We all live in a global village in a community that is not bound by geography but trust, where Social Media and social sharing is redefining relationships. Our network consist of a mix of friends that we know in real life and E-quaintances that we have connected with online. It is a common occurrence to strike up a conversion with someone at an event and say aren’t we Facebook friends.

Connected World

In this connected world the line is blurring between the digital and real, professional and personal, public and private. We now spend more time in social networks then we do on email, according to Nielsen it consumes 22.7% of our online activity. This equates to approximately 5 hours per day, which means it is impacting our relationships and decisions. The digital landscape is changing the way we consume our news, build relationships, purchase products, and how we engage in conversations, ‘In the Real World.’

Today we can talk to brands directly online (20% of the tweets mention specific brand names.) When we go to restaurants we can check-in online with location based social networks like Foursquare. We can share with our network where we are eating and our dining experience in real-time.

Building Trust

Let me be clear nothing in the world will ever beat face-to-face interaction. Social Networks however have become a very powerful tool in building trust in an attention-based economy. One of the most valuable currencies that we have is trust and those that are digitally savvy can leverage the power of social networks to build genuine relationships in the real world.

The ability to view a person’s status updates in their social network, their tweets and their online activity tells a lot about their behavior and who they are as a person. Engaging in conversations in social networks has the ability to increase the speed of transactions in developing relationships, doing a business deal, or getting to know someone.

In the final analysis in the digital world that we live in it is not about the Technology. As you look to navigate life on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and in other social networks remember the basics. You are having a conversation, you are connecting with people. How would you talk to someone face to face? Would you walk up to someone for the first time and say hey follow me and by the way would you by this product?

Tips to Remember

1. Talk to people online like you would if you were face to face.

2. Be Authentic

3. Relationships are fragile so treat them with care.

4. Remember that everybody has ulterior motives just make sure your building relationships that are mutually beneficial.

5. Relationships are not measured in quantity but quality.

Remember with every tweet, status update, comment, blog post and face-to face interaction you are either building or tearing down relationships.

I recently read an article by Matt Mullenweg (founder of WordPress), which many people like Seth Godin have commented on, that was pretty much dead on when it comes to delivering a product. Here is an excerpt:

Usage is like oxygen for ideas – You can never fully anticipate how an audience is going to react to something you‘ve created until it’s out there. That means every moment you’re working on something without it being in the public it‘s actually dying, deprived of the oxygen of the real world.

I think this applies to personal branding.

Although there are a bunch of us that understand the importance of personal branding, there are droves of our peers out there that are not completely sold on the concept. I believe MOST of that has to do with confidence. What if I am not good enough? What if I am not consistent and compelling? People take themselves right out of the game.

There is a unique paradox in personal branding about being consistent and frequent. I think this is is VERY true, but I do think its more important to be ON TIME, than consistent and frequent. Matt in his article talked about Apple and WordPress dealing with the challenges of delivering product. Apple products many times when released, albeit with ingenuity and gargantuan hype, at times fall short of what pundits say “the customer actually wants.” Much of that is due to the the fact that their philosophy is to deliver great product and develop it to maturity while it is in the market. I believe Apple’s reasoning for this thought process is that they feel many people don’t completely know what they want in a product until they start using it. I tend to agree.

This is the same way with personal branding. Many of us didn’t know what our personal brand was, until we started developing one.

Deliver your brand.

If you know someone who is discouraged by the enormous task of maintaining a personal brand, tell them they have lost until they deliver their brand. You don’t know what you are made of until you get in the game (sports analogy).

I believe it is very important to give your brand oxygen, and if you don’t know what your brand is yet, dig deep inside your heart and create some prototypes. You know the core you, but allow your audience to guide you to where you need to be.

P.S. Deliver Magazine is a great source of information for marketers and small business owners.

What is an iPad? Is it an oversized iPhone? Is it a MacBook Pro with fewer features? I listen to the critics and the pundits talk about the iPad and weigh in and give their opinion.

What is the iPad to Me

“The iPad is not a tool but a ball of Clay. Creative Thinkers will re-imagine uses for the iPad and disrupt industries.”

- Hajj E. Flemings -Personal Brand Strategist

The iPad is the latest is a series of disruptive products produced by Apple: iPod, iPhone, and now the iPad. The iPad is set to disrupt the media, publishing, entertainment and business industries.

