Is your online brand distinct?

Have you ever given any thought to what colour your brand is? I know, it may sound silly but it's amazing how little attention we put into ourselves.... our most important asset. New aggregator tools like http://www.addictomatic.com/ are having us look at our brands and online profile in a different light. Quantity of tweets, followers and the size of your linked in network are all great and important but what is the overall brand impression you are leaving people with and what are you getting out of the connections? Is your brand and online profile distinct and relevant? Is it consistent across professional networking platforms? Does it have personality and convey the right message? What is it that you want people to remember about you?

videoBIO brings these questions to the forefront as you ask yourself "What do I want to convey in three minutes or less on video?". Is your tone and manner fun and light or buttoned down and professional? What is your colour? Everyone has a message and an opportunity to build their brand. Take advantage of new tools that will allow you to express that the way it should be expressed. Don't leave it up for interpretation.

Our personal branding partner Reach delves into the attributes of your personal brand. For more on the colour of your brand watch William Arruda, CEO of Reach's video on 'is green the colour of your brand'...

That twitter follower hurt my feelings. :(

Posted by Laurinda Shaver

My name is Laurinda and I'm a twitter-oholic. Yes, many people don't understand the point of twitter but I have found to be a wealth of timely information about what I care about. There are great people who post really useful links. It saves time when I just click on their link as opposed to go hunting for information on my own. Two of my personal branding favs are @williamarruda and @kirstendixson.

Although, I am finding more and more businesses on twitter that completely miss the point. Today, I got a business (that shall remain nameless) that followed me at @videoBIO. I do my best to send a quick note everytime just to say hi, thanxs and humanize the connection. This was their response:
"Your direct message was received but we do NOT read DMs for this account. If you do want to contact us via Twitter, use @$%^&*"

So, I went out of my way to make and effort and reach out to you in a tool that you are in and you tell me that my message doesn't count. Humph. You hurt my feelings. If you are going to participate, participate fully.

As you are managing your online presence, think about the way people reach out to you and what kind of message you are sending. Do you have any examples like this? I'd love to hear them.