I believe you are in charge of… “Brand You”.

Social media, including sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Brazen Careerist, can help you connect with people who can assist you with growing “Brand You”, broadening your personal and professional reach. However, it works both ways. Social media when used the wrong way can backfire and tarnish “Brand You”. It’s important to be careful and consider what you shouldn’t do, as well as what you should do to perpetuate “Brand You”.

There are many approaches taken these days to having an online presence. The most popular one taken by Gen-X is not to have one, taking a reactive “please remove” or “avoidance strategy” (no content is better than bad content) to showing up on a Google search.

If we’ve learned anything from Mark Zuckerberg, it is that Gen-Y has accepted the end of privacy on the web. Gen-Y wants their network, or fans, to know what they are doing at all times. They get excited at comments because it shows that people care about them and what they have to say. People like me who are members of Gen-X have not embraced this perspective as readily as our Gen-Y counterparts. I think most Gen-Y would say this is out of our own insecurities or need for control.

The fact of the matter is we are always competing for the mind share of a perspective employer or customer, Gen-X needs to get with the program. In the age of the all knowing Google you will be searched and compared to who you are competing against. Think hypothetically for a moment if 3 people are competing for the mind share of a perspective buyer (be it employer or customer), and they can’t find your online presence, but can find the online personal brand of your competition?!? Chances are you will not be the beneficiary of this transaction.

The only way to be really be in control of “Brand You” in the age of Social Networking is to have your own deliberate and promoted presence on the Web. Ensuring you are in control of what perspective buyers of “Brand You” are going to see, because you ensured your own content is first, second and third in Google’s search results.

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photo credit: -Delphine – Very very busy with my work.

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I read a post from Dan Schawbel entitled Fake It Till You Make It? .

To quote the meet of his post:

The old saying is that you need to “fake it before you make it.” Do you believe this is even possible in the social media world? Between online and offline connections, don’t you think that people will end up revealing the real brand you anyways? First impressions, and how people are perceived in general, have changed so much in the past few years, that it’s harder to promote yourself as a confident person, when someone might video you or greet you in a public situation. If we’ve learned anything from Mark Zuckerberg, and Gen-Y, it’s that most people have acceptable the end of privacy on the web. People want their network, or fans, to know what they are doing at all times. We get excited at comments because it shows that people care about them and what they have to say. Not everyone has revealed their true identity though, out of fear, and certain insecurities.

The web is a harsh place and you will be judged and ridiculed, whether you like it or not. There are three major concepts you should understand, including paying dues, making it, and faking it till you make it

I think what the gen-Y mantra highlights is a desire to cut corners. I think it is fine if an artist or writer tells himself his work is important, that is an authentic depiction of who he feels he is. But too many people have “faked it till they made it” and that I feel is the reason the world economy is in the place it is.

It seems to me too many Gen-Y’s have faked it and made it, but never bothered to learn how to do the job. So many of the problems that I feel can be associated with today’s financial / economic crisis can be linked to Dan’s final example in his post:

You have to appear rich to mentally convince the customer that what you’re selling them will make them rich as well. Is this honest? No, but when you’re first starting out, it might be the only way to brand yourself in certain fields.

These “masters of universe” (to make a reference to Bonfire of the Vanities) convinced too many people they could and should get rich, including themselves. But as the current state of the world economy shows, they never developed any real skills other than the ability to convince others they know what they are doing. It is unfortunate that this type of personality seems to have clustered within the financial industry (where the money is) where there maybe no one left who actually is not “faking it till they make it” anymore.

I would hate to have a doctor who was “faking it till they make it” . How about an engineer designing a bridge, let’s let him/her “faking it till they make it” after all self confidence is everything. How about the life guard at the neighborhood pool watching over your kids? Should they just need to look fit or maybe we should need to see them prove it through actual credentials?

Society seems to allow people in sales or soft services to “fake it till they make it” , but as we have learned through the devastation of all our retirement savings, this has done no one other than the faker any good.

