It tells the story of how I’ve used blogging, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter in my professional life over the past few years, and gives some tips on how people can apply some of those ideas in their careers.

Building your personal brand, whether it be in master data management and data governance, or in any other area of business or technology, is a matter of knowing your stuff, and letting other people get to know you and your voice. Having something to say in a distinctive way, adding some value, taking a stand, being a good source of information, being entertaining, being concise – all those things are helpful.

Today, there are so many sources of information – all literally at our fingertips. People are looking for someone that can help them cut to the chase – assess new technology, help them learn something new quickly, understand different schools of thought on complex topics, synthesize and present ideas from both business and technology to both management and technical audiences.

If you can do that, you’ll attract an audience.  Small at first, of course. But a blog, a LinkedIn profile, a Twitter and Facebook account, perhaps a YouTube channel – these cost almost nothing but your time. But the time you invest will pay tremendous dividends down the road. Not overnight, of course. And perhaps not in cash deposited to your bank account. But in credibility, in relationships, in marketing exposure, in reinforcing your message, in personal branding, in networking – the effects are undeniable.

I still meet people and companies who shrug social media off or who just “don’t get” blogging.  Corporations who are passing up an incredibly valuable and cost effective way to engage in dialog with their customers and potential customers. People who have a wealth of knowledge to share but don’t take the time. So much untapped potential in the world. But I see the growth figures mentioned in the article in Information Management, and I think people are starting to catch on. Our corporate blog gets three times the traffic as our web site. And we’ve had clients hire us specifically because they’ve read a number of the articles on the blog and have told us “we can tell that you know your stuff”.

So if anyone challenges you on the ROI of blogging or social media, send them to me – I’ve got a few good anecdotes I can tell them.

We’ve just launched a completely redesigned web site for Hub Solution Designs, Inc..

We evaluated several hosted website building tools, and ended up selecting SiteKreator. It had the right blend of features & functionality, and included reasonably priced site hosting in addition to an easy-to-use web site development tool.

We started redesigning the site on 01/03/08, and launched the new site today, 02/01/08.

Huge sigh of relief – it’s done, and we can move on to other things. Many thanks to Gaurav and Tim for their help in developing content and reviewing the new pages.

There are still some improvements we’d like to make, but the basic site is up, and we can add those improvements as we go.

Please let us know what you think …

Well, today was my first day back from vacation and it was another day of getting a lot accomplished in a short time.

The first order of business was to create a logo for Hub Solution Designs.

I started with a simple blueprint background graphic, then arranged the words “Hub” “Solution” and “Designs” vertically. I also wanted a strong, simple typographic element to the right of the words, so I ended up using the greater-than symbol “>”. I liked the way it looked, and liked the idea that adding Hub Solution Designs to a client’s project would make it “greater than” before. Also, the symbol somewhat shows the many-to-one process of integrating source systems into a central hub. Total elapsed time: about 2 hours.

The second order of business was to build (or at least start) the Hub Solution Designs web site. Since I had used Google Apps to create the domain and provide e-mail services, I thought I’d at least look at the Google Page Creator tool. I found it pretty easy to use, a little frustrating, but capable of some pretty slick features like adding code snippets to show my online status in Yahoo’s instant message tool and in Skype. So by the end of the day, I had a simple web site, a placeholder at least until I can get something more sophisticated built out. Total elapsed time: about 8 hours.

Not bad for a day’s work! Next – full court press on selling some services, and preparing the launch announcement / press release.

Well, a lot of great stuff happened today.

We invited some good friends over for dinner and a birthday party for their son, and during a brainstorming session before the meal, we came up with a company name I really liked: Hub Solution Designs.

The domain name “hubdesigns.com” was available, so I registered it after dinner and signed up for Google Apps and a WordPress blog while I was at it.

So now I have a name for the new consulting company, a domain name, a new work e-mail address and a blog.

The company will specialize in Master Data Management (MDM) and Customer Data Integration (CDI), capitalizing on my three years with D&B’s strategic alliance group and my twenty years of experience in enterprise technology and management consulting.

This blog will chronicle both the company’s development and my thoughts on the state-of-the-art in MDM and CDI.

Not bad for a little work on a Sunday night!