Greg Clayman, Publisher of The Daily

Today we are excited to announce Greg’s topic for Brand Camp – NYC. The Daily is a category first: a tablet-native national news brand built from the ground up to publish original content exclusively for the iPad.

Built From Scratch: Creating Something New

Created by a small team of “intrapreneurs” within the halls of News Corporation, The Daily launched in February 2011 with the mission to provide the best news experience by combining world-class storytelling with the unique interactive capabilities of the iPad. Greg Clayman is the Publisher of The Daily, charged with managing the game-changing shifts in technology, process, subscription models and approach to content enabled by the latest developments in Tablet Media. Only a few months out from the launch of The Daily, Greg will discuss what went into building this cutting-edge product and what it takes to run it every day.

Bio

Greg Clayman is the Publisher of News Corporation’s The Daily: the first national news publication built from the ground up to create original content exclusively for tablet devices. Prior to The Daily, Greg was executive vice president of Digital Distribution & Business Development for MTV Networks and ran MTVN Mobile Media. There he managed digital business across MTVN’s channels to develop and manage new opportunities for digital content and strategic partnerships. Before joining MTVN, Greg co-founded Upoc, one of the first mobile media companies in the United States, and ran its marketing, sales and business development groups.

Register: http://bcnyc.eventbrite.com

Is personal branding important? The answer is yes, but it is more important whom you learn from than the fact you need to learn personal branding. It is becoming more and more difficult for people to standout. With the increasing popularity of social media the Internet is becoming more polluted with noise making it difficult to establish a strong signal. Everyday I read blog post loaded with tips from many individuals with no CASE STUDIES but the so-called magic dusk to transform your life.

Brand Camp – NYC is a one-day event that was created to help you (students, entrepreneurs, and professionals) to cut through the clutter and learn about personal branding from subject matter experts. Not just any subject matter experts but those who are living their passion and making real MONEY in the real World.

Register at: http://bcnyc.eventbrite.com

Our speakers have generated millions of dollars in companies they have grown and sold, worked with some of the largest Musicians in Rock history, and are working on cool tech startups or businesses that are transforming industries.

Our speakers have deep domain knowledge in the following area:

• Media (traditional and new media)
• Public Relations (traditional and new media)
• Tech Startups (Bootstrapped and VC funded companies)
• Personal Branding Champions: They have worked with Fortune 50 companies, athletes, and universities nationwide.
• Government: Those who have championed change and multi-platform communication strategies in municipal government.

Subject Matter Champions Speaking at Brand Camp – NYC

• Hajj Flemings (@Hajjflemings) – Founder of Brand Camp/gokit
• Peter Shankman (@PeterShankman) – Founder of HARO/The Geek Factory
• Tamsen Fadal (@tamsenfadal) - TV Anchor - WPIX (New York)
• Greg Clayman (@Clayman) – Publisher of The Daily (iPad Newspaper)
• Amanda Steinberg (@AmandaSteinberg) – Founder/CEO of DailyWorth
• Dayna Steele (@DaynaSteele) - Fast Company Blogger/Author of Rock to the Top
• Baratunde Thurston (@Baratunde) - Director of Digital at The Onion
• Desiree Peterkin Bell (@dpbell) - Director of Communication for the City of Philadelphia

You don’t want to miss Brand Camp – NYC on Tuesday, May 24^th at The Riverside Theatre

Photo Credit: I found the photo on http://kelleemontgomery.com/ (Designed by Roland Reiner Tiangco)

Super Bowl XLV has come and gone, the Packers won, and all we have left is the discussion from the Super Bowl Ads. I wasn’t blown away by most of the Super Bowl ads but there was one ad that totally captured by attention.

That ad was, ‘Imported from Detroit’ it was produced by Wieden + Kennedy one of the coolest ad agencies in the world. They are known for the work they have done historically with Nike and heir most recent success with the Old Spice commercials.

The two-minute Super Bowl commercial, ‘Imported from Detroit’ with local rapper Eminem captured the essence of Detroit and connected with viewers worldwide with over 4M views in YouTube.

