Building a personal brand is an important thing for most of us in the business world. It becomes doubly important if you are a freelancer or running your own company. The problem with building a consistent brand online that reflects what you are doing in the real world is that if you’re busy doing great things in the real world, then there isn’t a lot of time for communicating that message online.

This, of course, is somewhat of a catch-22 because without effectively building your personal brand online, you are limiting the reach that your “real-world” projects will have. Chris Brogan wrote a great post outlining 19 presence management chores you could do every day, the keyword being, “could,” even though you SHOULD be doing all of them. Of course, finding the time to actually do all 19 of Chris’ suggested chores takes up a lot of time, here’s how I try and get through them while I’m on the go:

Building your personal brand on Facebook, Twitter and the web using the iPhone

In the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, today, I was quoted as saying, “I have my iPhone synced with Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and Google Reader, and while I’m sitting having coffee on the patio, over the course of an hour I will browse 200 to 500 blogs.”

This is true. While my RSS reader of choice is Google Reader, I’m not always in front of a computer, but I always have my phone on me. So, I subscribe to a bunch of blogs that relate to marketing, video production, social media, new technology, public relations, etc. and throw them all into Google Reader.

Then, with the help of an iPhone application called, Byline, I am able to sync my Google Reader account with Byline’s RSS reader. Thus, allowing me to view all of the blogs I am subscribed to on my iPhone.

But, how does that help me build my personal brand? Well, as I read (see. Skim) through hundreds of blog posts each day, I add the interesting posts to my Google Reader “Shared Posts” feed. Because Byline syncs with Google Reader, this is as simple as tapping the share button. Now, I have my “Shared Posts” feed synced with Twitter using Twitterfeed, so that anything I share is posted to my Twitter account. Of course, my Twitter account is synced with my Facebook account, so the shared post goes into my Facebook newsfeed, as well.

What this allows me to do throughout my day is share interesting content with my online communities. Given that the majority of my followers share many of the same interests as I do, I am providing value to them by pointing them to interesting content. Over time, they will begin to trust my judgment more and more and see me as a thought-leader, pointing them to all that is interesting on the web. It’s also much more likely that they will click on the links I post to my own blog posts. Every time I post something new, I’m getting face time with my community, which is very important.

Twitter

In addition to sharing blog posts I find interesting, I use Twitter to ask my community questions and receive feedback and to comment on the curiosities I find around me from time to time. My iPhone application of choice (for the time-being) is TwitterFon and I use it to monitor, respond and engage my Twitter community throughout my day.

I think that it is important to provide some kind of value to your community any time you post anything to the web, so even though I do post mundane things, like what I’m having for dinner, occasionally, I try to keep things engaging by phrasing it in a way that is either humorous, thought-provoking or encourages a response. (i.e. “Eating a yummy Lean Pocket. Did you know these only have 280 calories!? That’s less than a 6-inch sub at Subway!”)

Facebook

The Facebook iPhone application is amazing and allows you do do almost anything you need to do on Facebook. When the new Facebook application comes out, you’ll be able to do it all.

Blogging on the iPhone

Now, for long posts, this is not ideal, but the Wordpress application for the iPhone does make it very easy to update and post to your blog and I have been known to write many a post on my iPhone, while sitting in a waiting room or down by the pool. Using Twitterfeed, you can automatically have your newly written posts sent to Twitter to get the word out. Now, you can blog all day long!

Engaging Your Online Community

The real take-away, here, is that building a strong presence and rapport with your online community is a full-time job. But, by using some of the tricks above, you can provide your community with valuable content and insight no matter where you are and keep your brand in front of them all day long.

How do you manage and engage your online communities? How are you building your online brand? What would you add to this post?