Building a brand is hard work, and terms like “brand management”, “brand equity”, and other corporate buzzwords get thrown around a lot in meetings and vision statements, but it doesn’t have to be that complicated. Building a strong brand may be hard work, but it can be boiled down into a few simple principles:

Be Passionate

It all starts here. If you aren’t passionate about what you’re doing and the brand you’re trying to build, stop. Life is too short, there’s too much noise out there already, and there’s way too many people living lives they hate. Don’t be another one. Figure out what your passion is and work hard on getting there. If you don’t, the next two steps will be almost impossible.

A good example of this is blogging itself. There are tons of blogs out there posting the same content about the same topics, in hopes of making some quick cash. However, being a financially successful blogger is a tremendous amount of work, and if you don’t have the true passion for it, and are just in it for the money, you’ll find yourself posting a lot of the same types of content as everyone else out there, because passion drives original thought, creativity, and honesty. And in the end, you’ll probably make less money than you would doing something a lot less stressful, like working at Starbucks.

Be Authentic

This ties in really well with the one above, but the message is slightly different: be who you are and don’t try and hide it. You can’t hide it very well anymore anyway, and over the next few years, your ability to hide will continue to erode as more and more of our lives move online and become more transparent. Because a brand is about building trust, your partners, clients, and colleagues need to know who you are in order to be able to trust you. Find your voice, decide what positions matter to you, and don’t be afraid to champion them.

I think this is one of the reasons that TechCrunch is so popular. I attended a roundtable on the Mobile Web that was hosted by TechCrunch and Michael Arrington, the founder of TC, was one of the people on the panel. There was this guy in the audience who was absolutely livid at Mike’s position that the iPhone had made Nokia and other platforms irrelevant. The guy was ranting and raving about the lunacy of such a claim and how Michael was so irresponsible for making such a brash statement, and Michael just said that if he didn’t say the things he believed, no matter how extreme they are, no one would pay any attention to him. I think there’s real value in not worrying about what people will think if you throw an extreme belief out there. But the key is, do NOT throw extreme statements out there if you don’t really believe in them (linkbait). People will see through that, and you’ll end up with a lousy reputation.

Be Relentless

Now that you’ve found something that you’re passionate about, and found your voice about that thing, you have one more principle to keep in mind: never settle for doing something half-heartedly, for turning out a mediocre product, for getting by. Concentrate on winning the hearts and minds of your customers by finding out what they want and need before they even know it, and giving it to them without compromise.

Now, a final warning about being relentless. There’s a very dangerous slippery slope here, where you can strive for perfection so much that you never really accomplish anything. That’s a topic for another day, but in general, I would say that if you’re facing a problem where you don’t have the resources to be relentless in your development of a solution, you have three options:

• Cut the problem down into a smaller piece that you can solve
• Find another problem to solve
• Try to do it all, fail, and harm your brand

A good example of this is Apple’s recent release of MobileMe, which has been plagued with problems from day one. In an internal memo, Steve Jobs told Apple employees that “It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store,” and that “We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.”

The moral here is that Apple has created a couple of great products (iPhone and App Store), but they tried to be relentless on too many fronts at once. Better to conquer a small niche and expand from there than try and take on everything and fail.

If you’re passionate about helping others build their brand using social media, then this is a great opportunity for you to share your knowledge.  We are looking for writers who can write a substantial post a couple of times a week and post a daily roundup of links to resources around the web for the off days.

Contact Ben Rasmusen (info at mightybrand dot com) if you’re interested.  Thanks!

• The Five Essential Elements of Effective Social Media Marketing on Copyblogger

• The Power of Commenting on Other Blogs on Problogger

• How to Build a Better Content Model for Your Site on DoshDosh

Twitter is a microblogging platform whose main objective is to document what you’re doing in 140 characters or less (here’s a great video about it). Or at least, that’s how it started.  But in the last year or so, it has grown tremendously and become a powerful social media and messaging tool.

There has been a lot of buzz surrounding Twitter these days, from discussing the plague of issues they’ve been experiencing as they try to scale the service, to the myriad of uses for Twitter.  I’d like to continue along those lines and go over how you can use Twitter to build your brand.

I’ve read some articles by marketing folks on how to use Twitter, but I wanted to offer a different strategy that’s worked well for me.  My approach to building your brand on Twitter is an organic one, one that naturally grows through genuine connections and interactions.  Most of all, my approach is based on restraint.  So here they are, my seven tips for organic twitter branding:

1. Start small
It’s not a popularity contest. It’s ok if your community grows slower than others’ by comparison. The focus should be finding people you really connect with, not amassing followers that you won’t interact with. Start by adding friends and then check out some of the people they follow; if they add to your chosen conversation, then add them too.

2. Be judicious about who you follow
There is something to be said about returning the favor when someone follows you. But I don’t think there is an obligation to do so. It will just ruin your experience of Twitter if you follow people that you don’t really relate to. Don’t just follow everyone that follows you, or that you stumble across. Make sure that they fit with your Twitter stream. If they just add noise instead of value to your stream, drop them.

