Personal videos that relate to your brand’s platform can be extremely helpful in developing your personal brand. If you’re going to start posting videos, I recommend using Vimeo.com. I’ve found Vimeo to provide a very clean, fresh design and great user experience.

Also, for about $60/yr you can purchase Vimeo Plus which gives you some great features like embedding in HD and controlling what sites your videos can be viewed on.

In today’s online communication, the “cool” thing is to be negative. If you do a search on Twitter for the popular #fail tag, you’ll see countless statements observing the failures of organizations and products.

Pointing out the bad is always easy (and many times valuable). The question, though, is if you want your personal brand to be What’s Wrong in the World.

My observation is that being a critique may earn you points on the coolness scale, but often doesn’t give you points on the Know, Like, Trust scale.

Not to say you shouldn’t point out what’s not working (and even twitter about it), just be mindful of the overall brand you’re putting out there.

If anyone has reached the Personal Branding tipping point it’s Gary Vaynerchuck. Even though he built a hugely successful multi-million dollar company, his name was virtually unknown for a long while. Since then, though, his personal brand has gone from zero to the weight of a 7 figure book deal in about two years.

When I met Gary at the Future of Web Apps Conference in Miami this Winter, I asked him about his attitude that took him from zero to star: I’ll post that later. Right now I want to highlight something he said in his keynote there.

Gary said something to the effect of: “When did I reach my tipping point? I reached my tipping point when I had two viewers watching my show.”

While I’m sure everyone feels this way to one degree or another, I know that it’s way too easy for driven entrepreneurs to only appreciate what feels Big.

• We don’t take our businesses as serious as we should unless the revenue reaches a certain “respectable point”.
• We treat a few users listening to us as nothing in search for thousands (or millions).

The fact is, one person taking the time to read, listen, or watch what you have to say is huge, and you have a responsibility to those people. If you’re only focused on the thousands, you’ll probably never get there.

It’s said well to be “faithful with the little things”. That’s something we entrepreneurs need to take to heart.

Thanks for listening - really, thanks.

Create a Google Profile at google.com/profiles . Hurry to get your name before someone else does!

A key to growing your personal brand online is having a good picture ready to use for your social networking profiles. Here are a few tips to help:

1. Intentional Picture. If you have a digital camera and a friend then all you’re lacking is taking the time and effort to get a few good shots of just you. They don’t have to be stuffy or have a pretty curtain background, just good shots that have a look that fits you.

2. Upper Body. In general, crop the picture if needed in order for your upper body (mainly shoulders & up) to be the focus.

3. Keep Handy. Keep the picture(s) handy in a folder on your computer so you can easily access them when creating new profiles.

4. Standard. In general, use the same picture or two for most of your profiles. This also helps you define a general look that defines your brand.

5. Genuine. Make sure the picture actually looks like you. When you meet someone online, they should be able to recognize you in person.

6. Just Do It. Don’t wait for a perfect picture. The important thing is to get a picture out there that follows the tips above and represents brand you.

Have any tips of your own? Help us out and comment below.

It’s easy to think that personal branding is about ourself … it’s not. (video below - 1:19)