:: a blog about marketing and the business of new media with a dash of uncommon sense ::
Posts filed under ‘Personal Branding’
Are you or your brand’s unique values inspiring others to engage you on social networks? Can you say your brand is this infectious? If not, how can you make it so? (see 3 minute video and watch something go viral right before your very eyes…amazing!)
Update: Derek Sivers talks about how to start a movement at TED using the “lone dancer” video as an example. Great lessons and insights here.
We live in exciting times.
The social media revolution we’re experiencing on a daily basis gives the entrepreneur, marketer, job seeker, product designer, inventor, creator, author, musician, and yes…even you…the ability to express an idea, connect with others, inspire a community, and perhaps even change the world.
Right now most of you are thinking, “okay Mitch, you’ve had way too much coffee,” and while that may be true (about 3 cups so far) the point I want to drive home is – for the first time in history we’re seeing both individuals and micro-entrepreneurs utilize social media to land their dream job, build a global following, build their personal brand, and create something that is bigger than themselves, their product or service.
Of course, this can’t always happen overnight. We’ve all probably heard (and experienced) Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 Hour Rule”, claiming the key to success in any field is a matter of practicing a specific activity for a total of around 10,000 hours (or about 20 hours per week for 10 years).
That being said, the following four individuals have demonstrated that once you’ve found your “voice” and who you want to “serve” you can unleash your passion onto the world using an arsenal of free online channels to both achieve your goals and empower others. Some of you may not agree with their motives (or even like them) and that’s okay. However, perhaps we can agree that if it weren’t for social media their achievements may not have been achieved or at least materialized so quickly.
“Life is about taking risks” – Laura Gainor
After deciding to move from Charlotte to Milwaukee, Laura Gainor launched a personal social media campaign using Twitter, YouTube, and SquarePik (an iPhone app allowing you to add a photo with each Foursquare post) as a means to reach out and begin communicating with @cometbranding who was, at the time, looking for a PR and Social Media Strategist. She landed the job.
How she did it
Laura put the Comet Branding logo on a large poster and took a YouTube video (see below) to kick off her #LauraGainorToMilwaukee campaign. When her and her husband left for Milwaukee the next day to find a place to live she brought the poster and took photos of the logo at each venue she checked in at through SquarePik and Foursquare. Throughout the process she strategically tweeted to @cometbranding to notify them of each check-in, hoping to get their attention.
After returning to Charlotte, she created a non-traditional presentation (see below) that showcased her social media efforts and posted it to Slideshare. The reaction was incredible! Within 36 hours the Slideshare presentation had reached over 1,000 views. She was gaining more Twitter followers and people were contacting her letting her know how much she inspired them or wanted to share her story with other job seekers.
Following the community responses, Comet Branding contacted her to setup a Skype interview from Charlotte. On March 1st she arrived in Milwaukee and went to their office to have a second interview and was immediately offered the position!
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain
Whether or not you agree with his business practices or life philosophies, Tim Ferriss has proven himself to be a master when it comes to online self-promotion and testing assumptions to get optimal results. His results speak for themselves – his book, The 4-Hour Workweek
Back in December 2006, after signing a book deal for the 4HWW, Tim realized he had no real marketing plan. With very little budget and the knowledge that most books fail and those that reach the bestselling list fall off after 2 weeks, he decided to focus his activities online via cultivating relationships with 5-10 tech bloggers who were recognized as thought-leaders by the majority of “earlyvangelists” (20-35 tech savvy males – his initial target audience).
Below is his keynote with power point slides, which reveals how he started a global phenomenon with less than 10K. Please keep in mind, Tim did spend money to promote his book, but a lot of what he did can be done online for free.
How he did it
1. The Law of the Few: Rather than target all the “high-traffic” blogs he focused on the few influential “thought-leaders” who are read by the majority (20-35 tech-savvy males). For more on this concept read 1,000 True Fans or even the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.
2. Offer a Movement or Cause: Not an easy task. Tim created the phrase or category of “lifestyle design”, which has inspired a subculture of people who have abandoned the “deferred-life plan” to create their ideal lifestyle in the present.
3. Front-Load Your Promotional Activities: Instead of executing a typical 4-8 week promotional campaign, Tim executed most of his promotional activities within the first week. He was unavoidable for the first week, which resulted in a few key influencers taking notice (Merlin Mann, @scobelizer, @steverubel), which took the book viral.
4. Nurture Your Community: Tim created the 4HWW forum, but also encouraged people to build their own niche communities around the idea of “lifestyle design” using Ning and Facebook (i.e. Lifestyle design for programmers, moms, etc.)
