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Personal Brands - “Think Different”



In 1997 Apple Computers created the “Think Different” ad campaign. I was inspired to look at the video clip after reading a tweet by William Arruda the other day. When I saw this video it made me think about personal branding and I wanted to share a thought.

As a personal brand we have to not only act differently but we have to think differently. As you continue to develop your online personal brand think about how you can use Twitter and Youtube (and other social networks) so that people can experience you and experience what makes you different. Remember the tools amplify YOU.

It’s time to “Think Different”?

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Personal Branding: Would your Personal Brand exist without social networks?

Would your personal brand exist without social networks like Facebook and Twitter? Most people would say no.

Let’s take a look at where personal branding started? The roots of personal branding are recognized to have started in 1995 and Tom Peters is known as the father of personal branding which is appropriate. However the historical roots of personal branding go much deeper. Actually we need to go back to the 18th century to look at a few of the pioneers.

  • Borden Milk Co. – Founded by Gail Borden
  • Sears and Roebuck – Founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah C. Roebuck.
  • Ford Motor Co. – Founded by Henry Ford

Do any of these names look familiar? People didn’t create names for businesses like Google and Yahoo back in the day they used their names. There was no separation between the person and the business; businesses were birthed out of the DNA of the person.

Personal Branding

In a nutshell your personal brand is your personal DNA it what makes you who you are.

  • Unique Value Proposition: I believe this is birthed out of your passion. It is what makes you different it is the value that you are able to deliver on.
  • Platform: Every person has an arena or space that they will operate. It is where you will make their mark.
  • Character: The real you, who you are when nobody is watching (not sure if that happens anymore), what you believe and your value system.

Personal branding is a process of exposing yourself to a large community in which today social media is one of the main channels. Every personal brand has the ability to develop a digital personality.

  • Digital Personality – It is the digital component of your personal brand that exist online in your various social networks and includes your online activity. It is the authentic you translated into the digital world it is the stream that runs through your tweets, your avatar, and your online content.

I believe Personal branding 2.0 in the future will not separate you from your competitor because it will be the norm. We are creating a mass army where everybody will march to the beat of the same drummer to be relevant. After everybody is on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin (and whatever the new social network is of the day), setting up a blog, tweets 15-20 times a day, engages their community, and produces relevant content that will be captured in social search what is next? I am not condemning personal branding 2.0 I believe it is vital, I would not be relevant without it.

Personal Branding 1.0 will be more important in the future than Personal Branding 2.0, guaranteed. Nailing the 2.0 component is critical in the day and age we live in especially to be relevant. The true separation will be Personal Branding 1.0 who you are and your values that people will be reading about and spreading to others. Remember social media and personal branding doesn’t make you a better person it amplifies your voice and exposes you to a larger network of people.

I would love to hear your thoughts?

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2010 Personal Branding Predictions: Top-10 (A New Decade)

The year 2010 is the beginning of a new decade and it is going to be an exciting time that is influenced by social and technological change. The world as we knew it in the last decade will be radically different with more influential female voices.

I am excited to share my personal branding predictions for 2010 and the drivers behind them. As a country the U.S. has outsourced it soul (manufacturing and technological expertise) to other countries leaving creativity and intellectual capital as our centers of excellence. My predictions center around the creativity of human capital and the growing need for character and personal responsibility.

Top-10 Personal Branding Predictions for 2010

1. The Rise of Digital Personalities – With the rise of social search (Bing and Google search engines) brands will be directly impacted and forced to participate in the real-time conversation that is happening online. Personal brands will have to be active to be relevant which will provide an opportunity for their digital personalities (online component of your personal brand) to gain in influence.

2. Growth of Female Personal Brands – Males have long dominated or been the voice of the social media space. I believe that you will start to see the growth of female influence in social media and personal branding. The demographic data shows there are larger numbers of women online in Twitter, Facebook, and the other major social networks. It is a great time to be female and to be web 2.0 savvy. (Note: In Twitter and Facebook women outpace men (Twitter: Women – 60% and Men 40% and Facebook: Women – 57% and Men 43%). Female centric groups mommy bloggers, Blogher.com, etc. will become more influential and prominent.). Twitter List of Influential Women in Social Media Women

3. Sports Industry and Athletes seek Personal Brand Strategist – Some of the most interesting personal branding stories (Tiger Woods, ESPN and Michael Beasley) in 2009 were been centered around athletes and the sports industry. Athletes and their agents will start to identify social media and personal branding strategist to manage their online personal brands. The social media policies that impact the human capital of sports teams, commentators, and other personnel will evolve as well.

4. The Focus on Character will Increase – The importance of character gains momentum, the Tiger Woods saga reinforces the importance of character in personal and corporate brands alike. Facebook and Twitter will continue to be character references and will grow in importance in validating social behavior.

5. Education Influenced by Personal Branding – Personal branding and social tools will continue to impact the learning environment. The subject of personal branding will continue to evolve on college campuses. Workshops and classes alike will continue to grow on college campuses, like Michigan Technological Universities ENT3976 Personal Brand Management.

6. Privacy is Dead – The concept of privacy will go the way of the dinosaur, in other words it is dead. With geo tagging, status updates, social search anyone can identity where you are at and what you are doing at all times. Your online habits will communicate to an employer, potential business partner, or sports team everything they need to know about you as a person. Your life will exist in a stream.

7. Mobile Influence on Personal Brands – The hub of the personal brand will center around mobile devices like iPhone and the Android phone. These devices currently constitute 75% of the smartphone web traffic. The growing number of apps, social search, and the ease of content upload will stimulate personal brand interaction thru their devices.

