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Why You Should Attend Brand Camp ‘10?

Paul Manoian Photography

What is Brand Camp?  If I were to define Brand Camp I wouldn’t call it a conference I would call it a gathering of the minds.  It is one of the most unique personal branding experiences in the Midwest region and it is happening on Friday, October 8th. (From more information:  www.BrandCampU.com)

We have assembled a unique group of voices and practioneers in the business, branding and social media space many of which are new to Detroit.  One of the key elements that separates Brand Camp from other interactive conferences is that we bring in CEOs and business owners that run million dollar corporations to bring you their business perspective from the C-Suite.  If you run a $35M dollar business where you have to make payroll every week you provide a different perspective than someone who just directs the Marketing department in a small company.

Why Detroit?

Why was Detroit selected as the launching pad for Brand Camp besides it being my hometown?  Detroit is the perfect location for Brand Camp.  Detroit is a hard-working city and is known for it creativity from the days of Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Motown.

Currently the unemployment rate in Michigan is 13.1%, which is higher than the national average (9.5%).  The workplace has changed dramatically over the past five years but have you evolved with these changes?  Are you prepared to work in a multi-generational workplace where location doesn’t matter and communication is rewired by the social web?  These are some of the issues we will be tackling at Brand Camp.  We will take a look at how a local economy (like Detroit) is impacted by government, media, technology, and entrepreneurial thinking.

New to Brand Camp this Year

  • Case Study: PR Sarah Evans will be doing a personal branding case study of herself and how she has developed her personal brand.
  • Panel: Re-Branding of Detroit: This panel would be made up of mostly baby boomers/gen Y with one millennial. The focus of this panel would center around the roles that entrepreneurship, technology, media and government play in growing the local economy of Detroit.
  • Moved Brand Camp to a week day to target a larger business community.
  • CEO  Ari Weinzweig – CEO/Co-Founder of Zingerman’s a $35M local non-franchised business in Ann Arbor, MI.

Globalocal

What is ‘Globalocal’?  It is a Global + local experience where you bring the two worlds together at Brand Camp you will get a taste of what this means.

Speakers

  • Hajj Flemings – Founder/Principal of Brand Camp University
  • PR Sarah Evans -  President of Sevans Strategy/Founder of #journchat
  • Ari Weinzweig – Founder of Zingerman’s Deli
  • Lynne D. Johnson -  SVP of the Advertising Research Federation
  • Peter Shankman – Founder of Help A Reporter Out (HARO)/The Geek Factory
  • Wayne Sutton – Marketing Strategist at TriOut
  • Cd Vann – Founder of unGeeked e’Lites Retreats
  • Olivier Blanchard – Principal at Brand Builder Marketing

There is no place in the country you will get the experience we are going to provide for the price.  Early bird registration of $50 ends August 26th and the rate will then escalate to $100 for general registration.

I will see you in Detroit on Friday, October 8th.  Get your tickets while they last!!!!

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How Portable is your Personal Brand?

How portable is your personal brand? You are responsible to manage your career.  The portability of your personal brand is going to become more important and more of an asset as the workplace changes and we become more hyper-connected.  Let’s first define the meaning of a portable personal brand.

Definition

Portable Personal Brand: It is the ability to take your online personal brand assets with you when you move from company-to-company, change careers, change positions, or transition to being an entrepreneur.  Essentially the digital characteristics and assets of your personal brand move wherever you go.

Why is this important?  The number of times a person changes careers is about 5-7 from the research that I have done.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) doesn’t provide data on career changes but on the number of jobs a person holds in his/her lifetime (which is 10.8 jobs from ages 18 to 42.) So it is not a matter of if but when you are going to change careers and/or change companies. It is critical that you keep your personal brand portable.

Tips for Portability of your Personal Brand

  • Personal Branded Social URLs: Always maintain separate personal branded accounts.  Your personal social network account URLs should not be tied to the company accounts as the only accounts you have or manage.  When you leave a company your accounts should come with you no questions asked, but this can only happen if you own the accounts.  In an ideal world you want to bring your pre-existing accounts with you to your place of employment if they are relevant.

  • Own Your Network: If the contacts in your network are housed only in the social network there is an inherent risk if your account gets comprised or the terms of service changes.  Your network will become more of an asset in the workplace, not necessarily because of numbers but become of influence.  Create your own personal database from your social network contacts, you need to own your contact list.  Download and import your contacts into a personal list that you own and manage (Note:  If you are tweeting from company accounts legally you don’t own the contact list. Everyone knows there is a difference between contact names and relationships.)
  • Set-up Linkedin Profiles Properly: Set up your Linkedin accounts with your own personal email address (i.e. Gmail account).  There have been situations where people have been locked out of their accounts because the account was set-up with a corporate email address.
  • Own Your Hub (Don’t just rent): Every professional should own the online hub of their personal brand (the online destination/dotcom.)  Make sure your dot com isn’t linked to your current job (i.e. www.HajjFlemingsNike.com.)

