This is a guest post by Ben Austin of The Ben Channel.

As I roam the Internet highways, as I mooch around creative members’ clubs in London’s Soho, as I collaborate with brilliant business partners across borders, as I witness many cultures from all backgrounds being empowered by entrepreneurship, as I meet more and more inspiring people; I’m starting to see a movement pumping in the undercurrent so strong that you can feel it everywhere I turn.

It’s the time for the brand rebels to stand up and be counted. The world is ready for you. Never has there been an easier more attractive time to turn up the heat in business. Never has rebelling ever been as wondrous. It’s an entrepreneur’s revolution. Take a look around you. See it? Smile.

Big Brands

It’s almost like there’s been a surge of fearlessness, innovation and dare I say, youth, arriving in the marketing departments of some of these big companies out there in recent times. Where once upon a time these big fish were slow movers, notoriously uncaring, and the most complacent beasts around; now seem to be acting more boldly with their customer engagement activities. There’s now a focus on the customer experience, brand values, social engagement, you know – the things that matter – not what the marketing journals tell us all to do. Look at the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project for a wonderful example of cross-border engagement marketing. What about the Colombian Bank (I believe it was Colombian) experiential experience where they focused on a multi-sensory approach (sounds, smells and proven engagement science) to transform the visiting experience and revolutionise banking for life? What about Ford committing to Twitter as they ace their efforts in humanising their brand and engaging in public conversation?

These are some classic examples of the big boys taking a side step away from convention. Moving industry norms and starting on a fresh piece of paper. It’s like a turn in the tide where the decision-maker that once may have said to their team “stay in the box, but just do it better” are now saying “let’s stand for something different and let’s rewrite the rule book.”

That’s a tune I’d play all night long. Let’s applaud their bravery.

Father of Rebels

Let’s take a look at the Father of Rebels himself, Seth Godin. His Domino Project is a movement that is rewriting the publishing rules. It’s pushing the industry into a new space and letting the customers take the idea for a very long walk. The whole strategy is forgetting what’s already been done, replacing it with something hugely valuable for the advocates, buyers and the forward thinkers, rewarding those that take action and essentially creating a viral storm as a result. Check it out. Is it genius? Or is it just common sense? I think most forms of genius are simplistic, and if you’ve ever landed on one of Seth’s articles, you’ll know. He keeps things light, simple yet very effective.

I wonder what we could today with that same approach? Get it in your think box and stir some magic.

Hand Picked Rebels

As I close on Seth, this brings me nicely to one of Seth Godin’s Domino Project’s chief evangelists, Amber Rae. Amber is a rebel with a wondrous balance. She balances inspiration with determination. She balances being outspoken with endearing charm. She’s curious as well as focused. Check her out, you’ll get what I mean immediately. An inspiring and bustling soul.

Another rebel that has stood out to me recently is Frank Chimero. A man full of insights in the world of design. Exploratory by nature and human by touch. A real design rebel. The man wants to reshape design for Goodness sake. How much more audacious can you get?

And my last public reference will be someone that absolutely knocked me off my feet when I saw their work. Anyone who really knows me, knows I bust out some hearty poems as I meander through life. Well, Austin Kleon has absolutely turned the poetic world truly on its head. Check out his Newspaper Blackout. Instead of starting with a blank piece of paper, he starts with a page full of words and just removes what he doesn’t need. I can’t speak highly enough of what he’s done. Pure, pure genius and the fact we share the same name, well, that just makes me happy.

What Can We do?

The relevancy to you and I suppose the point to all of this is this. If you feel something inside of you that’s itching to break free. If you think differently to those around you, but have yet to speak up. If you are someone who has yet to break the mould from what is an industry plagued with standardisation and lego haircuts. If you feel like exploration is in your blood and you’ve not yet even found your own nose, never mind Taiwan. I believe now is the time for you to get stuck into some action. Be a misfit and be proud. Wear your mac over your head and play with fireflies throughout the night. Radicalise an industry and take the plaudits. Win an award for originality, no make that two. Pay one of your salary cheques to a village in Africa. Rebrand your web page with your favourite words and pictures, not the crap your web designer put there for you. Take pictures of yourself in the snow, naked. Whatever. I don’t care. You should. Show people who you really are. Show the world what you care for. Build relationships. Think differently, if you wish. Be unreasonable, if you believe the answer lies there. In other words, be a rebel. You can be anarchic, unique and radical without breaking laws. In this world, anything goes.
So, over to you. Stand up and be counted. Go and see what magic you can create.

