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.

The Internet is always changing but one thing you can absolutely count on for the future is that having a personal brand will be way more important than just having a business card.

Personal branding is defined as building a brand around your own name.  Online it starts with a domain name so that if your name is James Burdin your personal brand domain would be jamesburdin.com.

Here are some compelling reasons for developing a personal brand.

1. As you move from place to place or company to company with your career the  things that should remain constant are your name and reputation.  If you have built a strong personal brand online and it can be found using Google Search itwill act like a global business card. The really good news is that unlike a business card which can be lost of discarded your online personal brand business card is always fresh, up-to-date and available.

2. Securing your name as a domain right now is extremely important because at the moment very few people realise the importance of personal branding.  If you don’t claim your domain now then someone with the same name will eventually own it. You can check the availability of your name here.

3. Once you have your personal brand domain name you can place your domain with a web host  and use it as a email address  for the rest of your life irrespective of your internet service provider.  Your email address could then be yourfirstname@yourname.com.

4. Having a personal brand creates uniformity across all the social networking sites.  As you post articles and material you can link to your personal brand domain.  This is particularly valuable in business sites such as LinkedIn.

5. Once you own your personal brand domain it can be featured prominently on your personal business card and be a personal link where people you meet can stay in touch irrespective of your geographical or corporate location.

6. As you regularly publish content to your personal brand website people will find you and this has the potential to open many doors of opportunity that would otherwise remain closed.  An outstanding example of this is the personal brand website of Scott Monty who currently works for Ford but may move on to many other corporations in his career.

7. A personal brand stands out and flags you as someone who has a good understanding of social networking and who takes networking seriously.

When it the best time to begin?

Right now.  Check out the availability of your name here and register it today.  The annual cost is less than the price of a single DVD.

Think of the value of the brand name Cameron Diaz.