Success depends in great part on brand; image is everything and popularity determines access to new markets and opportunities.

While most recognize the importance of monitoring what people are saying about their company, most responsible for website success do not take their brand promotion (including the products services offered up by the enterprise) to vertical markets with the same emphasis as they do with the brand they have created and invested so heavily in.

So how do you brand on a personal or project level? It's an obvious investment of time but start by creating content (you probably already do but don't realize it) for specific use in micro-campaigns for individual products, issues, events, problems, solutions - the list is limited only by your creativity. Make a video about how to use your product, take photos of your employees or coworkers, take screenshots of how your software works, and of course blog about everything that happens. Once you have the content, organizing and considering the effect of social bookmarking, you are populating the Web with the content that both establishes and support a brand.

Share this kind of content with photo sharing sites (the new Yahoo! Photos or its Flickr property), video portals and directories and on your own blog! Personal and project branding online is sustained only by commitment to it, but the dividends that will result can be motivation enough. While it's often realized only long term, it's an investment that everyone should consider if they are serious about branding online.