I for one will be applauding you from the stands.

This is a guest post by Ben Austin – Start-up investor. Marketing enthusiast. Passionate mentor. Creator of Brand strategies. But that’s when he’s in the office. When he’s got his shorts on, he’s a travel junkie. He’s a world pen pal. He’s excited about life. You can check him out at The Ben Channel. If you’re on Twitter he’d love to hear from you too @thebenchannel.

Influence was one of the most used and abused words of 2010. I probably contributed with my share too.

But it seems like lately everywhere you turn there is a discussion about it, either to redefine the term, to analyze how it should be measured or simply to say that Klout Scores are not relevant.

Let’s face it, Klout has been under fire for the last few weeks. Then you’re not helping yourself when you come out and say that Justin Bieber is more influential than the Dalai Lama, Barak Obama or Lady Gaga (I think Gaga deserves the top spot). But let’s stop right here, bear with me for a second to explain where I’m going with this and make my point. This is a short post.

Should I Not Pay Attention To Klout Then?

I’m not here to recommend you should or shouldn’t use Klout or to question their formula, Justin Bieber is probably more influential than Obama these days anyways. The concern to me is how we use this score, I think it is a fine metric as a marketing tool for your personal brand and I can even see it as some kind of social proof, you know, another counter on your sidebar. But we should not be looking at it as to measure how much influence we really have.

Let’s Step Back For A Second…

According to the dictionary, Influence is the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others.

Wikipedia says that Social Influence occurs when an individual’s thoughts, feelings or actions are affected by other people. Social influence takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing.

I was planning on adding something on how Klout formula works so I visited the “How We Measure” page but I almost fell to sleep so let’s skip that and if you’re interested in reading that just follow that link.

My 2 Cents

I get it, I’m pretty sure whatever Justin says around these days reaches a bigger audience, has more demand and it gets amplified a lot more than a message coming from Obama. If you think about it you’ll agree that it’s kind of obvious. I was talking about this very same thing with @Nathanael_Ramos earlier this week and I mentioned the time Ashton Kutcher said he was bigger than news. Sadly he was right. Remember the “We Are Bigger Than Jesus” statement by John Lennon? was he wrong? (I ain’t touching that one).

But I want to forget about all that and move forward so, here is my proposition to you: what if we focus on being responsible for our impact!

We all impact other lives every single day and at different levels, from your kids to huge corporations or thousands of followers online. Every decision we make and action we take, every single word that comes out of your mouth has an impact on others.

So if you have “Influence” that is awesome. NOW, how do we stop talking about it and trying to measure it, how do we stop looking at a score to move on to relevant shit like what are we going to do with that Influence?

I’m not about to suggest you start a non-profit organization. I’m talking about how you can have a positive impact through your work and through what you communicate to the point that you can change or improve people’s lives.

There’s No Such Thing As “No Impact”

There is no such thing as “No Impact”, it’s either positive or negative. If you don’t do anything (I mean sitting down on the couch and not say a word all day) it doesn’t qualify as “No Impact”, it is very much ne-ga-ti-ve impact.

If you are conscious about how you affect people’s lives, on and offline, then the result is that you build up influence, you have a positive impact. Sound to me like long term tough. You can always keep staring at the thermometer.

Move on, maybe in a few months we will be saying “Influence is sooo 2010″

List of Words to Destroy:

Viral

Influence

What’s the next word on the list?

What’s Your Take?

We can talk about it, we can acknowledge when a person is influential, we can even compare and list influential people, we can even use it as digital social proof but we can’t measure it with a score and we can’t be obsessing about formulas on how to get it right.

Now, I know YOU have something to say about it so head over to the comments department and express your thoughts.

It’s been a while since we last navigated the topic of Personal Branding here at SocialMouths but I guess that’s about to change. I get a lot of questions about best practices on different social platforms but today, I thought it would be cool to take a step back and review some of the basics of building a successful brand regardless of the platforms you use.

I guess the first question to arise when you’re thinking about whether or not you should put yourself out there as an individual instead of using your company logo as a shield is “do I need to become a personal brand?”

