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Personal Branding Interview: @BrianSolis How to Engage in the New Web

Brian Solis is one of my virtual mentors. I follow his work online in the new web and I think he is one of the smartest in the space. I had the pleasure of interviewing him and to talk briefly about his latest book, “Engage”

Brian Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New Media marketing and branding agency in Silicon Valley. Solis is globally recognized for his views and insights on the convergence of PR, Traditional Media and Social Media. Considered one of the original thought leaders who paved the way for Social Media and PR 2.0, Solis is co-founder of the Social Media Club and is an original member of the Media 2.0 Workgroup.

Nuggets from our Interview

  • Engage was written to help companies build, cultivate, and measure success in the new web.
  • Engage is a book designed to scale with you as you grow whether you are a small business, non-profit or being a part of an enterprise organization.”
  • Champions effect change.
  • Being an expert doesn’t engender change being a champion does

Quote

“Who I am today and who I want to be tomorrow are separated by the things I do today.” – Brian Solis

How to Follow Brian

Twitter: @BrianSolis

Blog: www.BrianSolis.com

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5-Personal Branding Lessons: Marvin Gaye’s Nation Anthem - 1983 NBA All-Star Game

It has been over 20-years since Marvin Gaye’s sang the national anthem at the 1983 NBA All-Star game in Los Angles, and it is chronicled as one of the greatest renditions ever. What lessons can be learned from watching the national anthem?

The 5-Personal Branding lessons

  • Integrate your Personal DNA – Personal Branding is about exposing people to what makes you special. Your image, your style, and your presence are centric to what draws your fans, your community, or your tribe to you as Seth Godin would say. Be who you are! You can set-up Fan pages, tweet all day, and have a million dollar website but if you don’t bring your personal DNA to the table you are wasting time and money.

  • Take Everything to the Next Level: No matter what it is that you do it can always be taken to the next level even it if is the national anthem which is a poem originally written by a 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key in 1814.

  • Mastery – Success is about mastery. Malcolm Gladwell calls it ‘10,000 hours’ and Jim Collins says, ‘Good is the Enemy of Great’ but personal branding is about consist delivery of excellence in a focused area.

  • Social Media isn’t about technology – Social Media as we call it today is not about the technology. The technology will change as it has from radio, to TV, to the Internet. Social media is another medium to communicate your compelling story.

  • Be Original – If you compare the greatest national anthems of all-time each artist brought something unique and original to the table. Be original and always bring your worldview to your art.

As a personal brand what impact will you make? Will people continue to talk about the legacy, the impact, and the mark you made 20-years after you are gone?

I was inspired to write this after reading a Facebook post from Marjora Carter.

Thanks Majora!!!

From ‘The Brand Man’

Leave your Mark!!!!

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Can Personal Branding be Defined by Numbers?

Can a personal brand be defined by numbers? Let’s talk about it. To set the tone for this blog post let’s talk numbers anything that you want to grow you need to measure. As a personal brand what are the numbers that you should be focused on?

I decided to compile a list of some of the top personal brands and people that I highly respect in terms of their passion and business acumen. Here are some of their numbers:

Facebook Friends/Fans

  • Joseph Jaffe – Founder of Crayon which was recently acquired by Powered and author of ‘Flip the Funnel. (3,252)
  • Rohit Bhargava – SVP Senior VP, Strategy & Marketing / Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence/Author of ‘Personality Not Included’ (2,300)
  • Gary Vaynerchuk – Author of ‘Crush It’ and Founder of ‘WineLibrary.TV’ – 46,723 – Rock Star Numbers
  • Lady Gaga – Musician (10,959,266) – Rock Star Numbers

Blog Comments

  • Seth Godin (www.SethGodin.com) - Author of ‘Linchpin’ and over dozen best selling books and runs the most read Marketing blog on the planet. There are no comments because Seth doesn’t allow you to leave any. (0)
  • Sarah Evans (www.PRSarahEvans.com) - She is the President of Chicago based public relations and new media consultancy Sevans Strategy and runs #journchat. (23 - Average number of comments per blog post in 2010)
  • Darren Rowse (www.ProBlogger.net) - Founder of ProBlogger.net and co-author of ‘Pro Blogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income’ ) – Rock Star Numbers

Twitter followers

  • Kevin Carroll (www.kevincarrollkatalyst.com) - Author of ‘Little Red Ball’ talks about the concept of play and is a internationally sought after speaker. (1,841)
  • Noah Brier (www.NoahBrier.com) - Works for the The Barbarian Group and created Brand Tags and was on one of Fast Company’s 2009 100 Most Creative People (3,964)
  • Tony Hsiesh (www.Zappos.com) - CEO of Zappos and Author of ‘Delivering Happiness’ (1,704,249) – Rock Star Numbers

Blog Post

  • Evan Williams – Founder of Twitter. Over the last year has three blog post to EVHead.com (3)
  • Guy Kawasaki – Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, Author of ‘Reality Check’ and 8-other books.
  • Majora Carter – From 2001 to 2008 she was Executive Director of the non-profit she founded: Sustainable South Bronx – where she pioneered green-collar job training and placement systems in one of the most environmentally and economically challenged parts of the US. This MacArthur “genius” is now president of her own economic consulting firm, a co-host on Sundance Channel’s The Green, and host of a new special public radio series called, The Promised Land. Spoke at TED. (10)
  • Emily Pilloton – Founder of Project H Design/Author of a Design Revolution: 100 Products That Empower People. Spoke at Pop Tech. Doesn’t have a blog. (0)
  • Chris Brogan – Founder of New Marketing Labs/Author of ‘Trust Agents’ (Blogs Like everyday) – Rock Star Numbers

