Personal marketing involves the consistent sharing of valuable information that consistently (i) attracts your ideal clients; positions you as a expert and leading authority; and  (iii) keeps you on the minds of influencers and decision makers in your industry.   The combination of these three elements leads to systemically attracting new business opportunities and closing deals faster.

 Ready to create a powerful and profitable personal marketing program?  Here are my favorite 21 ways to get started:

1. Get clear about what you want to accomplish with your personal marketing actions.  Write it down.
2. Create a list of the types of people you want to reach though your personal marketing outreach.  Use this list to create and write down your target audience profile.
3. Get clear about what types of conversations you can have with your target audience to make your goals a reality.
4. Select a standard photo and use it on all of your social networks.  This helps to build visual brand recognition.  Create a fully optimized personal LinkedIn profile at http://LinkedIn.com  
5. Create a fully optimized Google profile at http://Google.com/profile.
6. Create a “public profile” Facebook page at http://Facebook.com/page to share your original content and valuable content shared by others.
7. Create a YouTube channel at http://YouTube.com and use it to let your target audience know about interesting and valuable content.  You can create a valuable YouTube channel by clicking the “favorite” link for great videos you want others to see.
8. Create a Twitter account at http://Twitter.com and use it to share information about industry events, your business events and to “retweet” great information shared by members of your online community.
9. Create a Flick account at http://Flickr.com and use it to share pictures of you with industry thought-leaders, networking at industry conferences and volunteering for nonprofits and charities.
10. Create a custom URL for your Flickr account.  This makes it easy to share this page with your network.   You can see an example of this at http://Flickr.com/upwardaction.
11. Optimize your Flickr account by adding your name, geographic location and using the “describe yourself” section write about your business and services.  Your business description should contain keywords and share benefits, not features, of engaging your business.
12. Optimize your Flickr account by uploading an engaging “buddy icon.”  This can be a personal photo or your logo.
13. When using Flickr, tag your photo with keywords to make it easy for people and search engines to find your photos during a search.
14. When uploading photos on Flickr, create keyword rich titles to help people and search engines find you.  Confused about the appropriate title for your photo?  Chose a combination of the following:  your name; business name; thought-leaders featured in the photo; location where the photo was taken; event where the photo was taken; and/or services featured in the photo.
15. When actively using Flickr to power-up your personal marketing, organize your photos into groups.  This makes it easy for your target audience to learn a lot from your photos in a very short amount of time.
16. Use Google Plus to build relationships and drive traffic to your website or blog.
17. Use an email management software to build and management an online database of your friends, family, colleagues, clients and other interested persons.
18. Create lists in your email management system for similar groups of people who are on your list and send a monthly email to each group with an article or business update that is likely to be of interest to each group.
19. Join Meetup.com at http://meetup.com and search for local groups related to your business services areas or profession.
20. Use Meetup.com to publicize your upcoming workshops and seminars.
21. Increase your visibility by “sponsoring” a local meetup that is popular with people who fit your ideal client profile.  Sponsorship can range from paying the monthly site fee to providing refreshments at meetings.