There are many small steps you can take to fine tune your brand. One of those items are your email address. Why should you have to worry about a personal email address? You want to display professionalism and competency in your career, it is time to get rid of your @gmail.com and use your own domain. This will set you apart and give you instant credibility you deserve.

It’s also time to start thinking about your email signature. A signature should be personal and unique, and you could think of it as a virtual business card with a call to action. Just like a business card, it should be up to date and attractive. It will show your recipient that you are really interested in what you do.

Now it’s time to show off your new email address and signature and get discovered. From blogging to podcasting, you want your voice to be heard and let your material attract your audience.

Your email. First off, be sure that you have a professional email address. Do NOT use @gmail or @yahoo. Please use a custom domain. Whether it’s your work email or a personal one that is your name. Even if you don’t have your own business, that’s fine, use your school address or buy your name domain and use that.

Your Signature in your email.

Create a custom signature that helps people find out more. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to create and how many people actually click on that. Think about what you want them to do and include it in your email signature.

Personal Blog – this is great to allow people a peak behind the curtains. It’s the EASIEST way to help others connect with you as a person.

Writing articles for newspapers/HuffingtonPost – This is also a great way to reach many people at one time. Be sure you are injecting personality into these articles. But can you think of a few different topics you could write on and pitch it to your local magazine/newspapers or even national magazines/newspapers or something like that Huffington Post?

This weeks homework assignment is to visit your email signature, and blog and think of ways to include personality and strategy into those pieces.