I am writing this blog post as an owner and practitioners of the iPad. I have read quite a few posts from people suggesting the top apps and it is clear to me that they don’t own an iPad or have used it for any period of time. ( I will now get off my soap box : )

As a personal brand, entrepreneur, and consultant I have found that it helps me to manage my business in very creative and efficient ways. Listed below are the 22-apps that I have used and believe are critical business use.

Productivity

1. Time Master – Time Master is a great time management app that is great for consultants, entrepreneurs, attorneys, and contractors. This app allows you to track time and expenses and export billing to excel. You have the ability to add modules that will allow you to export to Quickbooks.

2. Sound Note – Sound Note is an app that allows you to take written notes and record audio notes and save them as M4A format. The app allows you to track what you were typing and drawing while recording the audio.

3. Text Plus – The Text Plus iPad app allows you to send text messages from your iPad. This app is great to use when you are in meetings and you need to respond to text message or send one and it isn’t appropriate to text from your phone.

4. Task Pro – Task PRO is a powerful, flexible and elegant task management application for the iPad. It fully supports sub-tasking, a powerful mechanism that gives you complete control over managing and organizing your tasks. It’s very simple and intuitive to use. You can easily create simple Todo list, or have multiple complex projects side by side.

5. WebEx – The Webex app allows you to access WebEx meetings on your iPad, wherever you are! This app gives you full meeting experience with simultaneous data and audio.

6. GotoMeeting – The GoToMeeting app is an easy way to attend online meetings – and now you can take it to go! View slide presentations, design mockups, spreadsheets, reports – whatever meeting presenters choose to share on-screen.

7. Desktop Connect – The Desktop Connect app allows fast, full-featured desktop viewing. View and control Windows, Mac OSX and Linux computers as if you were sitting in front of them, or observe others as if you were watching over their shoulder. This app allows you view webistes with Adobe Flash.

8. iThoughts HD (Mind Mapping) - iThoughtsHD is a mindmapping app that will import and export mindmaps to and from many of the most popular desktop mindmap applications such as Freemind, XMind, Novamind, MindManager, MindView, iMindmap and PDFs.

Storage

9. Dropbox – Dropbox is an app that allows you to sync, and, share files online. Great for storing files for your business and projects that you are working on. Great for businesses that need to have multi-member teams access to files.

10. Box.net – Box.net is an app that allows you to sync, and, share files online. Great for storing files for your business and projects that you are working on. Great for businesses that need to have multi-member teams access to files.

11. Mobile Me – MobileMe is an app that allows you to automatically pushes new email, contacts, and calendar events to your iPhone, Mac, and PC. So your devices always stay in perfect sync. MobileMe is also great for storing files on a cloud.

12. Google Mobile Apps – Google Mobile app allows you to access Google search and Google apps like Docs, Calendar and Gmail. If you view docs in desktop version you have the ability to edit docs.

Finance

13. Square – Square is an app that allows you to accept credit card payments anywhere on your iPad without having a credit card merchant account. All you need is to plug in the free credit card reader into the headphone jack to authorize payments out of the office.

Documents/Presentations

14. Office 2 HD – Office2 HD supports creation and editing of Word and Excel files. It does support Word and Excel import and export though, unlike the iWork suite. Office HD 2 supports Google Docs, Box.net, Dropbox, iDisk, and SugarSync online storage services.

15. Docs2Go – Documents to Go is a cloud file support app that allows you to view, import, and export: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. Documents To Go supports Google Docs, Box.net, Dropbox, iDisk, and SugarSync online storage services.

16. Evernote – Evernote is a great app to capture notes, text, photos using your computer, phone, and the web. Keeping notes from meetings, research on various topics.

17. Keynote – Keynote is one of the apps form the iWork suite. This presentation application on the iPad allows you to send your presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint or PDF format to anyone via Mail or iWork.com public beta, or copy it to your MobileMe iDisk, your Mac or PC, or to the web using WebDAV.

18. Sign my Pad - Sign My Pad is an iPad PDF signature app that allows you to download PDF files modify them with: text, a radio button or checkbox, the date and your signature. This app allows you to save time in scanning, faxing, and gives you the ability to sign important documents on the go.

Social Networking

19. Tweetdeck – The Tweetdeck iPad app allows you to access, organize, and manage your Twitter accounts and is great for tweeting on the go.

20. Twitter – The Twitter iPad app allows you to access, organize, and manage your Twitter accounts and is great for tweeting on the go.

I hope you found this blog post helpful. Enjoy your iPad.

Building your brand is a continuous process that will last you your entire lifetime and there are countless ways that you can build and communicate your personal brand both online and in-person.