3. Tweet value
Make sure you’re adding value to the Twittersphere; for example, constant complaints about whatever you’re currently frustrated about aren’t helpful. You don’t need to hide frustration, but try to employ moderation. Constructive criticism and offering alternatives are a good route to take if you need to vent a bit, that way everyone wins.

4. Start conversations
Start conversations by asking a question about a topic, getting people’s thoughts on subjects, etc. Starting dialog with your Twitter community is a great way to get to know people. It lets you see who specializes in what and also give them a glimpse of what you’re interested in.

5. Add to others’ conversations
The opposite is also true. Look for conversations other people are starting and join in. Answer questions, voice your opinion. This shows you’re genuinely interested in the conversation and further encourages camaraderie.  But keep it genuine and don’t throw your two cents in just to appear interested.  In the long run, you’re doing a disservice to both your community and yourself.

6. Keep a good balance
Try to maintain a good balance of professionalism and personality. Give your Twitter friends an idea of who you are without boring them with personal details, but it doesn’t need to be business all the time. Remember that you attract people who are interested in the same things as you are. So if you joined twitter to make friends, then focus more on the personal side, but if you joined to grow your professional network and build your personal brand, make sure you don’t go overboard on the personal details.

7. Know when to stop
Follow some basic Twitter etiquette and know when it’s time to drop a subject or move it off Twitter. No one likes a drawn-out conversation between a select few, just drowning out other people on your Twitter stream. If a topic becomes a bit too verbose, I usually begin direct messaging or send them a direct message with my IM screenname or other contact details so we can continue the conversation privately.

Conclusion
Once you’ve created this network and built genuine connections (which doesn’t happen overnight), you begin to have some weight in this community through adding value to the passing conversation. Your brand equity gradually grows as your community (and your involvement in that community) grows. My community isn’t big by most Twitter users’ standards, but that’s not the key to building your brand online. The classic approach to marketing seems to be to get as many people through the doors as possible, or in online terms to get as many eyes on your site as possible.  In some cases, this just creates a lot of unnecessary overhead; my alternative approach is to always be looking to further qualify my demographic.  So by creating genuine connections, I’m guaranteed a higher-quality of people tuning into my brand, because I’m genuinely involved in the conversation, and so are they.  The bottom line is that it’s more about quality than quantity, and adding value to the Twittersphere, rather than just noise.

We’re going to be doing a weekly post called “5 Minutes Mightier” that has several easy tips and actionable items you can accomplish in five minutes or less that will help you improve your brand.  (If you have any tips, please send them in or write a guest post!)

This week, we want to focus on the basics and help you take some immediate and vital steps to plant your brand’s flag on the various social media services and sites around the web. We highly recommend that you do this as soon as possible to avoid someone else beating you to it.

The basic idea here is to snap up the account names and usernames for your service.  Is it absolutely critical?  In most cases, no.  However, if your name is Jason Stone, it may help your brand to have jasonstone.com, twitter.com/jasonstone, etc.

Domain name - If you don’t own yourname.com, go register it right now.  Do not wait, this one is important from a variety of perspectives, especially SEO.  If you don’t have a registrar already, use GoDaddy (with a coupon).  You don’t need all the extra crap they try and sell you, with the possible exception of private registration.  Regardless, just get the domain asap.  Bonus: If you have a really unusual last name, you might be able to get your lastname.com.

Twitter - We’re huge fans of twitter here on MightyBrand, and we think that twitter and services like it are going to really change the way people communicate over the next few years.  It’s already become a vital branding tool for a lot of folks, so even if you’re not sure you’ll use it, go grab your name, just in case.

Youtube - Yes, the quality sucks, and yes, the popular content is mostly stupid stuff, but Youtube is the undisputed king of video online, with more than a quarter billion users in January 2008 alone (source).  If you ever intend to do anything related to video online, it makes sense to grab your Youtube username now.

LinkedIn - LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals that boasts more than 20 million users.  You may already have a LinkedIn account, but make sure you grab your public profile URL, like this: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwaggoner

Other suggestions: The other accounts you may want to consider nabbing depend on your own needs, the space your brand occupies, etc.  Some other suggestions:

• Skype
• Flickr
• Gmail
• AOL Instant Messenger
• Facebook
• Vimeo
• Digg
• FriendFeed

If you have other suggestions for must-have sites or services, please post them in the comments.  Thanks!

First up is a video by Common Craft, who always does a great job at explaining things in a visual format to make understanding it easy and fun. Take a look at their other videos as well, especially social networking and twitter.

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Further reading:

• Among the Audience - Article in the Economist from 2006 that discusses the history of media and communications up to the present-day development of social media.
• Social Media Optimization - Article in Social Media Magazine that talks about the growing field of SMO, or leveraging social media to build a brand or spread a message.
• Evolution of the Press Release - Recent post from TechCrunch about how PR is changing today due to the rise of social media.  Good example of some of the practical uses of social media.

Finally, just for fun, here’s a clever and fun video from a couple years ago about Web 2.0 and the power of the medium.  Enjoy!