We need more people to pay their dues and learn their job from seasoned professionals who pass on the experience and allow the young to mature and grow into authentic professionals. Gen-Y has an entitlement about them that is fundamental to this mantra they live by. “I think I can, so I can.” We may have let this generation Y read the “The little engine that could” one too many times.

photo credit: cambodia4kidsorg

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One of the key criteria for success within the social web is to start and sustain dialogue. Thus one of the most important parts of blogging, beyond creating great content and sharable headlines, is making sure that your blog is comment friendly and social. This means that visitors are able to have in-depth discussions through the comments with extra features. After commenting, they are easily able to share a blog post with others on their favorite social networks, such as Twitter, Facebook, Delicious and others. And finally, if they are interested in getting to know you better, they can easily find your social profiles.

Here are 3 fundemental ways to make your blog more social.

1. Sexy Bookmarks, is a WordPress plugin that allows visitors to easily share a blog post on a selection of the top social bookmarking and networking sites. Although the number of networks is much more limited compared to Sociable (only 18 to choose from), Sexy Bookmarks is much more graphically appealing. The icons are displayed at half their size, and when visitors hover over them, they pop up.  There is also a cute message above the icons that says Sharing is Sexy.

   Visit Sexy Bookmarks for more details.

2. TweetMeme is a button that encourages visitors to share blog posts on Twitter.   This button comes in two styles, both including a counter for the number of times a blog post is tweeted.  It can also be customized to use your @username in the retweet so you can see who is retweeting your article through your mentions / replies. The button can be added directly into the WordPress template theme, through the TweetMeme WordPress plugin, or directly in a post if you want to only push Twitter promotion on certain posts. Toptenz uses tweetmeme, so feel free to retweet this article for practice! Just click the button right above this paragraph to see how it works.

   Visit TweetMeme for more details.

3. DISQUSS Comment Management System: Is simple to install, but is one of the most powerful tools you can add to your blog to spark conversation if not debate within your blog. DISCUSS allows visitors to receive email notifications of new comments added to a post they have just commented on.  This will make the conversation on a blog post go beyond just one stop commenting by reminding visitors to come back and respond to new comments. DISCUSS also allows visitors to edit their own comments after submitting them.  Visitors can feel comfortable that their comment is not finalized as soon as they submit it, in case they made a typo.  The bonus for you is that you will not have to deal with a lot of requests to edit comments after the fact. Threaded Comments is also a feature in WordPress 2.7 and above which allows visitors to reply directly to other comments, encouraging more in-depth discussions and making it easier for you to reply to your commenter’s as well.

   Visit DISQUSS Comment Management System for more details.

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photo credit: cursedthing

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Amongst my colleges and friends one of the questions I always get asked is… how do I know which social media sites to use?

There is no single, magic or easy answer to that question. It all depends on your goals, your resources and your industry. There is no one silver bullet.

However, there’s nothing wrong with a little cheat sheet to help you determine which sites are best for:

• Customer communication
• Brand exposure
• Driving traffic to your site
• SEO

Which is why the cheat sheet created by CMO.com is so handy. They released a handy landscape that takes a snapshot of the social media landscape designed as a quick heads up of the playing field. It’s not the be all, it does not cover all the places, spaces and platforms – but it is a great start.  It ranks the most popular/used social media sites (from the biggies like Facebook and Digg to the less talked about Reddit and del.icio.us) as good, okay or bad for the four goals above.

You can download a much bigger, easier to read PDF version of it by clicking here.

Related posts:

1. Thoughts About Miss Use of Social Media

I am in the midst of building the marketing and promotion plan for my upcoming book “The Wealthy Blogger”, due out in June. I intend to use social media to promote the book including a Facebook fan (or business page).

To open up some key strategic configuration options for the page, Facebook insists on 100 or more fans before these options become available to the admin.

In an effort to solicit fans, I made a text-to-movie video and have published it both to YouTube and Facebook to see if it can help me in the cause.

You can see the video below.

To become a fan of “The Wealthy Blogger” just click on this link.

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As people go about continuing their education, at some point everyone becomes an expert in something. What is important to remember is that others don’t know that you are the expert in something unless you make it a point to say so.

So what I’m going to introduce here is my own five step approach to how to become an industry expert. I know these steps work because I’ve followed them in the past (previous brands of myself), and am comfortably to the point of saying I’m an expert on a few things; Linux, Oracle to name two. I have spoken at conferences, written white papers and sat on advisory boards. You might be thinking that you aren’t an expert in anything, but that simply isn’t true. As I’ve become more knowledgeable about new things, why not share the expertise I’ve learned with others? Remember everyone is an expert in something! People around you come to you for advice in your field so to them, you absolutely ARE an expert.