There is a lot to consider but I’ll give you what I think are the most important arguments

• Personal Branding sets you up as an expert in your niche. Whether or not you are, that’s a whole different animal…
• Personal Branding gives you a Competitive Edge. There is only one thing your competitor will never have, YOU

So let’s do this. Sit down, grab a cup of coffee and let’s review these ten key elements that personal brands are made of.

1. Story

The first step on building your personal brand is your story. People want to know who you are and how you got to where you stand today. What makes you an expert in whatever niche or industry you belong to.

A great way to communicate who you are is by telling your story. How did you become the person you are today, how did you move from point A to point B. If you are a human being, most likely you had to struggle at some point in your path to success. You were probably the underdog one day. The fact is that people love a story with a great ending. Give it to them.

One of my favorite examples of successful story telling is Lewis Howes, he has been very open about how he got here from being a football player with a brilliant future to injuring himself and ending up living at his sister’s jobless for six months. The rest is history, the point here is that Lewis has turned his story into inspiration for a lot of people and that also has helped him turn his name into a very successful brand in a whole new arena.

This was one of the reasons I included Lewis in my post “7 Examples Of Kick-Ass Personal Branding” a few months ago.

2. Voice

A lot has been said about what some call “finding your voice” and people sometimes struggle on trying to find the best way to communicate to an audience. You should only worry about three things:

Be natural.

Communicate the same way you would talk to a friend face to face. Focus on translating your real life voice into content, no matter what format, it can be a blog post, a speaking engagement or a podcast. Trying to become someone else only makes you sound weird.

Use simple language.

Be clear about your messages. Specially if you’re writing for the web, get rid of the filler. People can sense when you’re just trying to sound smart. I recently read the book “Rework” from the guys over at 37Signals. I enjoyed the writing style so much I went through the whole thing in a couple of days. Every chapter is so juicy and straightforward you almost feel like they’re gonna run out of material.

Have a perspective.

You need to add value through communicating your own point of view, if you are just repeating what others have already said you are not delivering your two cents. People that communicate their own perspective to existing conversations are able to engage an audience, no matter how old the topic is or how much is has been discussed already.

3. Packaging

No worries, I’m not suggesting you put your face on a can of soup. I’m talking about the design around your brand, how you communicate visually with your audience/community. I know what you’re thinking, “there are other things more important than design”. Well, let me tell you this, the internet of today is so competitive that you only get about a second to convince a person to stay a little longer, that first impression is key to make or break your brand. You need to find a way to stand out in your blog, Twitter profile or Facebook Page.

The packaging of yourself on different formats includes good design, good photography (a family photo with your dog doesn’t cut it, that’s just weaksauce), good copy on your key messages or well produced videos.

Also very important is brand consistency. Those branding elements from photography to typography to key messages and color scheme need to be present everywhere you go. People should recognize you no matter where they follow you.

4. Transparency

People fall in love with human beings, not with robots, publications or PR agencies. Honesty is crucial for all kinds of brands but as you can imagine, this is even more important when we talk about a personal one. As you build up your brand, people also expects to know more about you.

Transparency goes hand on hand with privacy. Make a decision on how much to share online and also set up the necessary limitations on your social profiles.

There are two things I’ll point out regarding transparency:

• People don’t care about what comes out of your mouth, they care about who you truly are. They wanna see you walk the talk. Being a “poser” is easy, for a little while…
• Social media amplifies regardless of the message. Positive or negative. Be careful what you put out there
• When you make a mistake online, don’t hide, instead use the same platform to immediately apologize to your community

5. Online Platform

You need a stage You need a communication channel that allows you to engage with your audience. An online platform to be present, express your messages, promote your services but most importantly to establish a dialog with your community, prospects, colleagues, competitors or clients.

Don’t jump and say “I know! I’ll setup a Blog, a Facebook Page and a YouTube Channel…” First think about what you are going to deliver, in what shape or form and how you are going to reach your audience.

Then you can jump on the more technical stuff. See what platforms make sense for you and your target market and what type of media. Take it even deeper, if you planning on using video what kind of camera. If you are planning on blogging, decide if WordPress makes sense and even look at using a theme or designing something custom. You get the picture.