Stats from the Ad

• Brand Bowl Recap: The people voted with their tweets and selected Chrysler, ‘Imported from Detroit’ as the overall winner. (Score: 90, Tweets: 32,514, Sentiment: +16.5%)

• YouTube Views: 4,514,346 (as of 02/09/11)

According to the Wall Street Journal Chrysler and the Chrysler 200 spiked on auto-shopping web sites. Edmunds.com reports that research on Chrysler models on its web site jumped 328% after the ad appeared.

Does this mean that Detroit is back? Does this mean that Chrysler is back? I don’t think any one commercial alone saves a city, state or company. But I will say the commercial did exactly what it was suppose to do. Create buzz (mostly positive), engage potentials customers, get people sharing content, and driving traffic to their site.

I don’t know how many 200’s Chrysler will sell but I do know but the tagline, ‘Imported from Detroit’ is still ringing in my head.

Where will the real Super Bowl XLV be played? Online or on the field? Or both? The game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers will be played at Cowboy Stadium in Arlington, Texas, but how much of the Super Bowl is about the teams on the field?

Globally people can interact and engage with each other and their favorite brands in real-time. The Super Bowl is the most watched event on the planet year in and year. Last year over 106.5 Million people watched the Super Bowl in 2010 according to Nielsen. This years numbers should surpass last years numbers making it the most watched single day event in history.

This creates a very unique opportunity for brands to reach and engage with customers and to know how they feel about their ads:

Social Media Engagement During the Super Bowl

• Official Hashtag: #sb45

• Facebook likes/fans
• Twitter followers
• YouTube subscribers, video views and channel views
• YouTube Re- Marketing: YouTube ads that you watch will start to follow you as you surf online.
• Website traffic
• Tweet volume
• Twitter mentions
• Twitter sentiment: Positive, Negative, or Neutral
• Google results for videos, news, blogs and discussions
• Social Mention in relation to strength, sentiment, passion and reach
• Engagement during the Super Bowl

Two Ways to Follow Your Favorite Super Bowl Ads Online

• Brand Bowl 2011: Social Media monitoring of Super Bowl XLV is back this year with Radian 6 and Mullen and Brand Bowl 2011. Join the conversation online with hash tag: #brandbowl. You can post comments in Twitter or on the Brand Bowl website and include hash tag: #brandbowl and your comments will be aggregated to identity the most popular Super Bowl ads. They will be measuring positive, negative, and neutral sentiment on Twitter and total number of tweets for all brands.

• YouTube Ad Blitz – Rewatch favorite Super Bowl ads and post comments in YouTube.

As a digital nerd I enjoy the engagement online (conversation about the game and the super bowl ads) as much as the game that is played on the field. Why? The game that is played online is shared with my online friends/network and the new people that I meet. It also provides an opportunity for me to engage with the big brands and provide my feedback about the millions of dollars that they just spent.

Here are the Stats for the Online Game

• 22% of People planning to view the Super Bowl will be on Facebook.
• 15 Million Americans post on a social media afterwards
• 43% of the 15 Million Americans plan to rewatch their favorite ad
• 31% of the 15 Million Americans plan to share their favorite ad via email or social network.
• 9% of YouTube Ad Blitz videos were viewed on cell phones in 2010

Young Demographic Stats

• 44% will multi-task texting while the game is on.
• 40% will use Facebook
• 12% will Tweet

[Reference to Yahoo Blog]

Super Bowl Ads: The Cost is $3million for a 30-second commercial spot.

As brands scramble to engage customers the integration of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter become powerful platforms to connect with the people they are targeting to purchase their products. Let me know your thoughts about the Super Bowl Ads and the online engagement with the big brands.

The popularity of iPad apps in the app store in iTunes is increasing, there are 50,000 apps now available in iTunes in eight months.

So for Christmas I thought it would be cool to share my favorite iPad App. I am partnering with Autriv to give-a-way free downloads of my favorite iPad app Sign My Pad. The contest rules are listed below.

Contest Rules

Post a Tweet on 12/21-12/22, 2010 on how you would use Sign My Pad and include hashtag: #SignMyPad. Be as creative so that your tweet can stand out.

Five winners will be selected from the tweets that are posted. Each winners will receive a code to download one copy of the Sign My Pad app free of charge.

What is 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.