However, to get you started, I have put together what I’d like to consider a SparkNotes guide for establishing your brand and credibility in today’s career marketplace in 3 easy steps:

1. Get active and get visible online and offline:

If no one meets you or sees you, it won’t matter how strong your personal brand is. Therefore, it is critical that you get both your name and yourself in front of your target audience. Here are some ways to increase your visibility:

o Create a LinkedIn profile and follow the suggested steps to complete your profile 100%, making sure you include your personal brand and pitch in your subtitle and summary sections

o Create a Google account and profile for improved search engine optimization

o Include your personal brand on your resume, cover letter, business cards, email signature, voicemail message and across your other social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook

o Consider creating a personal website or blog site where you can store all of your professional information, including experience, education, skills, honors, entrepreneurial efforts and more

o Join associations or networking groups within your industry, both online and offline, and try attending their events to meet new contacts and build your target network. Be sure to share your personal brand with those new contacts you meet

o Conduct informational interviews with contacts in your target industry or companies (whether or not you’re seeking a job) and share your personal brand with them in your introductions

2. Offer consistent value:

Make sure that everything you contribute is valuable to those with whom you share it and also relevant to and supportive of your personal brand. Consistency is key, for the more consistent all of your own marketing efforts are both online and offline, the more powerful and memorable your personal brand impression will be on all current and prospective stakeholders in your career. Here are some ways you can start contributing value on a daily or weekly basis:

o Tweets

o Comments on other blog posts

o Blog articles or articles for print publications

o Discussions in LinkedIn Groups or in other forums

o Advice via LinkedIn Answers and other forums

o Book or product reviews

3. Develop thought leadership:

As you grow the quantity, quality and uniqueness of your contributions, you may be increasingly considered as an industry thought leader. Here are some ways to support and even expedite your rise to thought leadership:

o Start your own blog with a unique POV on your industry/area of interest

o Found a company with relevant and valuable products/services/resources for the industry

o Publish and offer print and/or electronic publications

o Get quoted in the media by joining HARO (HelpaReporter.com) and contributing advice, experiences and insights to writers and journalists seeking expert sources

o Find ways to bring fellow industry thought leaders together on a project or at an event

o Find ways to contribute to the projects or events of fellow industry experts

o Get recommended on LinkedIn and any other networks where you or your offerings are available and/or collect and display testimonials from customers, clients and partners

Chris Perry, MBA is a Gen Y brand and marketing “generator,” a career search and personal branding expert and the founder of Career Rocketeer and Launchpad.

What can we learn from negative campaign ads? We can clearly see the mentality of our society. A society that lacks accountability, that blames others for things gone wrong versus one of introspection that is hardwired with a moral compass. As the campaign season has come and gone (November 2nd) this fall I wanted to reflect on the impact of negative campaign ads and personal branding.

The Influence

The influence of negative campaign ads reaches beyond politics and the campaigns that a particular candidate is running. Let’s break it down. A candidate that develops a negative campaign ad is basically telling you he/she is incapable of winning the political race with a safe margin without running the ads and there is data to support that. Any candidate that can win a political race without negative ads will run clean campaign ads, period.

Good to Great (Level 5 Leaders) - They take responsibility when something goes wrong and deflects the praise to their employees when things go right.

The Pink Elephant in the Room

It is easy to find fault with someone else and to point out their inefficiencies. It is much harder to focus internally on what value you bring to the table, communicate your true expertise, and give clear examples of how you have solved problems that benefit people other than yourself.

I look at personal branding through a different len/worldview. Personal branding is more than who you are between 9am-5pm. At it’s core personal branding it is driven by your value system. There hs been no other point of time in history when a person has had more control over their career than today with the invention of the internet and the real-time web.

As a personal brand it is time to lose the negative ad campaign mentality. Your career or life in reality are a reflection of your choices and decisions. Your career path is not the responsibility of your supervisor to mentor you, nor is their annual review of your job performance the reason for your annual salary. It isn’t HR responsibilities to put you on the career fast track. If you don’t like your reality you can change it by doing something about it by running your own clean campaign ads. Let potential employers know why they should vote for (hire you), market your value and track record of being a proven leader. Quite living an undervalued life!

Note: The video that I have included has absolutely nothing to do with negative campaign ads I prodcued it two years ago and I thought you would enjoy it.

I am your personal brand strategist Hajj Flemings and I approve this message.

