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

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

Facebook Friends/Fans

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

Blog Comments

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

Twitter followers

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

Blog Post

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

Videos Uploaded in YouTube

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

E-Commerce Sites

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

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

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

Let me know what numbers impact your personal brand?

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

The poster child of corporate culture and the usage of technology to connect with customers is Zappos.  Zappos is ran by one of the smartest, most relevant CEOs on the planet Tony Hsieh.  What does Tony do?  Does he build brands, create corporate culture, deliver happiness or all three? I had the opportunity to hangout with Tony Hsieh and the Zappos Team in March 2010 in Austin, TX on the Happiness Bus at SXSW.  I experienced the Zappos corporate culture for a few hours and I will validate he is doing all three.

I am an avid reader and I am excited to share with you the latest book that I am reading, “Delivering Happiness:  A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose” by Tony Hsieh.  Tony is a proven leader who is living what he is teaching. He has developed two companies LinkExchange which was sold to Microsoft for $265M in 1995 and Zappos.com which was sold to Amazon.com for $1.2B in 2009. 

Be a part of the movement his book ships June 7^th purchase part of his brain for under $25, what a deal.

Zappos’ Core Values

The Framework of the Culture

1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble

Follow Tony/Zappos
Follow: @DHBook (Delivering Happiness Book Twitter Account)
Follow: @Zappos (Tony Hsieh – CEO of Zapppos)
Blog: www.DeliveringHappinessBook.com

You are a business because everyone you are connected to expects you to yield something, in some form or fashion. Whether it’s your spouse or family with love and relationship or your boss and coworkers with on the job production and results –we are all created to produce.

The same goes for a business, its no different. A business is built to yield profits, yes, but businesses are not around to just yield profits. Although that is a large part of the end result.

My reason for this post is driven by an article I read in the February 2010 issue of Fast Company. In this issue was a great cover story with Steve Nash, point guard, for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. The title of the article is, “Rules for Winning: How Creativity Can Beat Chaos in Basketball and Business.”

Great title, right? Its actually a good article. But here is my disagreement with Steve. He makes a point to say in the article, that these days “…professional athletes think of themselves as a brand, but thats not my way of thinking.”

Why? What’s wrong with thinking of yourself as a brand or a business? He brings in $13 Million a year from the Suns (not including endorsements and business ventures) and I am sure he employs people. That kind of sounds like a business to me. Isn’t he a brand? Would he establish these business ventures or opportunities if it had not been for his reputation (brand) on the court.

I am not going to beat Steve up in this post, he’s definitely entitled to look at things this way, but it made me look at a bigger picture on why he may feel this way. To some people being a personal brand and business is still a progressive way of thinking. Some may feel a brand represents ego or chest pounding, a “THIS IS WHO I AM” syndrome. I think its because with this media-crazed advertising world we live in, we have managed to de-humanize the concept of a brand. We tainted it with corporate scandal and sensationalized branding to the point the concept seems very plastic and unreal. Or the thought process of, “If you are a brand, you are trying get one over on me, or you selling me something I don’t want.” Well people this is not always true. Those realities are there and it is the very reason our large corporations who have failed to care for their customers in a very human way – are collapsing right before our eyes.

I like Steve’s approach to the game of basketball and I like his off court persona. He works hard and he is about his team receiving limelight, not just him. He goes out and play’s the game well, produces day in and day out, and in result excels in many of the categories respective to his position. Sounds like a good brand to me. What do you think?

Brand Camp University is proud to announce its partnership with the April Holmes Foundation, Inc. The goal is to use the power of “Social Influence” via Twitter, Facebook, blogs and our conference to raise awareness. With each ticket purchased for Brand Camp ’09 you are contributing to the April Holmes foundation.

Mission of the April Holmes Foundation
Helping The Mission, Monetary, educational and service gifts are asked of you to continue this mission of the April Holmes Foundation so we may be able to provide scholarships, medical assistance, tutoring, & social opportunities to enrich the livelihood of persons affected by disabilities. Since we are 501(c)(3) organization, your contributions are tax-deductible.

Charity Tweetup: The Brand Camp University Conference tweetup will be accepting donations (optional: not required for entrance) for the April Holmes foundation.

We are very excited to engage and encourage our online communities to truly do something remarkable to help impact lives.

For more information:

April Holmes Website: www.AprilHolmes.com
Twitter: @AprilHolmes

“Life is truly about giving more than it is about receiving and we look forward to giving back”. – Hajj E. Flemings