6. Self-Marketing

We have discussed this topic before, great content doesn’t promote on its own, the same goes for products, services and everything else. Imagine is you prepare yourself to be a great speaker, you also have an important message to communicate but you never make it on stage…

Many people are uncomfortable promoting themselves and that’s why I like to turn this around and put it this way: If you have created something remarkable, something that can help people change or improve their lives in any way, it is your responsibility to put it in front of those people.

Now, self marketing or self promotion as many call it, needs to be done correctly and in the right proportion. I will not recommend that you follow any rules or etiquette, screw that, follow your common sense. The “me, me, me” syndrome will make people turn their backs in no time. I can tell you that I personally have unfollow more than one individual on Twitter because of this and have actually stopped receiving calls from certain people.

7. Social Proof

Just to make it clear before I jump into this point, I won’t get into how big or small your audience or online community should be, that’s a whole different post. Social proof is done everyday in many different industries and types of media. You have seen book covers that read “Author of the Best-Seller Book…” or the movie trailers saying “Oscar winning actor…” or web services display their clients logos on the main page. All examples of social proof.

Online personal brands usually refer to the number of subscribers on their blogs or the size of their community in different social networks. Another good example is when they show the classic “As featured on…”

The truth is that social proof gives us a pretty good idea of the kind of expertise that person has, I mean, if s/he was on CNN or has 100k subscribers there must be a reason.

What can you say about yourself? have you worked with clients people can recognize? have you been featured on other blogs or publications?

A good way to start if you don’t have any of those is to use testimonials from past clients. The funny thing about testimonials is that nobody reads them but we all see they’re there and it makes us feel good.

8. Partnerships

Partnerships between two or more personal brands are essential, they not only give you credibility but also allow you to expose yourself on other people’s networks. Online partnerships are something usual these days, you can find them mostly in product collaborations such as online courses, ebooks and webinars. When you put a product out in collaboration with other influential individuals you duplicate your potential and increase your chances of success.

When looking into partnering up with somebody else, specially online, you should take some time to really know how much reach this person has, how influential or how big of a community s/he has. Ideally you will find somebody similar to you or bigger, if you partner up with a person with less presence online, you are only increasing the chances of the other individual.

We’ll get out of the online world to illustrate an example and let’s move to the entertainment industry:

Jay-Z = Superstar.

Beyonce = Superstar.

Jay-Z + Beyonce = Superstar Powerhouse.

9. Product

Products are an amazing vehicle to build credibility, I’m not going to say it has the same impact as being a published author (I’m talking about the kind of book you buy at Barnes & Noble) but it does help a lot with how people see you. When I say the word “product” I’m mostly referring to digital ones such as ebooks, online courses, membership sites, etc.

But what if you’re not ready with a high quality product? Good question. Start creating, you might not get paid a lot of money at the moment or you might have to start with free products but the important thing is that you start getting your name on some covers and you are learning from the experience of putting these puppies out there.

I have to add something else here because I believe in getting inspired and inspiring people when you set expectations straight. The internet today is super competitive and if you are thinking of putting out a digital product, allow some time to observe your industry and the level of products being launched. You don’t want to commit “brand suicide” by not delivering accordingly.

10. Community

Every idea that sees the light of day at some point will need the power of a community, the same happens with a personal brand.

I wanted to leave this point to the end because if you think about it, no matter how well designed your brand is, where you have been or how much you promote yourself, if there is no community your brand isn’t going anywhere. That simple.

The most important aspect of building a community is that it doesn’t happen overnight. You can create a design around your brand in one week, you can build a product or write an ebook in a couple of months and you can promote it on a daily basis but you can NOT build and grow a community overnight. Building a community happens as a result of all the previous points and much more.

Communities are built through true leadership, by communicating and educating, by answering questions and solving problems, by making others stand out and by changing and improving lives.

Service others on a daily basis and you will be on your way.

Your Turn…

Thanks for reading, those are my 2,088 words on the 10 pillars of a successful personal brand. How about you? can you add something else to the list? I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments section.

Happy Branding!

Can I be a brand? I’m sure it has crossed your mind at least a couple of times in the last year, specially witnessing so many people turning themselves into true web superstars in their niches.

The answer is simple: Hell Yes

But before the photography, the name, the design and all the cool stuff that goes on the front-end, there has to be a solid foundation. As Seth Godin calls it in his last book, you need to become a Linchpin. I wanted to say that because the 7 people I’m showcasing in this post are the real deal, they are not just a cool image.