I watched a very interesting piece on 60-Minutes this week called the 99’ers. The term 99’ers is based around the idea of people who have been receiving unemployment checks for 99-weeks. These individuals have received an extension of their unemployment benefits to 99-weeks which has now been exhausted. A lot of the people in this situation are older individuals that have to re-invent themselves and creatively tap their networks to identify new ideas for employment or revenue generation.

How do you build a network? Very carefully! No seriously your network is your NET Worth. The best time to start building your network was at least a year ago and more importantly before you needed it. You don’t know when you are going to need it so you should be in a consist state of growing your network. Growing your network doesn’t necessarily mean growing the quantity of followers. Growing your network could simply mean growing the quality of the relationships that will encourage people to act on your call to action.

Hash Tags

A hash tag is more than a cute word with a pound sign. A hash tag represents a community, a group of individuals that collectively share information, ideas and a common interest. Hash tags can focus on Twitter chats (#journchat or #mbachat) , social good causes (#charitywater), or news stories (#backchannel)

People that you collaborate with around a hash tag could become valuable members of your community or trusted mentors. There is rich intellectual capital that can be used to create new relationships

Online/Offline

This is probably the most powerful networking tool of them all. Nothing beats face-to-face. Building an online network is not about numbers but relationships and relationships thrive with face-to-face engagement. Versus just chasing numbers as you organically grow the quantity of your networks look to create offline interaction which is what strengthens your relationships and helps you to build your network with people that you are truly connected with.

Online/Offline Ex: @PRSarahEvans:

1.) Followed her in Twitter

2.) Meet her at SXSWi Conference

3.) Interviewed her and uploaded the YouTube Video (at SXSWi)

4.) She spoke at Brand Camp ’10

Now @PRSarahEvans was in my network prior to me attending SXSWi but the engagement online happened after I made a connection in the real world. Your network is not a number but a relationship.

Personal Branded Business Cards

Most people have a corporate job that has your corporate information. What happens when you are at events that you want to drive people to your personal information: email address, Twitter handle, etc. What if your regular job is different than your passion and the space that you operate in after hours. Your Linkedin profile shouldn’t be linked to your corporate email anyway if it is your company can lock you out. I recommend that most people have two business cards that should used appropriately. Business cards are typically your first piece of collateral material to market yourself.

Your network is not the social networks that you are apart of or the sum total of followers that you have. Your network are the relationships that you have. Your inner circle exist inside your networks. They are the people that will act upon your call to action.

LinkedIn recommendations seem to be a dime a dozen. Some profiles show hundreds of recommendations. Do they really matter?

The answer is YES. Here’s why:

LinkedIn is a fairly static social network that relies on the creator of the profile to provide all of their own information. As such, you could, if so inclined, make up your entire work history, education, specialties, etc.

What you can’t make up is your recommendations. (Well, I suppose by an elaborate scheme, you could…). Other people have to recommend you. Hopefully people who have worked with you, managed you, gone to school with you, done business with you, or interacted with you in some meaningful way. LinkedIn recommendations provide us with a means to TRUST what we read on a profile.

Giving and receiving recommendations on LinkedIn may seem uncomfortable or awkward at first. But don’t let that stop you. LinkedIn is built on recommendations, and you cannot have a complete profile without both giving and receiving a recommendation. It’s the norm.

What value does GIVING LinkedIn recommendations provide:

Giving a LinkedIn recommendation is like putting your footprint on someone else’s profile. It is a link back to your profile. It says something about you, about your communication style, about your willingness to give back.

Every time you recommend someone on LinkedIn, you are cementing a relationship with a connection. The person you recommend is more likely to recommend you in return. You are crafting a circle of influence where your word is trusted and you are seen as someone who is valuable as a connection.

What value does RECEIVING LinkedIn recommendations provide:

LinkedIn recommendations are social proof that you are who you say you are. Recommendations can be from a variety of connections who know you in a variety of areas and can provide a well-rounded picture of you as an employee and as an individual.

Receiving a LinkedIn recommendation, especially unsolicited, signals to you that one of your connections has cared enough to take the time to write something good about you. It also should be a signal that you should return the favor.

A LinkedIn recommendation can say about you things that you cannot (or should not) say about yourself. The fact that someone else said them, is equivalent to that person putting their stamp of approval on your profile.

A few hard-and-fast rules concerning LinkedIn recommendations:

• Only recommend people that you know well.
• Only ask for recommendations from people that you know well.
• When requesting a recommendation, give the writer a specific aspect of your work to recommend you for
• If you can, reciprocate when receiving a recommendation
• Keep it short and sweet
• Give more than you get

This isn’t rocket science. People can’t recommend you if you’ve only met them for coffee once or twice. You shouldn’t be recommending them either. Wait until you have something of substance to say.