1. Determine Your Area of Expertise

The first step is to figure out what this field of expertise is. Remember: passion is very important here because the more passion you have towards a subject the more committed you are and the deeper you are willing to go to be the best. One of the greatest things about the web is the fact this area of expertise can be very specific because of the scale of the internet.

If you are an expert in ice fishing in Michigan, then share that. There are people that are willing to pay an expert ice fisherman to take them on trips. Get this passion onto the web and tell your story. Use this medium to get found! Yes, people will WANT to pay you to take them on trips. Personally I LOVE solving problems through the web and helping people be successful through this channel, hence why I take the time to write this.

2. Start Creating Content

Start a Professional/Personal Blog: The first step to getting found is actually being out there producing the content that you love. The reason I say professional/personal is because your personal passion and expertise should come through in your writing, videos, pictures, etc. Don’t be afraid to establish a unique persona. People love stories so tell yours. (Here is a great post on personal branding from copy blogger that highlights the use of a unique persona: What Belly Dancing Taught Me about Personal Branding)

But Find ways to relate your experiences into your expertise, but this doesn’t mean we care what you had for dinner or lunch. That is what twitter is for. Remember, just because you take it for granted and do it on a daily basis doesn’t mean others have a clue how those things really get done.

3. Start Building Relationships

Comment on Other Blogs: Back links are the currency of the Web. You need the Back links and brand recognition to get off the ground with your new identity, so get out there into channels and begin engaging. Just because you are an expert doesn’t mean that you are the ONLY expert. Also, if there are other established experts out there these are the people that you want to be networking with. They obviously share your passion and you have a lot in common. Start building a relationship with them.

From a strictly search engine standpoint all those comments are back links pointing to your personal site. You should know that 99.9% of blogs have comments set up as nofollow links (they don’t pass search authority). This means that they won’t help your rankings in search engines. The whole point of a link is to drive traffic and if you are leaving great comments then people will click through to see who you are. I can tell you as a blogger I ALWAYS click through to see who people that leave insightful comments on my blog are.

Finally, just to be extremely clear on this step, starting your own blog and commenting on blogs are what help you rank for your own name in search engines. As you build out more authority as an expert, ranking for your own name is crucial! One other tip: having a short name that is easy to remember and easy to type is helpful in establishing an identity. Not that you can change your name, but coming up with a short and easy to remember identity can be a game changer. (More on this in a future post on how/why I am branding myself as paulmacp)

4. Network, Network, Network

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it a hundred more times: most of the time it’s not about what you known but whom you know. I’ve learned a ton about the web over the last 8 years, but even I don’t know everything and would never hope too. What I do know is that between Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and the still not obsolete telephone, I can resolve just about any problem thrown at me.

Those comments I mentioned earlier are a great way to start building those relationships with experts you hope to join! Having six hundred friends on Facebook, two hundred connections on LinkedIn and four hundred followers on Twitter is only good if you actually know who those people are and what they do. You don’t want to necessarily be dependent on them, but you never know when there is a service one could help you with and one with which you can help them. Also, get out and go to social events related to your niche and definitely DO NOT be shy and sit in the corner at these opportunities. A good examples of new type of social event is the meetups on Facebook or currently popular tweetups.

5. Write an e-book

Once upon a time I would have recommended making a presentation at a conference that supports your niche. But professional conferences are quickly becoming a thing of the past, like newspapers. So now I suggest writing an e-book, pulling from all those blog articles, notes and stories that you have compiled on your niche. As if it wasn’t hard enough to get off the ground and make it to step five, this one requires the biggest leap of faith. After producing the e-book give it away for free and produce a 5-20 minute video explaining its key lessons. Think of this as a virtual keynote presentation on YouTube.

Remember your network that you have been building? If you have really built relationships then they will be there to support you. Finally, I just can’t help but address it… If you really know your subject and your audience then you shouldn’t be afraid of putting it out there on video.

