How do you manage your personal brand? Do you actively steer how others perceive you?

For those who have embraced the world of social media, the opportunities to make yourself visible are legion – from LinkedIn to Facebook, from Twitter to StumbleUpon and WordPress to a gazillion other broadcasting tools.

Vickie Elmer made some interesting observations on Forbes.com last week about the dangers of personal over branding – recommending a PR mantra of ‘little and well’ versus the danger of overkill.

In agreeing with Vickie, I would add something else…

Don’t over emphasise online tools when developing the brand of you

Just look at the recent Irish Presidential race.

By any standards, Sean Gallagher ran a heck of an online campaign – and nearly got elected on the back of it.

He went from being a media personality on Dragon’s Den with no political credentials and 4% support at the start of the race to an odds on favourite with days to go to the poll.

His preparation and social media strategy was nothing short of outstanding, even brilliant.

But, it wasn’t enough…

He stumbled when ambushed in the last TV debate and never recovered. A few days (never mind a week) can be a long time in politics.

Sean’s mistake was that he wasn’t seasoned or media savvy enough in combative live communication to cope with a curve ball.

And there’s a lesson in this for all of us.

Your personal brand is linked directly to others’ experiences and exposure to you; placing too much reliance on online exposure limits how others perceive you.

Why?

It’s necessarily static, typically presenting a very limited window into your personality. And in Sean’s case (or yours), people tend to give more weight to what they see and hear of you in the real world than what they may see through online sound bites.

Use offline opportunities to develop more credibility online

As I said in a previous blog post , think about public speaking opportunities as a chance to:

• Gain attention from audiences you may want to influence
• Demonstrate why your knowledge will help them achieve their objectives
• Cultivate perceived credibility for you, your ideas and your business

But here’s the challenge: how do you marry your online and offline messages to develop a unified personal brand?

What mistakes do you see others making? Are you finding your voice offline?