LinkedIn recommendations are not like those your professor wrote for you when you applied for grad school. They are about a paragraph. Leave out the fluff, and stick to the meat.

The last part is about generosity. Being generous is one of the unwritten rules of success on the social web. When people see that your are recommending others often, and writing really decent recommendations, they will want to get in on the action. Maybe they will recommend you, and then you’ll recommend them, and the circle grows.

So today, go and look through your list of connections, find a few who you know really well and have something of value to tell others about. Write those recommendations and see what kind of reaction you get. You may find it makes you feel good, and it will definitely make them feel good.

Then make it a habit.

Are you a fan of Detroit 187? Do you live in the Metro Detroit area and are on Twitter? If so I have a great opportunity for you. I am working with Stephen Clark (@sclarkwxyz) and #backchannel to bring a group of fans into the studio to live tweet episode #6 on 10/26 with Michigan actor Sean H. Robertson (@seanhrobertson) who is casted into this episode.

This is an opportunity for us as Michigan’ers to support a TV show that is filmed on Detroit soil.

How to Get Selected to Live Tweet

If you are interested in being apart of the #backchannel live tweet of Detroit 187, then @reply me (@HajjFlemings) and include the hashtag #backchannel #dtown187 and why you should be selected.

Deadline: The group will be selected by the morning of 10/26.

How you can support from Home

If you are at home and want to be apart of creating buzz for Detroit 187 on Tuesday, October 26^th you can tweet and include the hashtags #backchannel #dtown187. Detroit let’s support projects in our community so that we can get future movie and TV projects filmed in Michigan.

This blog post is about being 100%. The first impression that most people will have about you will come from one of your online profile. Does your profile accurately communicate what you want employers, your community or potential strategic partners to know about you? It is the small that is the new big: completing profiles, correcting spelling errors, etc. that will communicate volumes about your personal brand. How important is it to be 100%? Your social network profile is apart of your digital marketing strategy. It is a strong indicator of your ability to finish and complete assignments. Completing your social network profiles is more about communicating a commitment to being a person of excellence.

Why your Profile Should be 100%

• Linkedin: 100% Complete Profiles – Recruiters expect Linkedin profiles to be 100% complete. This is one of the key characteristics that recruiters are looking for when identifying potential candidates. You also have a higher probability of coming up in Google searches due to the inclusion of key words that would be used in a complete profile. You should include your companies, education, references, recommendations, and avatars. Remember to link to sites where you have written content recently.

• Consistency Across all your Social Network URLs – When completing your social network profiles it is important that there is consistency. You should not be Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Make sure you have done your due diligences and communicated a consistent message.

• Branding your Social Networks URLs – Owning your identity on rental digital real estate (Social Network URLs) is important. All social networks give you the ability to customize your URL so own it before someone else does. One of the ways to do this is to identify the availability of social network URLs and Knowem.com is one way to do that. At a glance you can determine if you want to establish a profile in a particular social network.

• Missed Opportunities – What opportunities will you miss out on because you have incomplete profiles? When someone follows me in Twitter if there is no website address in the profile I personally will not follow the person back. This could eliminate the opportunity for direct communication via DM. First it sends a message that there is something peculiar. Are you hiding something?

• Recruiters Viewpoint – What does your social network profile say about you if it is incomplete? Maybe that you don’t pay attention to detail? You don’t complete assignments? You are not through? The missing information could be the critical piece of information that the potential employer might need to select you over other potential prospects.

• Maintain your Profiles – A car runs better when the oil is changed regularly. It is important to have a routine to regularly review your social network profiles. How often is too often? Your personal and professional goals change and so you need to calibrate your profiles to be in sync. You have to identify the right rhythm for yourself at a minimum when there is a significant change that would impact your profile: change of employer, new position, new skill, or degree/certification.

Everything you do or don’t do communicates something about your brand. Don’t allow the perception of your brand to be tainted because you have incomplete social network profiles. Your social network profiles are living documents and should be a real-time snapshot of you and your personal brand.

Everything you do or don’t do communicates something about your brand. Don’t allow the perception of your brand to be tainted because you were not focused enough to have complete social network profiles.

Be 100%.