Conclusion

Although there might be more steps on this path, these steps stand out as being the most helpful in my mind. The point is to get off the ground and ask yourself if you have the passion and what you can become with it! What steps would you give in this digital age to build a reputation, your own personal brand (more on that in later posts) and become an expert in your niche?

photo credit: alancleaver_2000

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“Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs” Plane and simple Inbound Marketing isn’t a book that any who has participated formally in the net for the past couple of year will find revolutionary. It will put into a written spin on thoughts that you have been trying to explain regarding why this stuff is so important.

The inbound marketing process outlined in this book is absolutely nothing new to me I have been an active participant in the new web (Web 2.0) for a number of years now. As the book specifically tells us, “it’s not what you say – it’s what other say about you.” The whole process is about being “remarkable” so others will remark about you. I always have believed the trick to getting recognition on the web is to build it, have patience, be authentic and they will come and more importantly come again.

The inbound marketing process is broken up into three fundamental parts in the book: get found, convert, and analyze & repeat. It really can be that simple to leverage the web. A lot of time is spent on the conversion process, which is something so many blogs simply do not spend enough time. If you are a business blog or website then you need to have lots of compelling calls to action, not just a “contact us” or, in the case of most blogs, an “subscribe” form. There are also important sections convincing that the rules of the game have changed and how you can better measure and analyze not only your blog but your competition and how you stack up against one another.

Deep down I resonate with everything this book is about. This book is that missing primer that puts the whole process of web marketing together. This is the book for any person who wants to really understand how to market them self, their business  or their brand (personal or otherwise) and to really understand what Web 2.0  really means for their business.

This book is one to keep on your bookshelf as a rit of passage saying that you “get it.” At just over two hundred large print pages with many great pictures and quite a few comics, it can be consumed in a few short sittings.

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On September 30, 2005, Tim O’Reilly wrote a piece summarizing his view of Web 2.0. The mind map pictured above (constructed by Markus Angermeier ^[1] on November 11 2005) sums up some of the themes of Web 2.0, with example-sites and services attached. Original image can be found here.

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For me the video below is a well thought out and put together dig at what I have been seeing an explosion of lately social media (Facebook, twitter, blogs). What has been concerning me most about the use of Social Media and personal branding is the “Lack of depth and authenticity”. It is what is causing so many online commentators to rant about its shallowness, lack of substance, affront to the word branding, an attack on the profession of marketing etc etc.

I am certainly not claiming to be the perfect example of a personal brand, far from it, in fact is there really anyone that could lay claim to that title? We are all evolving our brands and as technology advances our approaches must change with it. Some of are behind the curve, some ahead very few are riding the curve right at any moment. But the point about the technology available to us is that it is a tool to help us communicate our personal brands in new ways, to bring more people inbound to our brand’s hub (this website represents my own personal brands information hub) – IT IS NOT PERSONAL BRANDING IN OF ITSELF.

In the last few months I have found myself commenting on more blog posts, more tweets on twitter and generally having more discussions about personal branding. Not because I am just trying to associate my name with the term and get hailed as the next new media douche bag, but because I firmly believe this is a bona fide approach to brand management – dare I say even life direction and focus – ultimately meaning greater personal satisfaction and positive impact with others. They key difference between being legitimate/authentic and being a douche bag is how much of your information flow over these social links is directed at you or are legitimate attempts to help the quality of life of others – answer a posted question on twitter for example, or recommend a good book or other blog to solve a well known problem (without an affiliate link).

Related posts:

1. The Social Media Landscape

I was born Paul Gordon MacPherson in St Catherine’s Ontario, Canada March 5 1968 with my twin brother Mark. I was born 6 or so minutes ahead of my brother. I moved in my first year to Burlington, Ontario and stayed there until I was 5 or so. We then moved to Toronto and stayed there until moving to Thorn hill Ontario when I was 10. I then proceeded to attend three High Schools in 2 years. Two of which my presence was no longer requested by management (my inability to fallow authority blindly came out a little too often in my younger years). When I was 15 I moved with the Family to New Jersey and managed to graduate from Mahwah High School in 1987 as the Executive Student Council President.

I attended George Washington University in Washington DC, and actually lived in the residency next door to the White House. I returned to Toronto in 1990. I was married for a few years and moved to Calgary Alberta, Canada after the demise of my marriage in 1996. I have an amazing daughter (Amanda) as a by product of that union. I just recently moved back to Toronto in March of 2009.

