let me know what you think.

About the author: Zaid Rasid is the founder of the internet marketing blog Better Social* Skills. He provides social media, lead generation & brand awareness advice to small and medium sized businesses. For a practical look at how online marketing can work for you, visit www.zaidrasid.com or follow him on twitter: www.twitter.com/zaidrasid