For those who missed Brand Camp ’10 it was a great day filled with talks from some of top voices in the branding, marketing and social media space. I have included the top five Brand Camp ’10 blog post from our community for those who wanted a little more incite on what took place. Also two of the powerpoint/keynote presentations have been included the other sessions will be uploaded in the near future.

Blog Post

• More than 60 important personal brand takeaways from #BrandCampU http://cot.ag/bwUh8X - (Essential Elements: @nikkistephan)

• Brand Camp ’10 Speaker Review http://bit.ly/ccOEUO ( David E. Benjamin Consulting: @DaveBenjamin)

• 8 things I learned at Brand Camp 2010 http://bit.ly/9MWogY - (Yaffe Tidbits Blog: @mikekmcclure)

• Video: Personal Branding Tips From #brandcampu Speakers http://t.co/YvCA64g (@IdentityPR: @nikkistephan)

• This One Time, at Brand Camp . . . (@talentzoo: @aribadler) http://ow.ly/2RxvU

Slideshare Presentations

• How Big Brands Use Social Media http://slidesha.re/cJyh0C (@LynneLuvah)

• The Workplace of the Future: Where does your Person Brand Fit? http://slidesha.re/95ZaC4 (@hajjflemings)

Pre-Conference Video

• Brand Camp ’10 Promo Video (Commoncraft Style) http://bit.ly/bcupromo (@balanon, @rachelbalanon, @jperkinsart)

Fox 2 News Video

• Hajj Flemings on Fox 2 News talking about Brand Camp ’10: http://bit.ly/Hajj_Fox2News

It is time to evaluate your career planning strategy and to position yourself to grow personally and professionally. The Michigan Tech University - Tech MBA Online program is launching their ‘2010 Career Re-Tool Workshop.’ This is a must attend event for job seekers, those in career transitions and people who want to re-tool themselves for promotion in a challenging job market. Attendees will have the opportunity to evaluate educational opportunities and the value of higher education in reference to their career objectives.

This free event is open to the public and will empower people to strategically re-tool their careers by re-thinking education, social networks to aid in job search, and personal branding to position themselves for success.

Location: Kentwood Public Library 4950 Breton Road SE Kentwood, MI 49508

Time: 6:30pm-9:00pm

Hashtag: #grretool

Speaker Line-up
Hajj E. Flemings, Tech MBA Online Program Ambassador

Hajj serves as the Program Ambassador for the Michigan Tech Online MBA program where he recruits and manages the social media content for the program.

He is the author of ‘The Brand YU Life: Re-Thinking who you are though Personal Brand Management and has been featured on Fox 2 News, ESPN.com and BusinessWeek.com and travels nationally speaking as a brand strategist enabling personal and business brands to remain relevant. His clients include Walt Disney, Ford Motor Company, Skechers Footwear, U.S. Department of Defense (Telecom Division). He has spoken at Iowa State University, Davidson College, University of Michigan and numerous colleges and universities around the nation on personal branding, social media and career development

Mike Yoder, Deksia Social Media Strategist

As social media strategist at Deksia, he shares responsibility for business development and social media strategy development and delivery for the firm’s social marketing strategy consulting service. Responsible for taking LinkedUp Grand Rapids from 400 to over 5,000 members in under two years—making it the largest non-alumni LinkedIn networking group in the State of Michigan—Mike is able to parlay his social networking experience into innovative and comprehensive strategies for his clients. Mike has a BA in speech & communications from Geneva College in Pennsylvania and an MA in organizational communications from Western Michigan University. A long-time resident of Grand Rapids, he lives on the Northwest side of town with his wife and three children.

Christina Torri, Mindscape Social Media Coordinator

Christina is the Social Media Coordinator for Mindscape at Hanon McKendry where she handles day-to-day social media management for both clients and the company. She is also partnering with Mindscape management to build out this evolving service area to meet client needs for integrated digital engagement. She recently finished her MBA from Grand Valley State University focusing in Internet marketing and social media. Christina received her undergraduate degree in business from Western Michigan University and has worked in large corporate environments including Verizon Wireless and National City Bank. She has a passion for online marketing, social media, and personal branding.

Ari Weinzweig will have his first Michigan book signing for his new book at Brand Camp on Friday, October 8th! You don’t want to miss it!!!

The new series, Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading, aims to define a new kind of workplace in the 21st century. Part 1: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business, reveals some the ‘secrets’ and early history of Zingerman’s success. The book outlines 18 important ideas including: the power of a well-written and communicated organizational vision, the real purpose of a mission statement, and the benefits reaped from developing a culture of positive appreciation. There are no miracles or get-rich-quick schemes between these pages. Just lots of sound advice on how to develop the tools and work habits that greatly increase a businesses’ odds of success, whether you’re selling food, fixtures, furnaces and everything in between. In this introduction to the guiding principles of the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses, Weinzweig shows how 100-year-old anarchist ideas can become the core of progressive business building in the 21st century.