5. Data is King: From book title, to wording, to post time, to read time – test it all using online tools that are free or cost very little (i.e. Google Adwords, Crazyegg). For example, Tim found the best time to post to his blog was Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday 10am ET or 9pm ET.
6. SEO: Off-page factors (link-building) played a big role in Tim’s strategy more so than on-page. Specifically, his ability (by doing all of the above) to have others create links back to either his blog or amazon page.
Listen to the keynote: To advance slides on the presentation, just hover the mouse over the right-hand side of the displayed slide and click when a hand appears.
“Technology gives us direct power over our own brand.” – Julia Allison
Some might remember Julia Allison from the controversial Wired article back in July 2008. In addition to being a “personal branding machine”, Julia is also a weekly columnist in Time Out New York and co-creator of lifecasting portal NonSociety.com.
Allison is not famous by the traditional definition, but to a devoted group of niche online followers she is a celebrity. At the time the Wired article came out, she claimed more than 10,000 people read her blog daily, and gossip sites like Gawker, Radar Online, and Valleywag that detail her every exploit. Most importantly, however, is that she’s done this on her own and on the cheap.
How she did it
1. Stand out from the crowd – be the “condom fairy”
Julia got her first big break in 2006 after showing up to a Manhattan Halloween party dressed as a “condom fairy”. Her online celebrity status, however, didn’t happen overnight.
It started back in the fall of 2002, as a junior at Georgetown University, Allison decided she had a thing for medical students. So she got a job at the medical school library, where she had the opportunity to meet med students and date several of its members. Before long, she was getting invited to med student parties.
Allison moved to New York in late 2004 with her sights on breaking into the Manhattan media world by using the same strategy she used at Georgetown University – Discover a niche, position herself at its choke point, stay there until people start to notice, and build an army of followers.
In Manhattan, that choke point was Gawker, a media-gossip site that pulls in millions of readers every month, many of them fellow journalists. It was the equivalent of the med school library — the place where Allison would be seen by everyone in her target audience.
2. Engage your fans – fuel the fire
Allison’s greatest accomplishment isn’t just the amount of online content she can create on Twitter, etc.; it’s in her ability to get people to actually care about it. Her trick is to think of herself as the subject of a magazine profile, with every post or update adding dimensions to her as a character. “I treat it like a fire, you have to add logs, or it’ll be like one of those YouTube videos that flame out.”
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2
In July 2007, having conquered the Manhattan media scene, Allison set her sights on a new target: the Silicon Valley startup world. In a flashback to her Gawker breakthrough, she flew to the Bay Area to attend the annual TechCrunch party thrown by influential blogger Michael Arrington.
Allison made an immediate impression among the “techies” in attendance. The next day, Arrington posted a video on his site of Allison cooing for the camera, telling her audience that she had a thing for geeks, and urging them to call her. Soon Allison had become a Valleywag staple, befriended the likes of CNET’s Caroline McCarthy and Sequoia Capital’s Mark Kvamme.
Gary Vaynerchuk helped grow his family wine business from $4 million to $50 million through the use of social media. He is also author of Crush It!
In February 2006, Gary Vaynerchuk launched Wine Library TV, a daily video blog about wine. With the tag line “changing the wine world,” the show offers an unpretentious approach to an historically stuffy subject. Wine Library TV garners 90,000 daily viewers and has now surpassed 800 episodes, featuring celebrity guests including hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and Digg.com founder Kevin Rose, to name a few.
How he did it
While developing the audience for Wine Library TV, Gary turned to the social web. Gary joined the online conversation by becoming an active member of blogs and forums, and then proceeded to utilize web 2.0 tools such as Facebook and Twitter to connect with consumers online. The business world took note of Gary’s approach, and before long he was being invited to speak at conferences and corporations around the world.
The above examples only scratch the surface. There are many more – these are just a few. The important thing to remember is their results can be duplicated. You really have no excuse…you don’t need a lot of money to start, you don’t always need to have skill (in the traditional sense), and you are certainly not required to be on the “most sexiest list” to find your passion, build your personal brand, add value to the online conversation, and empower others.
Ask anyone who has achieved any success and they’ll most likely tell you most of their success is a direct result of being part of a community – be it online or face-to-face (or both!). It will take some time, but remember, doing the unthinkable is easier than you think.
Start today.
Question – How are you (or someone you know) using social media to empower others? Let me know at #empowerothers
