Special thanks to Andrew Hyde, Brent Spore, Daniel Burka, Gary Vaynerchuk, Willo O’Brien, Jim Long, Justine Ezarik, Joshua Strebel, Ward Andrews, Marcus Nelson, Rob Sandie, Matt Mullenweg, and Thor Müller for not holding back!
Believe it or not, that was a rhetorical question.
Personal branding has always been around. During the last decade, we have experienced the birth and rise of technology that will change personal branding. This technology is social media. Social media has completely changed the games of branding, marketing, and networking.
Everyone should examine this shift and figure out how it affects them. Everyone needs to develop a plan and a new set of goals built around the utilization of social media for personal branding, marketing, and networking.
Today I watched a video of Gary Vaynerchuk giving a talk at Strategic Profits Live 08 on personal branding and what he calls a Gold Rush. “You can hit big. You can be a maven in your field.” In the wine world, Gary is a celebrity, thanks to the success of his web site Wine Library TV. Who would have thought a web site about wine would land its host on network talk shows? If Gary can do this within the wine industry, what’s to keep you from doing it in your own industry?
In December, I had lunch in Pasadena with Douglas Welch, who I met at PodCamp AZ the month before. We had a long talk about the subject of personal branding, and he uses an excellent phrase to describe the movement, “2008: The Year of Visibility“. You want and need to be seen. This involves creating a brand for yourself and marketing it (yourself).
For social media to go mainstream, a small number of sites had to become extremely successful (e.g. Myspace, Facebook). During the next few years, we will continue to see diversification of the social media space. What does that mean? That means there will be many smaller sites instead of few large sites. It means sites will focus on a niche and become popular for certain groups of people.
In addition to his success in personal branding, Gary Vaynerchuk has a clear view of this shift in the social media space because it is happening today around him. Look at Cork’d. It is a social network focused on wine. Even if you have never heard of Cork’d, you can probably answer the following question correctly: “Who, at the time of this writing, has 1,100 friends on Cork’d?”
Yes. Gary Vaynerchuk.
I generally do not like talking about politics. This article only includes observations on the President’s poor brand image on the internet.
Businesses use marketing and branding strategies to increase sales. If you think about how sales are increased through successful marketing and branding, you will see that the same strategies can be used in other situations.
Good branding will establish trust. Good marketing will get people listening to your message. No company or person should leave their brand image up to others, especially not the opposition. You do not want your detractors’ messages about you to be heard by more people than your own.
Branding
Look at how the President is represented on the internet. Nobody in the administration has any control of the President’s personal brand. It seems to be in the hands of the mass media, conspiracy theorists, and fanatics that swarm around social news sites. Not good.
Marketing
How does the President’s message get to the people? The Press Secretary reads it in a press conference, where representatives of the media then listens, applies necessary spin, and publishes. The mass media does not work for the government and can say whatever they want. Therefore, they should not be put in responsibility of the President’s message. With this current system, the President’s message is given to the People much like a suppository — obviously not a good marketing strategy.
As a politician, it is important for the President to maintain trust with the People of America. Yet on the internet, all we hear about is what they [may] have done wrong. If people only hear negative things about a someone or something, whether or not the statements are true, they will not be likely to trust the given entity.
I do not trust or support President Bush. How can I? I have heard too much bad and not enough good. It is possible that my assumptions (built on what I have read/heard) are incorrect, but who is telling me otherwise?
Personal branding is something very few people consider as an investment in their career. How do you get a more enjoyable or higher paying job? Education, portfolio, experience. Once you have enough of those, you can look for your ideal job, submit your resume, and stand a better chance than the rest at getting it.
Who benefits from a personal brand?
I commonly talk to people about the benefit of name recognition for entrepreneurs. If you start a business and thousands of people already know and trust you, your business will have an immediate kick-start customer base. In the web services industry, it is all about staying afloat until you hit critical mass and become profitable. The sooner you can do that, the better. With that in mind, the name recognition and established trust can have a significant impact on the likelihood of success of your business.
How does personal branding plug into the job-seeking paradigm?
While the entrepreneur discussion is very interesting to discuss, there is also great value in personal branding for working professionals.
I have learned this first hand while building a brand around my name during the last year. To help establish a reputation as a skilled developer, I worked on various weekend projects and released them to the public with my name attached. Some of the projects yielded tens of thousands of visitors while a couple even hit the 6 figure mark. Right now, it is remarkably difficult to find good or great Flash developers. Guess what happens when tens of thousands of people view a simple Flash tool you built. Some of them are likely to be business owners or managers that are in need of a Flash developer.
Obviously, the more you put your work and yourself out there, the more you will regarded as an expert on a topic. Also, the more your name is seen and discussed around the industry, the more job opportunities will come your way. From here, we can take a look at your situation from an economics perspective. If you are receiving job offers, especially in an industry that is lacking good workers, the supply and demand scale is tipped in your direction. The supply is you, which is constant, and the demand is the number of companies that want to hire you.
By establishing yourself in the industry and building your own personal brand, you put yourself in a position to choose from jobs that are seeking you rather than settling for which ever employer will accept your resume.