As a business leader, Weinzweig roots his philosophy in the writings of the early 20th-century anarchists he first studied as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. The writings of activists who argued against a central organizational authority and advocated for putting power in the hands of individuals have contributed to his new theories of leadership and service. A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business explains why treating individuals with respect and helping them to pursue their dreams and passions actively engages a successful team. In chapters on visioning, positive appreciate and sustainable profits, the book illustrates how giving employees more choice leads to success. Allowing every member of the team to participate in the process of making the crucial decisions that sustain the organization and has been a cornerstone of Zingerman’s approach for three decades.

This new series will appeal to anyone interested in the history of business in America or leadership in the 21st century. A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business shows how a business with the words “love” and “care” in the mission statement can achieve both profitability and community engagement while striving “to enrich as many lives as we possibly can.” ¬

For more information about Zingerman’s

Quotes:

[Zingerman’s is] “the coolest small company in America.” —Inc. Magazine

Is your brand built on perception or reality? The purpose of this post is to separate the truth between the two. As personal and corporate brands can we reap the benefits of our perception, which is ultimately our reality or is reality greater than perception.

Brand Promise vs. Brand Guarantee

Perception (Brand Promise)

Every successful brand has a brand promise, it’s what is communicates to its customers that it plans on delivering. Brand promise is theory. The value of brand promise only comes when there is execution. One of the worst examples of brand promise is BP Oil - ‘Beyond Petroleum’. With the oil spill in the Gulf did BP live up to it’s promise?

Reality (Brand Guarantee)

What is more compelling than the brand promise? It is the brand guarantee. It is what the brand actually delivers on. A brand guarantee is the brand promise that you have delivered on in the real-world. Most personal and corporate brands have to deal with what is called the reality gap. (Reality Gap = Brand Guarantee – Brand Promise). The truly great brands minimize or eliminate the reality gap.

Brand Guarantee: Gary Vaynerchuk – He is a hustler. He isn’t a social media expert and doesn’t claim to be one. In reality he demonstrates his hustle: produces winelibrary.tv video post daily which has translated into a Sirius Radio Show, he is working on his second book, and the list goes on.

# of Followers vs. Reach

Perception (# of Followers)

What is the value in having a large followership in a social network like Twitter? Is influence measured by number of followers alone? No. If you have 50K followers does this mean influence? The answer is that it depends. People with large followerships like Chris Brogan and Brian Solis get opportunities and their ideas can spread faster because of what is behind these numbers. What is behind these numbers are followers that were earned the hard way through consistency and creating great content.

Reality (Reach)

Even though Chris Brogan has 100K followers how many people respond to his call to action particularly when it is targeted at a specific market. This video by Brandtailers illustrates Chris’ reach with a charity tweetup at Wahoo’s for lunch.

Reputation vs. Character

Perception (Reputation)

The perception of a brand is a reactive approach for reputation management in guiding the values of your brand versus character development. Perception is setting up Google Alerts with the propionate keywords and feeling that you proactive in your brand management philosophy.

Reality (Character)

Character development is much more important than reputation because reputation isn’t necessarily accurate it can be incorrect based upon data. A strong reputation however can be ruin overnight if the person’s character isn’t strong. A person with strong character and a poor reputation can have his/her reputation restored the reverse isn’t true. (e. g Tiger Woods & Roger Clemens)

Win-Win vs. Give-Give

After having a conversation with CD Vann I wanted to illustrate this point as she shed some light on the Give-Give proposition. Most business deals are based on the pseudo concept of Win Win.

Perception (Win-Win)

In business one of the classic cliques is let’s create a ‘Win-Win’ but most people don’t live by this creed. In business we all have an ulterior motive for doing what we do.

Reality (Give-Give)

If we all have a ‘Give-Give’ attitude the end result will be that you create an environment where both sides benefit.

ComcastCares vs. Frank Eliason

One of the great social media stories of customer service is Frank Eliason formerly known as @Comastcares.

Perception (ComcastCares)

When Frank was @ComcastCares he had approximately 44K followers and was the classic example of customer service was the new marketing and how Twitter was the vehicle.

