Enterprise Nation

Your personal brand identity is becoming far more important when it comes to doing business. This is partly down to the explosion of social media on the Internet and applies just as much to your offline activity, as it does to your online presence. Fay Judson and Karen McNulty of MarketingPlanWiz show how to work on your personal marketing plan.

Brand You

You'll already have contacts in your trade who know you either as a supplier or customer, but is it just simply about being yourself or should you really have a personal marketing plan?

It's not as shameless as it sounds.  Your strategy for offline "personal" promotion will be about the way you deal with people, maybe how you write about your subject area or speak on your subject.  These are opportunities to be an ambassador for your business at the same time as a respected expert in your field.

Online, content has become so important, as search engines consume new articles, blogs, website pages and news at an incredible rate; then social networks are inviting you to join and participate in online discussions, forums, and surveys and make friends with people.  So a personal plan starts to make sense!  Here are our top tips for creating and managing your own brand:

Offline

• At networking events make sure you represent your business in the best light; take business cards and any other appropriate literature; never criticise the competition (you never know when that will come back to haunt you and it's not good form).
• Offer to speak at seminars and meetings to show you are an expert in your subject area - this builds your brand powerfully.
• Think about your face-to-face and telephone customer service.  Have you got it right and are you portraying a professional organisation?

Online

• Join a professional business social network. LinkedIn is probably the best and, apart from raising your personal profile and that of your business, has the possibility of making some amazing connections.
• Can you write a blog?  These are best when written by individuals and builds great credibility if you can write one.
  If you have a Facebook account, you can use this to position yourself, and now you can also set up a business page.
• Do you tweet? Twitter is now the 54th most visited website in the UK and is an easy to use social network where you can tell people what you're up to in 140 characters or less.  

There are two big advantages to getting into social media online - one is that they're normally all free to join and the other is that by default they will all link back to your website.  Excellent for your business and all of these combined should portray the image that is right for you.

• Karen McNulty and Fay Judson, Marketing Plan Wiz