Professional

I have been a computing professional longer than I can remember. I started using computers when I was 15, and must thank my brother for letting me keep ‘our’ computer in my room. Before graduating High School I had already started using my computer to make money. I was making ambient (silent) videos for the local night clubs to display on their TVs while the DJs payed their music with scrolling advertising. This may not seem like a big deal now, but in 1984/85 it was a lucrative market for me. I was making a lot more money than the average 11th grader.

A high point of my career was working for Sun Microsystems for nearly 10 years. I worked as a system engineer and consultant in the various roles I had over the years. I was more a Oracle guy working in a UNIX shop than the UNIX guy who used Oracle. (if you don’t know what I mean by that… don’t worry about it).

After Sun I went on to work as a Senior Consultant and Practice Lead for a small but flourishing consulting company based in Calgary Alberta. In the two and half years I was the Practice Lead I took my practice (UNIX and Database Services) from 2 consultants (I was the second), to well over 20ty. I created and ran a 3+ million dollar a year business.

I work currently as IT Infrastructure Specialist for a TV station here in Toronto. I am the primary resource (level 3 support) for the Linux and Oracle technologies within the organization. As far jobs go, its a good job.

Web

I have been on the web since 2002. My websites pre-date blogging as it is known now. I have used various CMSs (content management systems) over the years from Nuke, Post-Nuke, Type Pad and now WordPress. I am fluent in HTML, PHP and CSS. From 2004-2008 I had a VERY popular blog e-pauly.com that was mentioned on the ‘Howard Stern Show’ a few times and was named one of the ‘50 Sexiest Girly Sites’ on the internet by zoo magazine in the UK (Europe’s answer to Maxim magazine) http://zootoday.com (July 7, 2008).

This is what zoo magazine said about me and the site: e-pauly.com/collections — All has been revealed by the creator of this site, who diligently spends his weekends photographing sexy barmaids. Next time you see him, buy him a drink – then tell him to get snapping again.

In the years that I ran this site I learned a great deal about product branding on the web. At it’s high point I had a individual readership (as measured by unique IP addresses) larger than the Calgary Herald. 1 in every 20ty Calgarians read my blog monthly, or should I say looked at the pictures (you can go to the photoblog and see some of my e-pauly pictures, to get an idea of why).

In July 2008 I retreated from the web proper and just dabbled on facebook. In January/February 2010, I returned with a number of web initiatives:

• paulmacp.com – This blog
• authors-journey.com – Where I will log my experiments in authorpreneurship, this blog will keep track of one man’s journey out of publishing obscurity.
• paulmacp.com/photoblog – My photo blog, I am a hobbyist photographer and this where I display some of my better pics.

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The Wealthy blogger is the name of my first book, or should I say, it will be when it is published this summer. The manuscript is in it’s third draft and I am interviewing potential editors to help me take it the final mile.

The concept of the “The Wealthy Blogger” in 100 words or less:

The Wealthy Blogger is not going to be about new techniques, complex strategies, nor get-rich-quick-or-even-semi-quick schemes. Instead it will focus on the financial planning basics that, over time, have always proven to be effective. It’s primarily common sense—common sense that, unfortunately, in our society is not common knowledge. By using a “blogger” format and some doses of humor, The Wealthy Blogger will take the intimidation and boredom out of the financial-education experience.

I believe the wisest tips on how to develop a financial plan are of little use if they are not conveyed in an understandable manner—a manner that responds effectively to the questions and concerns of the reader. Likewise, the most articulately expressed thoughts on finance may be wasted if they are not presented in an entertaining style—a style that maintains the interest of the reader.

So how does one write an understandable and entertaining financial planning book?

I hope and believe that The Wealthy Blogger answers that question, by taking a “novel” approach to the teaching of financial planning.

Rather than inundating you with intimidating charts and graphs and a series of lifeless numbers, The Wealthy Blogger will both entertain and inform you. Through a fictional online conversations between Jim, our financial hero, and his online prodigy Kristen, you will learn that sound financial planning is not only relatively simple, but it can also be fun. The book is due out June 15th and will be available online and at a book store near you.

To find out more about the progress of this project, you can visit my other blog “Author’s Journey” where I go into more detail about my personal journey from unpublished to published author.

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photo credit: gualtiero

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