President Obama is without question the leader in personal branding.

His BarackObama.Com website is an outstanding example of personal branding in action.

It played a crucial role in getting him to the White House and it continues to support his Presidency.

Have you registered your name as a personal branding domain?

Have you registered the names of your children and grandchildren as personal domains for their future?

Check here to see if those names are available.

You and Sam Smartdude have applied for the position of Vice President of Marketing with  Acme Industrials a new start up hiring new staff. The company is looking for a highly motivated proactive individual to oversee taking their brand to the world.

You and Sam Smartdude have equivalent skills, both fresh from Harvard with your marketing degrees under your arms, both feeling confident about winning the position.

You discover that Sam Smartdude has got a huge advantage up his sleeve, for the last two years he has been active on the Internet. Sam registered the domain SamSmartdude.com and created is personal brand website. The website served has a hub for his social network properties, he has:

http://www.facebook.com/SamSmartdude

405 friends who are interested in marketing, many of his friends are employed by influential corporations.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/SamSmartdude

Sam has published a professional profile on Linkedin and created a potent worldwide network of business people involved in marketing.

http://www.twitter.com/SamSmartdude

Sam has 2,506 followers on Twitter who he has access to anytime of the day.

http://www.youtube.com/SamSmartdude

He has a popular channel on Youtube where he has gathered together a useful collection of marketing based videos. He has hundreds of subscribers to his channel.

Sam’s website www.SamSmartdude.com has become a gathering place for people from around the world, Sam posts thoughtful articles on his website and people relish in commenting and creating discussion around Sam’s publishings.

All in all Sam Smartdude has already created a personal brand that is obviously respected in the marketing world. He obviously realised how important building a brand on the Internet would be for helping his career options. Compared to your own efforts on the Internet Sam runs first and daylight is second.

The head of Acme Industrials Human Recourse’s now has the ability to Google Sam Smartdude and pretty much determine if Sam is a suitable candidate for the job even before she ever meets Sam.

How do you feel about your job prospects with Acme Industrials, it’s a good bet Sam Smartdude has you running scared. But this is the way it’s going to be, it’s actually happening now, many corporations choose to Google potential candidates to decide if the person will be granted an interview.

Establishing your own personal brand on the Internet is no longer an option but a necessaty, don’t waste another minute and start now.

I’m just in the middle of reading The Brand Called You by Peter Montoya where the author suggests:

“Name your company after yourself.“

This got me thinking of successful entrepreneurs who did just that and went on to build successful personal brands.

Here are just a few that come to mind:

• LJ Hooker
• Ray White
• Marty Rodriguez
• Michael Hill
• Dick Smith
• Bing lee
• Gai Waterhouse
• Carla Zampatti
• Elle Macpherson
• Max Markson
• David Koche

I’m sure I could fill the website with more names but all the people listed above have one thing in common other than their personal brand and that is they recognised the importance of registering their name as a domain name.

If you are not already aware, domain names are unique,  so if you haven’t already done so you should secure yours right now. Even if you don’t intend creating a web presence in the near future,  you should secure your domain name before anyone else does.  If not you’ll be  denied the opportunity of establishing your personal brand online with your own xname as your domain.