24 Tips For Personal Branding Success

It all starts with having your own blog. How can you get your own ideas out there if you don't have an online platform to call your own?
Be generous. Use your blog and other social media tools to shine the spotlight on others more than on yourself.
Be an idea person. A personal brand is built on the useful content you provide to others.
Define who your audience is. Don't try to reach everyone. Determine who your "buyer personas" are.
Create or link to content that solves problems for your particular audience. Providing problem-solving information makes you a resource (and an expert).
It should go without saying that you have to be good at what you do. All the personal branding in the world won't help you if you aren't a quality product.
That said, narrow your niche to what you are already good at. Lead with your strengths.
Know what your goal is for personal branding: A new job? Moving up in your existing career? Or are you an entrepreneur seeking new clients?
Get known. Use social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flikr and others to let people know about your blog's content.
It bears repeating: The content you produce IS your personal brand. Can you even think about James Cameron without thinking of Avatar or Titanic? If you are not creating quality content, you are not branding yourself.
Make friends. Social media is not simply a broadcasting tool, it is a vehicle to cultivate real friendships.
Be a friend. How can you help, encourage, praise, or even amuse the people you meet online? Think of Twitter/Facebook/etc. as a bunch of friends gathering in a friendly pub after work.
Practice online random acts of kindness. Do or say something nice to someone who cannot possibly help you or put money in your pocket. An easy way to do this is to spotlight a link to someone else's blog or site.
Help others grow their number of followers/friends.
Go offline. Can your blog's content be repackaged as an article, CD or DVD? Shocking as it may seem, not everyone you want to reach is active on social media.
Get out there and meet your online contacts in the real world. Attend events or Tweetups. Or just arrange to meet someone in a coffee shop.
Create content that solves problems unrelated to what you sell, but that is very important to your target audience. It isn't about you, it's about them.
Leverage your growing brand to make contacts with VIPs. Use the power of Twitter and other social media to network your way into elite circles. If you have created good content and been generous, this will be surprisingly easy to do.
Don't let your old content stop working for you. If an article you wrote 18 months ago is still relevant, send out tweets or Facebook updates linking to it. Make your older stuff available to a new audience.
Hang out at other people's blogs and websites. Post thoughtful comments and link to their better articles. Don't just swoop down and post stuff on their blogs without first being a reader of what they put out.
Grow your brand by building up other people's brands. Promote them, spread the word about how much you appreciate this person's information.
Join or create groups on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn that relate to the brand you are building. Be an active participant in those communities.
Don't just use social media to spread your own message. Listen. You will be amazed at how much you can learn on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
After you listen, share what you learn with the people who follow you. It isn't just about sending out links to your own content, link to other sites more often than you do to your's.