Case Study:  Frank Eliason v. Comcast Cares

The new poster child of portable personal branding is Frank Elisaon who most of us have known online as @Comcastcares.  Frank recently changed companies and is no longer the Comcast Cares guy, like LeBron he has decided to take his talents elsewhere (Note:  There was no TV special and Frank left on good terms with Comcast from what I can tell).

Franks former Twitter handle @ComcastCares is obviously not portable and will be maintained by Comcast. Let’s be clear both Comcast and Frank have mutually benefited from the work that was done.  Has Frank lost the total value of his personal brand or the work he has done?  Absolutely not!  There are something’s he will have to start from scratch on and build awareness of his new portable personal brand. If you look at the web location on his Twitter account it is linked to: www.frankeliason.com. Also you can follow Frank on Twitter at @FrankEliason to date he has about 1,700 followers.

@ComcastCares

@FrankEliason

Benefits

One of the major benefits of having a portable personal brand that it can create a unique opportunity for a portable career.  What do I mean by a portable career?  Portable careers are job situations that don’t depend on location with flexible work environments that allow you to do your job remotely for the most part.  With the development of technology:  Skype, WI-FI, and other technologies that allow you to work remotely these types of opportunities are starting to increase.  Portable careers will grow in popularity in the future as work changes.  The forerunner to this is alternative work arrangements which companies have become more comfortable with as a way to provide a benefit to the company and cut cost when they can’t pay an employee more money.

When is this critical?  Portability of your personal brand will come into play the most when you are executing a career change or moving to a new employer.

How Portable is your Personal Brand?

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Consistency, Numbers and Personal Branding. Do you have them?

The word consistency is defined by Webster’s dictionary as steady, regularity, and free from variation. One of the most enduring and important characteristics of strong brands: personal, business, non-profit, or service is consistency. Being consistent is about establishing a pattern of behavior that is expected by your target audience.

This post focuses on numerical or data consistency.  Consistency of voice, tone, personality, behavior, culture, image and message are the constants that have to be established and delivered on for all successful brands.  The sample group I have selected has been basis to consist of people delivering quality content in a targeted area.

Personal Brands with Numerical Consistency

My sample group consist of Brian Solis, Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuk, PR Sarah Evans, MC Hammer and Kobe Bryant. I took a swag at some very high level data: quantity of tweets and number of blog posts. Let me lay down the ground rules I am not stating by any means because someone tweets a lot they will have a loyal committed following that is organically grown. I am also not saying that because you post regularly that you will become a rock star.

I am focusing on the behavior and patterns of people who are successful in the new media space and adding in the best active basketball player (Kobe Bryant) in the known world based upon results (winning and championships.) There is something that happens when a person goes to work every single day and produces quality stuff. Your reputation begins to spread, your colleagues begin to take notice, promotions begin to surface, and new career opportunities begin to open up. Your network begins to expand because there is something that is inspiring about being around people that produce, being around change agents, and people who are not only passionate but committed to execute on their ideas.

Kobe Bryant is the gold standard for active NBA players by which everyone is being judged against.

(Note:  The average number of tweets per day is an average over the life of active Twitter account and is not weighted for current activity.)

Result of Consist Behavior

According to John Jantusch Author of The Referral Engine and Duct Tape Marketing blog he states that it 17 brand impressions of a company before a typical buyer will consider doing businesses.  There is a threshold for personal brands as well before customers, career opportunities, and business opportunities will be generated.

What is the result of consistent output of relevant content to a target audience?  Consistency creates loyalty, impacts behavior, and connects people emotionally.  The business opportunities that can come from consistency are: endorsements, additional financial streams, expanded network, book deals, speaking gigs, and delivering championships to name a few.

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2010 Career Re-Tool Workshop w/@HajjFlemings on 07/13

The Michigan Technological University’s School of Business and Economics – Tech MBA Online has developed a Career Re-Tool Workshop to help you Re-Tool, Re-Wire and Re-Think your career and future.

This FREE event is designed to enable you to evaluate your career planning strategy and position you to grow personally and professionally.  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.

Register Today!!!!  Seats are limited!!!!

Register at:  http://bit.ly/2010retool

Speakers

Hajj E. Flemings – Personal Brand Strategist/Founder of Brand Camp University

Brenda Rudiger – Director of Alumni Relations at Michigan Technological University

Paul J. Hindelang – President at Results Systems Corporation

Agenda

Networking

Re-Tooling yourself with Education

We will explore the value of education as a career strategy to help you stay globally competitive in a challenging job market. This session will focus on the benefits of an MBA and higher education to empower you to reinvent and re-think your future.

Re-Wiring your Career with Social Networks and Online Tools

Come and learn how to rewire yourself through social networks and online channels to connect with companies and identify new career opportunities.  Become a person that understands how to translate their network into value.

Re-Thinking your Financial Strategy

Has your 401K got you down?  It is time to re-think your financial strategy and prepare financially for your career transition?  Come and get fresh new ideas for investing, financial planning, insurance and social security.

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Can Personal Branding be Defined by Numbers?

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

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

Facebook Friends/Fans

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

Blog Comments

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

Twitter followers

Blog Post

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

Videos Uploaded in YouTube

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

E-Commerce Sites

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

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

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

Let me know what numbers impact your personal brand?

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

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