We’ve talked about the importance of Twitter for personal branding in depth. Today, I’m going to share three success stories—companies and individuals that have used Twitter to effectively build their brand.

1) Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh.

Zappos was a very early adapter of Twitter, and as a result has built a very strong presence. CEO Tony Hsieh, in particular, has used his twitter account ( http://twitter.com/zappos) to infuse his personality into his business. Contrary to the approach that many businesspeople take with Twitter, Hsieh isn’t hesitant to tweet about personal thoughts, opinions and activities that may have nothing to do with his business. Rather than approaching Twitter as a giant billboard to advertise for Zappos, Hsieh uses it primarily to express his personality and connect with his followers. When he does tweet about his business, he doesn’t make a sales pitch. Rather, he shares interesting background details with his followers, or invites them to suggest improvements to various facets of his company. As a result, followers stay engaged because Hsieh isn’t simply trying to sell them products. In the long term, this results in customers with a strong connection to both Zappos and Tony Hsieh—and that is personal branding at its best.

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2) Comcast’s Bill Gerth.

Comcast was another early adapter of Twitter, but they took a very different approach than Zappos. In order to counter the perception that they were out of touch with their subscribers, Comcast created a Twitter account ( http://twitter.com/comcastcares) specifically to help out frustrated customers. In order to add personality to the account, Comcast assigned employee Bill Gerth to be the face of the operation. This allowed followers to develop a personal connection—subtly countering the notion that Comcast is a large, bureaucratic, inhuman corporation. Their customer service team uses the page to assist customers that are having issues— technical, billing, or others. A glance at their page reveals a steady stream of correspondence with customers, immediately conveying that Comcast is dedicated to satisfying their customers. Their Twitter presence serves two purposes—first, it’s an efficient way to provide customer support; and second, it presents Comcast as a customer centered company that truly cares.

3) Southwest’s Christi Day.

Southwest has been on Twitter since 2007 and has built a dynamic presence. Run by employee Christi Day, Southwest uses their profile ( http://twitter.com/SouthwestAir) for a variety of functions, but all have brand-building as their central purpose. Common tweets include correspondence with travelers experiencing problems (a tweet earlier this week to a delayed flier read “I’m so sorry for the delay tonight. Hopefully we’ll get everyone outta there soon, hang in there!”) as well as announcements, information and contests. This month, Southwest is holding a “12 days of LUV” contest in which they are offering 12 ,000 Southwest gift cards to contest winners. The contest asks followers to participate in various challenges, such as dressing their pet festively for the holidays. Participants send pictures, and the winner is announced via Twitter. These interactions paint a picture of Southwest as an engaged, fun-loving and customer oriented airline—branding at its finest.

You may not own a Fortune-500 company, but there is nothing stopping you from building a strong personal brand through Twitter. The companies we covered above found great approaches that work for them—what will your approach be?

More Branding Articles

To successfully create awareness for your brand, you need to do a lot of homework first. If you lack in your homework, the chances are that you will not get expected returns on investments (RIO). For this, you need to define the goal of your brand. There must be a “personality” associated with your brand. Think about Michael Jackson for a while and the first thing that comes to your mind is his moonwalk dance. Similarly, you need to create awareness for your brand. The moment someone clicks your site, he or she must have some healthy perception about your site.

Successful online brand building requires careful planning. To achieve this goal, you will have to ensure that:

The objective of your brand is clearly defined

Logo of your brand is visible on each webpage of your site

Your site has user friendly look and feel

Your web pages are easy to navigate

Fresh and quality content is uploaded on your site on regular basis

Online and offline branding is done simultaneously

Fan following for your site is developed on various social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, MySpace etc.

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Original and informative articles, blogs, press releases etc. are submitted to appropriate forums at regular intervals.

In addition to all the above, you also need to take the services of a SEO consultancy that may optimize your site properly so that it may rank higher in internet search results. Search engine optimization services will help in increasing the visibility of your site on the internet. If you have added something new to your site, then let the whole world know it. Write a press release about that and submit that to a paid press release agency. Discuss about the same in your official blogs and provide appropriate links for the users to follow you.

You may also start a rewarding program for your top customers. If someone regularly shops through you, tell about that individual to everyone, after getting his or her approval. This gesture will encourage such a customer to spend more. You may also send him a handwritten letter thanking him for shopping through you. This gesture will help you in making him or her loyal customer.

The role of search engine optimization services cannot be ignored at all in online branding process. Your efforts on online branding will not provide you desired results if you do not optimize your site properly. For this, you may hire the services of a professional SEO consultancy. You may entrust the SEO consultancy to:

Analyze the results of analytics

Provide proper back links on your keywords Submit press releases, articles, blogs etc. on your behalf

Provide appropriate internal and external links in your site

Provide title tags, meta tags, breadcrumbs and reviews of your products

Make the navigation of your site user friendly.