This iPad App is Idea for

The iPad continues to evolve as a business tool especially with the release of IOS 4.2 software, the ability to multi-task, set-up folders and air print are great business features.

This app is idea for any business person that needs to sign documents and remain mobile. Utilizing this app allows you to close deals on the go and sign time sensitive documents.

Who Could Use this App?

• Entrepreneurs
• Consultants
• Real Estate Agents
• Insurance Agents
• Independent Contractors
• Business Owners
• Lawyers
• Tax Accounts

Be creative in your tweets and let us know how you are using Sign My Pad.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There are approximately 6.5 Billion people on the planet and we live in a hyper-connected world where we are increasingly communicated via online. As you continue to map out your digital footprint think about the Facebook, Twitter, internet connectivity, and mobile device usage is impacting personal brand.

• 6.5 Billion people on the planet

• 1.73 Billion Internet Users in 2009

• 400 Million Facebook Users

• 75 Million Twitter Users

• 50 Millions Tweets Sent per Day

• 60 Million Linkedin Users

• 126 Million Blogs on the Internet

• 90 Trillion Emails Sent in 2009

• 2.3 Trillion Text Messages Sent by 2010

• 285 Million Mobile Devices (91% of Americans)

• 75% of Internet Connected Homes Use Social Networks (61% of all U.S. Households)

• 28,800 Hours YouTube Video Uploaded per day.

Raw numbers alone are useless. These stats are being provided for you to determine their true impact to you and your personal brand.

We all know by now that Twitter is more than just a fun place to talk to people and learn what’s new, it’s also a huge personal brand generator.

Whether it’s Alyssa Milano, a perennial B-list actress with in excess of one million followers and a klout score higher than Barack Obama, or Justin, the 29-year old who’s twitter account @sh*tmydadsays has now been made into a book and a TV series, stories abound of people who have become famous (or more famous) because of their twitter presence.

While you may never have a million followers, it is possible to become known on Twitter, to become an ‘expert’ in your field or even a ‘thought leader.’ I have found a simple tool that is an easy way to gain influence, grow your following and expand your personal brand: the twitter chat.

If you’re not a devotee of chats, as many are, you may have noticed from time to time that your stream fills up with hashtags such as #genychat, #mbachat or #jobhuntchat, and either wondered what everyone is talking about, or gotten annoyed that these tweets keep filling up your stream with something you’re not involved in.

Next time that happens, instead of tuning out, tune in. Search for the hashtag so you can see the tweets in real-time, use a tool like tweetchat.com. That way you will get a feel for what the whole conversation looks like rather than just a few snippets here and there. If it’s a topic you know something about, feel free to join in ~ twitter chats are open to all and generally very welcoming to newcomers.

Here’s a few tips for chats and why you might want to join:

1) Meet interesting new tweeps. Chats usually attract people from outside your sphere, so it is almost assured you will be exposed to some tweeps you have not previously been aware of. If they seem interesting, follow them.

2) Put your two cents in. Like I said, if you know something about the topic, it’s perfectly fine to add your thoughts. You do not have to be an expert on the subject. Everyone has a different level of expertise, so you don’t know who your tweet will help or appeal to.

3) Retweet people. This will give them a chance to interact with you later. It also helps your audience if you are tweeting good information at them.

4) Add a comment to a tweet. Have conversations within the chat…this is the time to engage…everyone is expecting that, they all came here for the same reason.

5) Since most chats move quickly, the more you tweet within a chat, the more likely you will be noticed and pick up new followers. Generally these are people with at least some similar interests and can become valuable new sources of information and engagement. Follow them back.

6) By engaging in chats, you are using Twitter for what it was designed for ~ conversation.

7) There is usually a digest published after the chat with select tweets, along with a transcript of the entire chat. More tweeps who did not get to participate in the chat, but who are interested in the topic will seek that out, and will find you there.

8) Tweet a link to the digest or transcript to your followers and ask them to join the next chat. And make sure to thank the moderators of the chat at the conclusion.

9) Growing a presence among twitter chatters will increase your opportunities to know and be known by influencers within a given field.

10) Twitter chats are fun!

