How to Develop Your Personal Brand Using Google Buzz

There’s a new kid on the block of Social Media Networks, and it is not a small newcomer, but a giant. Google Buzz is the name and it has a huge user base since it is connected to Gmail. It just launched last Tuesday and it already has more than 160,000 posts and comments each hour.

So how can Google Buzz impact your Personal Brand?

Keep your Google Profile updated

In my opinion, Google Profile has been a bit disconnected with no clear purpose other than SEO up until now. Your Google Profile is also your Buzz Profile, so if someone searches for you on Google Buzz, they might end up reading your Google Profile as well. Check out this post by my fellow writer Ryan Rancatore on how to Create The Perfect Google Profile In 7 Steps to optimize your Buzz searchability.

Another part of the Google Profile is how your social search results appears. Take a look at here to see how the sites listed in Google Profile affect your social search content (you have to be signed in to Google to see the results).

Find people in your industry, and follow them

Just like on Twitter, you can follow the key opinion leaders of your industry to learn from them and also follow companies or employees of companies that you are interested in working for. Add insightful comments to their content. In the early days it is easier to stand out because the active user base is small, so make a splash now! It shouldn’t take too much effort to get them to follow you, at least not in the beginning.

Showcase your skills

To get followed and maintain your follower base, create useful and interesting blog articles, photos, videos and other content that are of interest to your industry and future employer or client. Google Buzz has multimedia support built-in, so use it!

I think it is important to look back on one’s core values every now and then, and reflect on how you have defined the way you differentiate yourself from everyone else. Let that show in the way you post and communicate on the different social networks.

Keep focused

With an increasing number of social networks, it is vital to make sure that you maintain and evolve as necessary your strategy for how to act in the social media landscape. There is a risk that you and your message may get diluted if working in too many channels at the same time.

To make sure that you know what is being said about you in different online channels, you should set up search profiles. Google Alerts is quite good, but has serious limitations in reliability (especially for non-English sources). If you have basic programming knowledge I would recommend using Yahoo pipes! to make a specific search profile for your needs. Or, you can sign up for the beta test of the Rynge Media Monitor a tool which will continuously monitor several key phrases from a variety of sources.

Add Google Buzz to your set of Social Media Icons

On your webpage, blog, resume etc., add a Google Buzz icon together with LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter if you are planing to use the new service.

For more information on how to use Google Buzz, have a look at this guide.

In what ways do you think Google buzz can be used to market your personal brand? How are you using it now, and what’s your plan going forward?  If you are not using it, why is that?

If you are a Gmail user, follow me on Google Buzz.