Listen to Your Personal Brand
By Maria Elena Duron

Large company brands use several programs to "monitor" what said about their brand. What if you're a small brand? Or, even smaller - what if the brand is YOU?

1. Listen to how people introduce you.
This simple exercise will give you insight into what their perception is of you. What's worse is when they don't even know what to say so they hand the introduction "off to you". Then, you know that your brand is so muddled they cannot even speak it.

2. Set up Google Alerts, Tweet Beeps and Tweet Stats.
Know what's being said about you in written format, blogs, Twitter, comments and posts. Stats show you how well you engage others and know if you're contributing to the conversation as opposed to just blasting out information.

3. Ask three of your best contacts what they feel you bring to the table.
And, listen to what they say. Don't fill in the blanks for them. Steer clear of trying to fill the silence with possibilities or ideas.

4. Ask someone close to you - if they could change one thing about you, for the better, what would that be?
The key here it to stay silent. If you talk, you lose. This answer will reveal much about who you are and the areas in your brand that need work.

5. Ask for feedback.
Not just when you have something to sell or renew - just to let them know they're valued.

6. Set up your own personal brand listening site.
I don't market any of these yet I find these sites invaluable to 'listening' to what's being said virtually.

Netvibes.com: is a great tool to set up your own personal listening site. You can RSS any of the following site in and take the pulse of whose mentioning you.

Twitter Search: tracks who has mentioned my name, my company and also who has asked questions about topics or a company I’m associated with.
 
Backtweets.com: It captures conversations that people are having about you or your company that might not be readily found because of links.

The following sites combined give you great insights on who’s talking about you in forums and communities:
Boardreader.com
Omgili.com
SocialMention.com

You can use Google Blog Search to see if you're being chatted about in blogs, and, if you're chatted about in the news, Google News will help.

Maria Elena Duron is chief buzz officer, coach and speaker with buzz2bucks.com, a word of mouth firm that serves as the community manager around personal and business brands. She is author of the book "Mouth to Mouth Marketing" and the ebook "Social I.R.A." http://buzz2bucks.com/

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