8.Identifying your Inner Genius – Identifying your passion will be critical. With increase in unemployment, job downsizing, and workload increase people will be forced to identify what they truly love doing and what they were created to do. Success has was defined by high profile, high-paying jobs as those opportunities start to reduce people will be forced to think about what they love doing and will tap into their inner Genius.

9. Corporate and Personal Brand Conflict – Social media polices (David Armano six trends of social media 2010) and graying lines between corporate and personal brands will require individuals to navigate their activity in social networks more carefully whether their on the clock or off. The person and the corporation will have to be responsible in managing and monitoring online personal brand activity, this will be a hot topic.

10. Developing your Personal Brand with Full-time Job (Grustle) – Personal brands will be developed after hours or as entrepreneurial projects. With the decrease in employer loyalty people will start to focus on developing their personal brand passively while maintaining a 9-to-5 job, known as the GRUSTLE.

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The Extinction of Normal – The New Personal Branding Anthem

The topic of ‘What is Normal?’ has been on my mind for a while and I thought it would make an interesting blog post. The idea was birthed out of the Tiger Woods saga as I start asking myself this question what is normal for celebrities, icons, politicians, and successful people.

If you were a worldwide icon like Tiger Woods life as you know it would change. Your privacy would be sacrificed for fame, fortune and a loyal following. How would you manage? This question is easily answered when no one is following you or cares that you even exist. The definition or understanding of normal I believe is changing.

Webster’s define ‘normal’ as according with, constituting, or not deviating from a norm, rule, or principle; and conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern. Success is the enemy of normal. Success breds responsibility and accountability that is larger than most people can imagine and the price is higher than most people want to pay.

What is Normal?

This is a particularly interesting question since the line is blurring between Celebrities and Super Personal Brand Brands (i.e. Chris Brogan, Robert Scoble, and Gary Vaynerchuk).

Three Impacts of Success:

  • Lost Privacy – Celebrities can’t go anywhere without paparazzi, TMZ following them and making living a regular life non-existent. With the rise of social networks, status updates, social search, Twitter, Facebook and other social tools personal privacy is starting to diminish for personal brands as well.
  • Demanding Fans – Celebrities lives have been defined by their fans and the same is happening to personal brands. The increasing influx of DMs, blog post comments, emails, and online engagement with followers requires a committed person to grow their following.
  • Feeding the Monkey – Continuing to create engaging content that will cause your community/following to grow is mandatory for celebrities and personal brands.

The point of this post is that normal is redefined as you reach certain levels of success in business and life. What was once normal is no longer normal. It creates challenges and opportunities that can benefit or damage your personal brand. As you grow your personal brand how will normal be redefined in your life?

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The Year in Review: Nine Personal Branding Predictions for 2009!

The year in review. Let me know how well I did with my 2009 Personal Branding Predictions. This is the link to the original post: http://bit.ly/5qaNK4

It is 2009 and the Internet is buzzing with experts providing their predictions and trends for the year. I wanted to provide my thoughts on personal branding to help set the tone for an exciting year.

Predictions/Trendspotting

1. Creative Economy: Creativity will be to the information age what manufacturing was to the industrial age. Individuals dependence on being a company man working 30-years at one company or until death do you part will cease to exist. The integration of creativity into business ideas and career will become a necessity and not an option. As a personal brand you will need to think creatively in developing strategic partnerships and ways to stand out. After everybody has updated their Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter pages, established a blog, added followers, and followed all the same tips what is next? Creativity.

2. Purpose/Mission: People will start to seek opportunities or careers that give them greater satisfaction that they have a true passion for. This is primarily due to the instability in the economy and the reduction of jobs that were more lucrative in good economic times. High paying low education jobs are a thing of the past. People will now look at opportunities that align with how they are wired and what they were designed to do.

3. ‘Personal Branding’ Term Commoditized: The term ‘Personal Branding’ will become more commoditized and genericized. The term has significance and value when implemented, but I believe the term itself will be overused and misused.

4. Traditional Journalist Become Commodities: The voice and influence of bloggers and social media experts increase. Newspapers are losing money with traditional newspaper printing and are looking for ways to compete with the new media. Traditional journalist will have to integrate social media and effectively establish their personal brand.

5. Personal Branding Experts Commodization: With the increase of social media gurus the line between personal branding experts and social media experts is blurring. The personal branding industry will become oversaturated and the cream will rise to the top. Those of us in the personal branding industry will have to work harder to cut through the noise.

6. Establish ‘Blue Movement’: The need to develop the ‘Blue Movement is critical. ‘American Made’ needs to be established as the new luxury product. The ‘Green Movement’ has been very successful because big business have bought into it can the same be done with the ‘Blue Movement’?

7. Twitter Relevance Increases: Twitter will gain relevance as a search and primary news source. Business opportunities with strategist business models and usages will continue to be developed.

8. Personal Brands being Healthy: Being healthy is just as importance as your ranking in Google. You can have all the money and influence in the world but without good health you have nothing. Being fit spiritually, mentally, and physically is critical. Learn to have balance and think holistically because you are the sum total of all your parts.

9. Passion Becomes King: People doing what they love. Passion is the fuel that drives you to do what others are not willing to do. We all have the same 24-hours but passionate people find out how to get more out of their time and produce higher quality results.

I want to challenge and inspire you to shine in 2009. Have an awesome year and share your predictions for 2009 in the comments section of this blog post.

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