Determine Who You Are

Knowing exactly who you are, what you do, what industries and values you represent is the most important aspect of brand building. If you are, like I, a blogger and digital marketing expert, make sure that you act like it. You can’t use your social media profile to talk about cosmetics or sports. It is OK to occasionally have some opinions on topics that are relevant to the world (maybe politics) but it also takes risks with it. If people disagree with you, you may lose followers or contributors. So it is best to keep things professional!
Posting expert comments, suggestions and ideas makes you look professional and people will follow. That leads us to our next step.

Building a community

You can make a terrible mistake by running around the web trying to sell yourself or your products, but it will be a difficult task without a good, supporting community behind you. Investing time (even some money) into building loyal community that will follow and support you through various social media is crucial for branding yourself. Power of influencers is very important in social media marketing world, so make sure you get some of them on your side. Favors go a long way in social media world so you don’t have to get money for everything you do. Doing something for free can be seen as a favor and one day be returned.

10 Ways to Boost Brand Awareness

Sources and Value

Find out which media sources your audience reads, listens to or watches, research the types of content they provide and locate the exact gatekeeper to pitch. You or your publicist can also e-mail journalists and editors in response to one of their articles, with a note that you are available to comment on future articles. If and when a journalist e-mails or calls you for an interview, respond with haste because they are typically on deadline for their stories. Answer their questions thoroughly, while making sure that you get your message across.

How to Brand Yourself: An Introduction by Dan Schawbel

Feedbacks

Use your immediate environment to get feedback on what you do. You may be the expert but thinking outside the box is always a good idea. Also, look for advice from professionals that are doing good self-branding as they are often willing to help others who only ask for a quick tip, not a big favor.

These days, branding the company you work for isn't enough. The world wants to hear what you have to say as a professional within a company. The work involved in uncovering your brand may seem daunting, but your efforts can benefit you immeasurably. Your unique brand message differentiates the best you have to offer, gives a good indication of what you’re like to work with, and shows how you make things happen.