Joining in a twitter chat is a first step level of engagement. Eventually, you may want to co-moderate a chat of your own. To get started, check out this complete up-to-date list of twitter chats. You are sure to find one that fits your interests and goals: http://bit.ly/bOTzCe.

My next post will outline how to create and host a twitter chat.

This blog post was inspired by David Armano post, “How to be an Effective Corporate Ambassador.”

Think back to 1984, some Millennials were just born. Heck I wasn’t even in high school yet. What did the workplace look like pre-social media (as we know call it today)?

The digital workplace today is convoluted because corporations/organizations haven’t caught up with the lifestyles of the new digital worker. Most companies don’t have a social media policy (in the United States its 29%) in place or have created a culture that embraces or addresses the changing behaviors of the new digital worker. The new digital worker is hyper-connected with blurring lines between their personal and professional lives; but if harnessed properly the new digital worker has untapped potential that could be invaluable to the corporation that they represent.

The term personal branding also didn’t exist in the form that it does today back then. Depending on what side of the fence you are on personal branding gets mixed reviews. Is it EGO, does it exist, do you need it or is it authentic? At the end of the day we all know that we have to stand out to be recognized and to establish and position ourselves for opportunities we desire whether personal or professional. For the sake of argument we will call personal brands in the corporate workplace ‘brand ambassadors.’

As brand ambassadors we share the following qualities

• We all have voices
• We all have networks
• We all have influence/reach
• We talk about things we are passionate about
• We are hyper-connected

Who do you Represent?

All Americans have freedom of speech which is protected by the constitution of the United States that protects your rights to say what you want. But say something crazy online and see how long that freedom is protected. What you say can and will be held against you, remember an ambassador represents all the entities they are attached to them personally and professionally.

When you are online after hours or during work hours who do you represent? This question was easily answered a decade ago for most people. If you ask them what they did on their own time they would say it is their business. Today this isn’t true because who you are after hours can affect the brand you represent.

• Corporate Accounts: If your job requires you to have co-branded corporate profile(s) you have specific requirements and obligations with these accounts.

• Portable Personal Brand: Every person should have portable personal brand that moves with them if they change careers and employers. This includes your rental property (social networks like Twitter) and digital real estate that you own (your dot com/online hub.)

Who is Responsible?

Is the employer or the employee responsible for the digital workplace? This is a very broad question with many different answers, but the short answer is that the responsibility is shared. It is the corporation’s responsibility to create a culture that properly manages employees in an environment that is influenced by social technology. On the other hand the employees have the responsibility to monitor and manage their corporate and personal ecosystems that balances every move, decision, and status update that they make.

As brand ambassadors we have a shared responsibility to ourselves and the corporate/organization that we represent to perform on their behalf which is mutually beneficial. As early adopters brand ambassadors will play an integral part in helping to establish the digital workplace that will impact future workers and company culture.

Every so often I see a tweet or Facebook post that is along the lines of someone “quitting social media” for a period of time. It almost seems they’ve become fatigued with the heavy lifting of sharing, posting, and the commenting that’s necessary to stay relevant in social media. Relevant being a key word.

If you are anything like me, there are long periods where I do great and then there are times when I have extreme peaks and valleys. At any period of time you can catch me racing - posting here, tweeting there, engaging with people through blog comments over there….and then…it drops. Let me tell you *in Bill Cosby voice*– Do as I say and not as I do.

That is the wrong way to stay RELEVANT.

Our lives are busy and sometimes being active in social media is at the back of our minds and for most of us thats ok. For us trailblazers, we must show the way. Personal branding content sources such as this blog and conferences like BrandCamp 2010 are VERY important for this space. It pushes forward use cases for social media and personal branding using the internet. We are the social authority! Scary? Nah.

Is IT still sexy?
Yes. Social Media as we know it – social networking, blogging, location-based services, and real-time-publishing is definitely still evolving. Meanwhile, us who champion the social media cause, we have significant jobs to do. For our personal benefit and for the community. In order to maintain the social media sexy, we need to be consistent and challenge ourselves to pump out GREAT content.

The Internet is still a teenager, at around 15 years old, it is just coming into its own.

Entrepreneur’s, large organizations, individuals, you are all welcome - join the party. We will be rocking for a while.