Reality (Frank Eliason)

Frank left Comcast in August of 2010 and is now @FrankEliason and has under 4K followers. Does this mean that Frank has lost his magic? Does this mean that Comcast customer service in Twitter will cease to exist? The answer to both is no. The reality is that there is a halo effect from working with a big brand. In the long run I believe Frank and Comcast will both be successful.

Disruption vs. Genius

Perception (Disruption)

When you standout and are different people don’t always appreciate the way you think, the way you solve problems, or the value you bring to the table. Being disruptive in this context is not a negative attribute just a misunderstood one.

Disruption Talent: Steve Jobs. He gets removed as CEO of Apple then is brought back to save his beloved company.

Reality (Genius)

In reality a disruptive talent is just expressing their Genius to people that don’t understand it. As a culture we are conditioned to be average. To stay the course of least resistance doing what has always been done or what is safe. The Genius is the person that connects their passion to someone ‘s problem and a business model to help someone outside of themselves.

In the end is your personal or corporate brand based on perception or a reality?

Last week I was on the periphery of a social media storm. One of my colleagues, Anthony Rotolo, wrote a blog post surrounding an incident on Twitter that involved (mildly) negative tweets, employees from two different companies in hot water, and public relations people in turmoil. There are stories in the news almost daily about someone who has gotten themselves into trouble for tweeting something offensive. The problem is there are so many different ways to be offensive and people that could possibly be offended.

As a result of the incident mentioned above, I have seen people a) protect their tweets and b) change their Twitter bios in order to add disclaimers that say ‘these tweets are my own and do not reflect the opinion of my employer.’ Watching this situation unfold got me to thinking. Who is really free to say whatever they want, no holds barred, on Twitter? Answer: hardly anyone.

This is the bottom line: you are always representing something when you tweet. You are either representing yourself or the entity that you work for. If you work in social media, you are most likely representing both.

Here’s a few things to keep in mind as you tweet:

If you work for a company

• Know your social media policy. Follow it to the letter. If something goes wrong, you can be sure that the policy will be looked to as a point of reference when considering any action.
• If there is no social media policy in place, ask for guidance. Simply the fact of asking the question might bring the topic to the fore and precipitate a social media policy being instituted. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
• Know who your company works with. Who are your compaany’s partners, suppliers, distributors, etc? For example, if I worked for The Capitol Grille, I probably wouldn’t want to repeatedly send negative tweets regarding Red Lobster, since they are both owned by Darden Restaurants.

If you are self-employed or a student

• Consider who you want to work for. Most students will go to work for an organization, public or private, after graduation. All individuals who are self-employed need customers or clients. In addition, you may need partners, suppliers, etc. Don’t tweet negative comments regarding these potential employers, partners, customers & clients. You never know when it could come back to bite you.
• If you feel constrained, consider maintaining two accounts. I have seen this happen when students want to portray a professional image to potential employers, but still want to interact authentically with friends. You can either protect your more personal tweets by locking your account, or use a twitter handle that doesn’t reveal your true identity.

Social Media Professionals

• Check your attitude at the door when responding to negative tweets. You are representing your employer and every person you interact with on twitter should be seen as a valuable potential customer. If someone ticks you off, take a deep breath, go for a walk around the block, or whatever it takes to be able to make a response with a clear head. Now is the time to maintain a consistent voice.
  

Everyone

• Think before you tweet. If you think it might be cringeworthy, it probably is. I know that thinking twice before hitting send has personally saved me from some regrettable tweets.
• Don’t tweet under the influence. (You fill in the blanks)
• Every tweet you send is building on your personal brand. Are you enthusiastic? negative? cynical? opinionated? Most of the people who follow you on Twitter don’t know you personally. You are being judged entirely on your tweets. Make sure you are representing yourself the way you want to be regarded.

This post may seem overly wary and cautious, especially coming from someone who works in social media. However, with a certain level of comfort comes complacency. All of us who have been on twitter for a while can use a reminder that this is not a cocktail party with our friends, this is a public platform. For all the free flow of information that twitter represents, we need to be realistic and cognizant of where the rubber meets the road. One hundred forty characters may seem like a little thing, but they can mean the world if they cost you your paycheck.

As with any paradigm shift, the behavior changes first and then the culture follows. A very wise colleague of mine has pointed out that the expectations of employee conduct have not yet evolved to include practical social media guidelines. Until this evolution takes place, it’s best to proceed with caution.

Have you ever regretted sending a tweet? How do you feel about having to censor yourself on Twitter, or don’t you bother? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.