Personal Branding and Twitter, etc.

It is getting to be common knowledge now that you want to control what gets posted online about you as it regards the potentially embarrassing picture or video on Facebook or MySpace.  A high percentage of employers are checking the web for content about candidates before offering them jobs.

We also need to think about Twitter and how it reflects on our personal brand.

• When oneRTs (retweets) something someone else has posted on twitter, what does it say about them? 
• When one tweets about an article, blog post, movie, concert, or a business, what does it say about them?
• When one engages in conversation on Twitter, what does it say about them?

Look at your last twenty tweets.  Are the messages you are sending congruent with what you want your network, prospects, and clients to perceive about you?  How will our messages motivate them?

As more and more people become internet savvy, it will become standard operating procedure to check people out on the internet.  Remember to keep your content consistent with your brand. 

Comments

[Doug Mitchel]

Twitter is always an enigma since there's only about 5 million or so people on it (and how many are actually using it regularly to build a brand, etc.) and there's no "manual" provided when you sign up right?
The last data I saw from Manpower said about 25% of employers Google candidates names to see what's going on out there. I thought that would be higher.

Here is some food for thought on your above questions:

Are the "quoters, article linkers, and retweeters" on Twitter considered unoriginal and followers vs. leaders?

I personally do all of the above so I'm just throwing that out there.