If you're planning on publishing, it's important to establish a unique author/researcher ID. ORCID is an open, non-profit, interdisciplinary, global initiative that provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognized.
Register for your ID on the ORCID website. It can also be linked to your Scopus Author ID or ResearcherID.
Google Scholar Profiles allow you to keep track of your academic publications, see who is citing them, and calculate several citation metrics. You can also make your profile public, so that it may appear in Google Scholar results when people search for your name.
The Claim your Google Scholar Profile guide from the University of Minnesota offers step-by-step instructions to set up your profile.
You may be asked to demonstrate the impact of your work for the purposes of grant applications, progress reports and renewals, or performance reviews, tenure, and promotion.
Visit Hirsh Library's Measuring Research Impact guide for tools to measure author impact or to measure the impact of one of your articles.
The guide also offer resources for finding Altmetrics data for your research.