We need to first become what we aspire, a balanced and successful person and then communicate it to the world what we are and what values we stand for.

PERSONAL BRANDING is nothing but building of people as brands. In fact, the day we are born, we are branded or given nicknames. The formal names come later and consciously or unconsciously we are building our brand all the time. All our public actions, words (written and oral) and body language signals are contributing to the Brand 'You'.

If we are building our brand anyway whether we care to formally do it or not, why not control this process? Why let others decide our image, perception and associated values? Would you ever leave the upkeep of your personal chamber to your secretary completely and be at his/her mercy? Isn't our brand a similar and sacred space to be monitored and consciously planned?

Once you have decided to build your brand, you need to understand the basic concepts and tools. The major tools used for personal branding can be categorized into online and offline tools. Online tools consist of Linkedin, Apnacircle, Facebook, Personal Portal, Blog, Twitter, Email Newsletter, Quora, E-book and so on. Offline tools include book, writing columns, seminars and conferences, professional association events and mass media relations.

Online tools may be more suitable for both senior and middle management professionals while offline tools like books and mass media are more suitable for senior professionals due to their requirement of resources like time and money. How does one start and what should be the sequence, is the next question which comes to our mind? In my opinion the best starting point is Linkedin.

The first thing which we need to do is to network with the right people. Remember the golden rule that networking should always be done, when one does not need it. It takes time to build relationships and asking for even a small favor to a new contact can be embarrassing. The next step is to start communicating. The two main ways in which we can communicate is microblogging (shorter messages like on Facebook) and blogging/article writing (longer writing pieces such as on Blogs, Ezinearticles and so on). If you continue writing for a long time (1-2 years and retain the copyrights), you can even compile your articles into a book or monograph.

Since very few people have a natural flair for writing, it is good to concentrate on microblogging through Facebook Page or Twitter. Later when you have practiced the art of writing, you can start your own Blog. The next question which has probably started in your mind is, "Where is the time man". In any case I have very limited time for the family, how will I get time for personal branding and all the crap you are talking about?

Fine gentlemen and ladies, we need to improve our time management a little bit or find time saving tricks like using a laptop in the car (if you have a driver) or using your break periods to write. Once I developed a flair for writing, I would keep making notes on my mobile and later whenever I had little time, I just fed it into the relevant sites. What is more important is consistency, since brand-building is a long process. If you keep noticing the same person or the same photo for a long time, you are likely to read the articles/blogs of the person and if you keep reading the articles and microblogs for at least few months, you will start trusting the person in terms of knowledge, skills or expertise.

If we take time to trust people, people also take time to trust us.If you keep building on that trust through sharing your own knowledge (and others articles too), you will build your brand, drop by drop. How much time did it take to build your company or its products brands? Even if you used mass media in a big way, it would have at least taken few months. The way you created awareness, interest, desire and finally action (purchase) for your company's products, similarly you may start reaping the benefits of personal branding efforts to get promotion/new job/clients once you have created the awareness about you, moving to desire and finally action. I guarantee you that the rewards reaped will delight you and the delight may come from customers, boss, financial institution or a new job offer. So become what you aspire to be and communicate what you are. If you have slogged at it, who knows you may end up becoming a mini-celebrity. Best of luck.