10 steps to building and managing your personal brand

4. Claim your social media profiles and your personalized URL on LinkedIn. Have you protected yourself from cyber-squatters on your social media profiles? To ensure you secure your desired username or vanity site first, visit namechk.com to see whether it is available. You should also secure your personalized URL on LinkedIn. It may worth creating a Google+ account to ensure that you appear on the right-hand column of search results. You might want to create a Twitter account to share helpful information with others. I found that my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts show up near the top of my search results, because I share a lot of articles through these networks. 5. Buy your own domain name (even if you are not using it yet). Do you own the URL of your name? If not, you should secure it at a website registrar like godaddy.com or networksolutions.com. You may want to read 3 reasons why buying a domain name for your child is a good idea. By owning your own domain name, you can be sure that if you use that URL, you will rank high in search results. If you don’t own your name, you are leaving your online reputation in the hands of the unknown. Owning your domain name costs around $10 to $15 a year.