Videos Uploaded in YouTube

  • Mitch Joel – Author of ‘Six Pixels of Separation’/Founder of Twist Image. Number of videos uploaded in YouTube (into the Twist Image & Mitch Joel Accounts). Runs an extremely popular audio podcast that you can subscribe to on iTunes. (6)
  • Chris Pirillo - Chris has been participating in Internet conversations since 1992, having launched Lockergnome as a content publishing network and building Gnomedex to be one of the blogosphere’s highly regarded conferences. (2,880) – Rock Star Numbers

E-Commerce Sites

  • Tom Peters - There are no financial transactions made on his site. Clicks Required to Make a Financial Transaction: (0)
  • Mark Victor Hansen - Author of ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’) – Rock Star Numbers

If you listen to the tips of all the ‘EXPERTS’ they will tell you that you need to: blog everyday (or regularly), you should do video, you should write a book, you should have an insane number of Twitter followers, you need 10’s of thousands of Facebook friends/fans and you should have an e-commerce site that you can make a financial transaction within three clicks.

Maybe I am looking at this issue beyond the numbers because I only have 5,300 Twitter followers and 3,280 Facebook friends. Maybe my opinion is jaded because I don’t have the big numbers, but my point is find the numbers that matter to your personal brand versus chasing others. My blog post is not about the numerical silver bullet for personal branding but that looking purely at numbers will not always accurately tell the story or the strength of the personal brand.

Let me know what numbers impact your personal brand?

(Note: The data for this blog post was as of 07/05/10)

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When Free Sucks: Google are you Listening? #WhenFreeSucks

I have been singing the praises of Google for years. I have talked about the brilliance of their FREE model. When Chris Anderson’s book, ‘FREE’ came out I purchased the book the first week. Whenever I needed to search for anything on the net I would always go to Google.com. Then the unthinkable happens, all of my videos were deleted from my YouTube account which is owned by Google. (Note: All of my videos were in total compliance with their terms of service.)

In an instant my YouTube account with over 13,000 views was deleted. In my mind Google is a great company so I knew they are going to respond swiftly when I contacted them about this simple mistake they made. I have entered questions into their online forum, emailed questions to YouTube, and called the Google office only to get totally ignored. I can’t begin to explain to you the level of frustration that I felt because I have gotten ZERO response from one of my favorite Brand. Over the years I have put a great deal of trust into ‘FREE’ resources like YouTube. I now understand there is always a tradeoff to ‘FREE’ and one of the main reasons is:

  • No Customer Service: Humans don’t typically service other humans that don’t pay.

The Impact to your Personal Brand and Dependence on Google

How dependent is your business on Google? I am really starting to re-think how I build my personal brand with Google and other FREE tools.

Some of the Many Google Services that I use

  • YouTube Videos
  • Gmail account emails
  • Google Docs
  • Google Calendars
  • Google Checkout

If your account is temporarily or permanently compromised what is the impact to your personal brand/business? I walked away from my FREE experience saying I would rather have a paid service that I could hold someone accountable.

Tips for Managing you Personal Brand with FREE

  • Own Your Hub: As a personal brand you need to own the main hub of their online activity. (i.e. www.ChrisBrogan.com)
  • Back-up Everything: Anything in FREE services needs to be backed up: videos, documents, important emails, etc.
  • Re-Evaluate your Dependence on FREE: Re-Evaluate everything that you have in FREE social networking sites or other FREE services you use.
  • Carefully Select Account Managers: If you have a third party managing any of your social network accounts be very careful. Your reputation can be compromised and your account suspended or deleted because of inappropriate activity (anything that violates their Terms of Service)

Blog Post on FREE Services and Frustrations

  • When Free Cost a Fortune - Mitch Joel
  • When Google Owns You – A New Chapter - Chris Brogan

I write this blog post to get you thinking and planning so that you can be proactive in managing your online personal brand. It is also validates to me that nothing in life is FREE there is always a cost. It is just a matter of who is paying, when they pay and how much. Does this mean to stop using Google or other FREE services like YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter? The answer is no but you have to manage your dependence.

Would you be willing to pay for a services that are currently FREE (i.e. YouTube) for customer service and the ability to hold someone accountable?

(Photo Credit: Google Logo Render by mark knol)

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Personal Branding Interview @PRSarahEvans: The Rise of Women in Social Media



If you haven’t heard of PR Sarah Evans you probably live under a rock, have no Internet access or use a rotary dial phone. Nevertheless, I had the opportunity to interview her recently and we discussed the topic of women in social media.

She is the President of Chicago based public relations and new media consultancy Sevans Strategy and runs #journchat. She is an influencer in the new media/pr communities and is a great personal branding case study. She has emerged as a leader in the social space but she isn’t an overnight success she has earned her stripes and put in the time.

I really wanted to share Sarah Evans story to inspire other women who believe they have a message that the world needs to hear. One of the great things that I like about Sarah’s story is that she has turned her passion into a career/profit.

Earlier this year she was featured in Vanity Fair with a list of other influential women in social media, which obviously has tremendously impacted her business. The flip side of this story is that Sarah received some negative feedback from some of her peers about the article since it didn’t appropriately reflect women in tech or show a diverse perspective. After talking with Sarah it showed me her depth as a person as she tackled the situation head on when confronted with those facts and addressed the valid concerns with some of those same peers.

#journchat

Sarah Evans is the originator of Twitter Chats. She launched #journchat in December 2008 which has hosted CNN and will host NBC News later this year

How to Follow Sarah Evans

There are a million ways to follow Sarah online I have listed some of the main ways below.

Twitter: @PRSarahEvans
Blog: www.PRSarahEvans.com
Twitter Chat: #journchat (Monday’s 7:30pm-10:00pm CST)

For Other Influential Women in Social Media

Check out my Twitter List of Influential Women in Social Media:

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