James Burdin realises how important his own personal brand will be to him in the years ahead so he has started branding himself on the web at www.jamesburdin.com
James is only 16 years old and a baseball athlete participating in elite athletic programs. He holds a scholarship with Australian Capital Territory Academy Of Sport (ACTAS) and is enrolled in the Talented Sports Program (TSP) at Erindale College Canberra.
It’s unusual for such a young person to be establising themselves on the web so I asked James what his motivations were.
Q. Why did you put your website online?
James: My dad persuaded me to do it by explaining to me that my generation will be reliant on having information available online about themselves for anyone seeking it. He explained that it will be unavoidable that sooner or later people will be able to Google for information about everyone so it made sense for me to put information online about myself and to a great degree control it.
Q. Give me an example of who might be googling for information about you?
James: Well maybe sometime down the road I’ll be applying for employment and a prospective employee will Google me, that’s when they will find plenty of information about me on my website and on the social networks I’ll develop. Also I have ambitions with my baseball and I’ll be loading my website and network with the progress I’m making. And who knows my future inlaws may like a little background. (big smile)
Q. I see you have the JB logo on your site, is that an intentional logo branding exercise?
James: Maybe, I’m not sure but I think it’s cool.
Q. What other motivations did you have for establishing your online brand.
James: First I wanted to register my domain name jamesburdin.com I really saw this as important, there are plenty of James Burdin’s in the world but no one else can now claim that domain.
I also wanted to learn skills needed to operate successfully online, I judge the websites I keep going back to as being successful so I’ll analyse what makes them tick and learn from them. I’ve got a feeling if I just be myself and learn how to create two way communications by using social media I will expand my brand.
One unexpected bonus is I am raising money from people and businesses who sponsor me at the website. This is cool and I have already raised several hundred dollars worth of sponsorhip and I can see this growing as I start to promote myself in online networks.
Q. So where do you go from here?
James: I really need to get into the habit of posting content to my site on a regular basis and also learn how to tie my site in with facebook and other social networks, it’s all a learning experience but I can see the benefit of organising my time to fit it in. Who knows where my personal brand will be sitting in 20 - 30 years time.
Thanks to James and we certainly think he’ll go places with his brand and his baseball ambitions.
Visit www.jamesburdin.com
Socialising