I just read some interesting thoughts on time from a conversation between Tim Ferris and David Kutoff. David puts forth that by using the principles in Mr. Ferris’ book you can cut the time you spend working currently and do additional things, therefore increasing the value of your time:

Money and currency — accumulated excess money — represent one part of your capacity to transact in the marketplace, and can be exchanged for help from others in the form of products or services, including “things” like consumables, depreciable and appreciable assets. Similarly every action you take, whether it be transaction-related or not, requires the expenditure of some amount of time, which is roughly fixed for all of us (say 10,000 working days between the ages of 22 and 62).

This concept of “Compound Time” applies directly to Personal Branding.  To start up a brand requires tons of time, energy, and money.  Nike didn’t start day one with everyone knowing their logo, and Apple wasn’t always associated with the sleek, uber-hip technology they are today.  The good news is that the stronger you build your brand, the easier it will get.  Nike and Apple are now riding the tidal wave of their brand investment.

(CC) Brian Solis, briansolis.com, bub.blicio.us.

As an example, Gary Vaynerchuk has been putting in quite the time investment with remarkable results. Since launching Wine Library TV in early 2006, he’s garnered a large and faithful following online, including more than 60,000 viewers of the show, almost 5000 friends on Facebook, more than 8000 Twitter followers, and loads of subscribers to his blog.

Once a brand is established it becomes much easier to act in accordance with it and build upon it.  But it takes that initial investment.  If you skimp on your brand now, it will be shaky later.  So make every interaction count.

Since this blog is about using social media to build a brand and market yourself and/or your business, we’re going to spend a lot of time talking about spam and how to avoid adding to the noise out there.  Because let’s face it, we hate spam.  We have enough genuine noise and information overload to deal with without having to filter out the promotional messages from every new medium that gains a foothold in the market.  Increasingly, social media is seen by marketers and PR firms as the latest and greatest way to spread their message and gain exposure.  But the challenge is that the lines between signal and noise are increasingly blurred.  Sarah Lacy, an author and reporter for BusinessWeek.com had a great blog post on this topic today:

Then, there are PR people, many of whom feel it’s not their pitches and relentlessness that’s the problem but the medium. So they take the same messaging– chock full of words like “leading provider” and “world class”– and flit from email to IM to Facebook to Facebook chat to Twitter etc. I was doing an interview for a podcast aimed at PR folks a while back and they asked how PR people should use Facebook, Twitter, et all to pitch me. And I said, they shouldn’t. The single best way to pitch me is still email. The moderator, I guess thinking I didn’t understand the question, said, “Well, but you probably check Twitter or Facebook more right?” First off, I don’t. But if I did, do you think that means I want endless pitches for you lame client cluttering up what’s supposed to be a spot to communicate with my friends and loved ones?

She goes on to say that the best PR firms in the industry are successful by cultivating relationships with reporters and bloggers and asking them what they want to cover.  I think that this concept of relationship is a really important one when it comes to avoiding being a “social spammer”.  When you’re launching a new site or venture, it can be really tempting to blast every blogger who might cover your latest and greatest project, but if you have no relationship, if you don’t read their blog, if you’re just another person trying to get at that blogger’s audience, your chances of success are very low.  On the other hand, if you have a few bloggers or communities that you’ve built relationships with and are regularly communicating with, letting them know about this new thing that you’re genuinely excited about is much more organic and natural, and more likely to result in some positive attention.

Ultimately though (and you’ll hear this again on MightyBrand), strong brands reflect strong cultures.  The best brands out there, both personal and corporate, are driven by a certain type of passion for your customers.  From Sarah’s article again:

Zappos seems to be the best company at wisely leveraging Twitter as this surprise Twitter party they threw at Medjool shows. … I asked Tony about his secrets and he said something similar: That it wasn’t about Twitter, it was about a certain mindset towards your customers. If you don’t have that no social media is going to magically make you a marketing wizard.

We’re still learning ourselves how to cultivate this mindset towards our customers, but we’re going to try and point out some good examples of companies and individuals who are doing it right, and give you some of the best tools and techniques to take that mindset to the social space online.  Where you go from there is up to you.

Just please don’t spam us.

For the past couple weeks, the four of us have been tossing ideas around for a blog that would cover building a brand online through social media, both for individuals and for organizations.  This is a topic that we’re all very familiar with from different angles, and we all recognize the need for a central destination where people can discuss the topic.  We hadn’t really decided one way or another if we were going to do it until today, when we went through the 8 hour launch process.

This morning I get an email from Ben Lew where he says that he’s got some post ideas on building a personal brand and he’d like to get the ball rolling on this.  We didn’t have a name or anything at this point, so we all jumped into a chat room together to brainstorm for names.  We finally found one we liked that was available.  Over the next few hours and in between client work and personal projects, we registered the domain name, setup the hosting, put up a Wordpress blog, and found and customized a theme we liked.  This is the result :-)  Not bad for eight hours from the time we decided to do it.

We’ll be posting more soon, so stay tuned!

PS - In case anyone is wondering, the image is because both this blog and giant flesh-eating felines are mighty. Eh?