Six Awesomeness Tips for personal branding

Barney Stinson, Neal Patrick Harris' alter ego on How I Met Your Mother, is a confident womanizer who almost always wears a suit, likes girls with Daddy issues and is always willing to offer his opinion. He tends to be opportunistic and manipulative, and will attempt to manipulate a situation so that it goes his way.

Barney is highly competitive, and will take on "challenges" to complete outlandish tasks in order to prove his worth. Barney is equal parts proud and stubborn and attempts to stand by his word no matter what; in "I Heart NJ", for example, he refuses to put down his fist unless someone offers him a fist bump. By the end of the episode, he has said fist elevated and in a sling after struggling to keep his fist up throughout the episode.

Barney Stinson is a lesson in building and cultivating a strong personal brand.

"Personal branding" is a buzz phrase I hear almost daily. We all know it's important to have one, especially in a world where jobs can be hard to come by. In the job search a strong personal brand can be your resume attention grabber. For those who have jobs, a personal brand is still important - to guide and expand your career path. A strong personal brand not only helps you, but it can also help the company you work for.

But how do you build your personal brand?

Here are Barney Stinson's Six Awesomeness Tips for building a personal brand and putting yourself in the social media spotlight:

Know the code and live by it. Barney lives by the "Bro Code", his own code of rules that govern life, friendship and womanizing, which includes a lemon law for blind dates. The Code helps Barney feel important to people around him and have disciples who follow his word.

What's your Code? When building your personal brand and your social network, you need to have a goal in mind. What do you want to accomplish? Are you hoping to champion a cause? Find a job? Become a thought-leader in your field? Make friends in your community? Your goals can be large or small - it's just best to really know what they are. So if you aren't sure, it might be smart to sit down and outline them.

An organized consistent place. Barney's occupation is unknown, though the company he works for was said to be the world's largest producer of the yellow fuzzy stuff on tennis balls. The company was involved in a hostile takeover with Goliath National Bank (GNB). After the takeover, Barney remains a powerful executive with the new company. Regardless of the occupation or company, Barney uses the same, overly organized office he has had since it was first shown during the show's first season.

The internet is a cluttered place, so it's important to keep your online identity consistent - just like Barney's office. Register the same user name on all networks you use and own your own domain! If someone loves you on Twitter, make sure you make it easy for them to find you everywhere else too! Once you find your tone, goals, etc. - keep them consistent as well! And if you have the extra cash, consider grabbing your own logo and keep all design elements consistent. Why not treat your personal brand just like the Goliath National Bank brand?

Suit Up online and off line. In the show's first episode Barney first utters his most recognizable phrase, "Suit up!", as he tells others to dress like him (Barney "thought of his suit as some kind of superhero outfit that separated him from the pack"). The phrase is repeated and often modified to fit whatever clothing Barney is wearing, such as "Flight suit up!" when telling Ted to be his wingman in Halloween or "Snow suit up!" when inviting Ted to build an igloo in Central Park, or when Ted is waiting for a women at a Halloween party " I even penguin suited up for you!" or "Slut up!" when Robin and Lily go to a prom.

Once you "Suit Up" for who you're going to be online - make sure that's consistent with whom you "Suit Up" as in real life! Transparency is equal to trust, and trust is the key to being successful. Think about it: if you're awesome online and terrible in real life, who really wants to be your friend? Just be who you are - online and off. And when you're beginning to build your personal brand, keep that in mind.

Love what you do and love yourself. Barney likes to punctuate his success and love of self by asking for high-fives in different variations. 'Relapse five', 'Phone five', 'Tiny five', 'Freeze-frame high-five', 'hypothetical five', 'wordplay five', 'arthritis five', 'self five', 'foot five', 'claw five', 'solemn low-five' and 'door five' are a few.

Use your personal branding efforts on line to punctuate the key components of who toy are and the values you represent - but not your ego.

Give, give and give some more. Barney's softer, generous side is not often apparent, but to build your following on social networks you must give your followers more than you are looking to receive back. Everyone wants to know "what's in it for me?" If the answer is "nothing," then why would they want to follow you? You will be successful in your personal brand by continuing to create value for others. So share interesting links promote other in your network and continue to give as much as you can!

Build and foster relationships. Social networking is all about relationships - and Barney's biggest social network is of his women. In the show's third season Barney was celebrating sleeping with his 200th woman, a fact even his friends find disgusting. Barney finally explains his conquests by relating that back in seventh grade, a classmate named Matthew Panning claimed to have slept with 100 girls and Barney bet he'd double that number one day.

You will reach your "200th" community around you by empowering others and giving as much as you can. Connect to people - in your industry and outside of it. Make friends and stay in touch! And when you can, try to attend tweet-ups, Social Media Club meetings, conferences, etc. to stay connected and meet some of your social media friends in real life!