As you build your personal brand online, it’s essential to ask yourself one question: ‘What do I want from my online presence?’

The answer may be to attract clients, drive traffic, connect with bright minds, or find a new job. It may simply be to connect with interesting people or establish an audience. When you know your individual goal, the path to differentiating yourself becomes more clear.

Metrics that Matter

For the majority of people, success is not a larger number of followers, likes or repins. These statistics are a proxy for other things — like being an expert in your field. The core of this success is providing value to others. This value is what holds an audience captivated or keeps a customer coming back.

Share Value

Your personal brand must be built around the value you can bring to others. Your value is a unique mix of experiences, interests, and talents both personal and professional. Building a personal brand is the process of chiseling down this mountain into a simple communicable message. This is your identity, your brand.

When you know your goal you can orient your online behavior to help achieve the desired outcome. Spend time engaging with communities you can learn from and add to. Let others know who you are, and what you’re good at!

Share a bit about yourself, and interact with people around you. If you’re having a hard time getting started, head over to about.me/search and enter one of your interests to find collaborators. Good luck!