With the above online brand building tips, you could be assured to get increased traffic on your sites.

Once developed, a personal branding statement should be incorporated into resumes, cover letters, and email signature lines as well as throughout social media. While it doesn’t have to be constantly repeated word for word—in fact, it shouldn’t be—that personal branding statement should nevertheless inform and inspire one’s online persona.

Your personal brand statement for job search should not be long.  Five to 10 words tops will get the job done (e.g., “I’m the top dog trainer in Toledo.”)  It’s all about unique positioning, so you’ll want to consider words such as “top” and “best” or “first” or “friendliest.”  If you’ve garnered more awards and recognition than others in your company, now’s the time to say so with “award-winning” and “most recognized leader in Hoboken.”

One important note you must consider as you are going through this exercise:  Avoid hype. Be authentic.

Visibility is important, but be professional, too. Leave consistent, recognizable digital footprints on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, ZoomInfo and other online properties that reflect a polished image.

Hiring managers and recruiters use social networking sites to source and investigate candidates. A forgotten blog, a Twitter account with only a couple of posts, or a LinkedIn profile that isn’t 100% complete will leave a poor impression. A professional homepage and online resume/portfolio—complete with a “first name, last name” .com domain name—is the perfect place to display a personal brand.

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Job seekers whose vanity URLs are already taken can try adding a middle name, “PhD” or a similar distinguishing word. Then reserve that as a username across various social networking sites using NameChk.com; the days of getting away with “Andy12345″ are over.

Since personal branding is about standing out from the crowd, creating a video resume or a mock video “interview” might be a smart decision, too. Sites like CareerBuilder and Vault are now offering video resume hosting. Keep it brief, professional and not gimmicky. But be warned: unlike a traditional resume, a video resume can go viral, damaging one’s personal brand.  So think it through before you step in front of the camera.

Good personal branding radiates success. People like to work with competent, accomplished, even powerful individuals. But overt self-promotion is a career killer, as are narcissism and selfishness.

Ironically, personal branding might more accurately be described as “interpersonal branding.”  Nurture your network to take advantage of word of mouth; focus on what you uniquely can offer others. Leaving a tidbit of practical advice on a comment thread makes a much better impression than a self-aggrandizing “personal statement” squeezed into an excessively long “look at me!” post.

Likewise, employers don’t care about a job seeker’s “objectives.” They want to know what you can do for them. Why not use that valuable resume real estate for a personal branding statement instead, one that focuses on what you will bring to the organization, not what you want to get out of it?

Personal branding is an ongoing project. So is the reputation management that goes along with it. Since most web searchers never look past the first page of Google results, job seekers need to “own” those top 10 results for their name.

That’s why taking control of one’s identity on Facebook and other popular sites is so important—it’s a way to “push down” negative references to the relative obscurity of page two or three of Google or other search engines. Companies like PeoplePond and QAlias can also help manage this sort of “personal SEO.”

Other firms, like Defend My Name and ReputationDefender help remove unflattering personal comments and online “smear campaigns” altogether.  The payoff in personal branding is creating a powerful online reputation that aligns with who you are and demonstrates your distinct positioning–a positioning that any company would be foolish to let slip away.  Such is the power of personal branding.

Branding is a crucial component of the marketing strategy of any business.  By clearly delivering the message of your business, a powerful branding strategy can set you a part from the competition. It will also give your business credibility and motivate potential customers to buy your product or service. Your company’s brand can include its name, logo, sign, slogan, or any combination of these and other key marketing strategies. In order to reach your target market, your brand must speak to that customer. Building a brand with your customer in mind is the best way to ensure its success as part of your online marketing strategy.

With the battle for potential customers growing more intense each day, it’s critical that each business realizes the importance of an effective marketing strategy. Online marketing, along with other components, can help your business succeed in what is an increasingly difficult economic climate. In spite of these challenges, a powerful branding strategy can get your business the notice it needs to survive.

How Do You Develop Your Brand?

Branding can be a lengthy process, but one with very worthwhile results. Many marketing experts believe that without a powerful brand, most business won’t succeed. In order to develop your brand, there are certain things you’ll need to understand about your business.

What are the products and/or services you offer?
What are your company’s core values and how do they affect the products/services you provide?
What is your company’s mission statement?
Who is your target customer?
What is your company’s tagline or slogan?

This information will aid in establishing your brand and connecting with your target customer. By creating a relationship with potential customers, they will be able to create an emotional connection to your company and the products/services you provide. A powerful branding strategy allows your business to make a much-needed connection to customers, which creates loyalty. Through that loyalty, you can establish long-term relationships with customers, which will keep you in business well into the future. Online marketing with your brand will help your business flourish.