3 Ideas to shape your online personal brand

Almost any professional can complete his/her LinkedIn profile but what is really difficult to do is creating an online personal brand. Think about Tom Peters: The management guru wrote his famous book "In Search of Excellence" more than 30 decades ago and has been living in a relatively remote area in Vermont for years. Hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, follow what he says and thinks on social media and it's fair to argue that most of his current reputation comes from his digital identity. Now the million-dollar question is how to create such a  brand (not necessarily in management but engineering, science or any other discipline). While the answer to this question seems even larger than life, here are a few ideas that can help you create your own brand among like-minded people: Define what you want to be known for What you need to come up with is a unique value proposition: That is to say how you or your brand will benefit others. It's always a good exercise to dedicate some time to figuring out exactly what you have which few other people have. If you already know it, then you should put this at the front and center of everything you do online (professionally) Select a target network Everyone usually has a target group of audience who wants to be friends with or do business or maybe exchange ideas. You need to define this group: Let's say you are a mechanical engineer and an expert in plastic injection technologies. You should look for places where people who have this type of expertise or are looking for this type of expertise go. Use both professional crowdsourcing and social media portals Professional crowdsourcing networks usually announce the list of their top experts in different areas. Putting some effort into getting into those Top lists not only puts you on the radar among people who have the same interests but also notifies the companies who are interested in such expertise. Needless to say, online forums and social media also help with getting your blogs, ideas, and profile to the places you want. What do you think about the online personal brand? Do you have some other interesting ideas? Participate in the ennomotive engineering challenges. Join us and experience with real engineering challenges!