The outside perception meets the inside reality. I like setting expectations straight, you do not become a brand by looking good online. The web is an amplifier, be careful with what comes up to the surface.

That said, let’s take a look at these people that have turned their names into kick-ass brands. I wanted to show people that have leveraged the social web to build trust around them, at the same time, I didn’t want to go with the obvious (before you go screaming that I didn’t mention Gary Vaynerchuk…).

Danielle Laporte

Danielle is a living brand that goes beyond the online world, she is a published author (Style Statement: Live by your own design), and more recently a contributor on the TV show Connect with Mark Kelley. She advices entrepreneurs through her “Fire Starter Sessions” and blogs at her own White Hot Truth. You can also catch her on Twitter.

Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver and his Food Revolution. I’m sure you’ve seen his Ted talk that took his name to the next level. Jamie is today a true media powerhouse. Stop by his website and while you’re there, sign his petition to make school lunches better. Also follow the revolution on Twitter.

Chris Guillebeau

Chris Guillebeau is the founder of “The Art Of Non-Conformity“, an awesome blog about unconventional living. Chris has it all as a kick-ass brand, great design on everything he puts out there, great writing style, but what I love about it is the message he delivers on his blog and products. I just noticed on his site that his book will launch this fall, I’m not one bit surprised.

Gwen Bell

Here is how I will describe Gwen Bell: Influence Powerhouse. She doesn’t have a million followers on Twitter but was able to get more than 700 bloggers involved on her “Best Of 2009 Blog Challenge” with a simple hashtag. 2 places to find Gwen, her blog and Twitter.

Jonathan Fields

Jonathan Fields runs his own blog Awake@TheWeel where he shares great content about entrepreneurship, work and life. He is also the author of Career Renegade and more recently founder of Tribal Author, a great resources on everything related to book marketing, publishing and launching a book and more. Also follow Jonathan on Twitter.

Erika Napoletano

Anybody that refers to her followers as “bitches” deserves my immediate respect. It is a pleasure to read her just for her kick-ass writing style. She blogs at Redhead Writing, has guest-posted at CopyBlogger and you can also follow her on Twitter.

Lewis Howes

His book LinkedWorking has establish him as the go-to-guy for everything LinkedIn. Lewis Howes is a big player of the social game, he blogs at his own LewisHowes.com and if it wasn’t work enough to run a successful blog, he’s the founder of SportsNetworker. Follow him on Twitter.

Final Thought

Personal branding is not just about the visual image, we have said that, but when you’re ready, make sure you have the resources in place to help you not only with good design, the right messages and the technology but to also represent exactly who you are.

If you’re an entrepreneur, YOU are more important than the current venture you’re involved in. If you work for a company, position yourself as a stand-alone brand, bigger than that company. The transparency on the new web allows you to see a person from all angles. Take a look a these people and the brand created around them to use as models to follow or, if you have your own in your industry, pay attention to them.

Now It’s Your Turn…

Suggest your own now in the comments section. Who do you think has done a great job at branding his/her own name? No matter what industry…

Do you need to promote your own content? If you are NOT Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan or Gary Vaynerchuck, the answer will be yes.

Will you ever get to the point where others share your content and you can forget about self-promotion to focus on other, more meaningful stuff?

Of course, in the meantime we gotta hustle. Creating great content means nothing if nobody can see it, in fact, great content will work for you but only if you put it in front of the right people.

Do you feel funny about promoting yourself? You should if that’s all you do. Let’s get that out of the way from the start, if you only have time to promote yourself, print yourself some flyers at your local Office Depot and pass them around.

Here is a 10 step process for self-promotion. Participate and share your experiences and thoughts in the comment section.

AND… Make sure you visit the links I posted at the end of the post.

1. Make Your Content Easy To Share

This is a topic that should probably have its own blog post but let’s at least touch on a few items:

• Get the focus out of yourself, think of how to write something that is useful for your visitor.
• Write stuff that people like to share, for this you probably need to listen and pay attention to content in your industry.
• Have the necessary tools in place so people can share this content from your posts.

2. Have A Strategy

Don’t go out there blind, know exactly what you’re going to do, when, where and how. Write a quick checklist of all the activities to complete on the day you publish a post. Where are you going to post your article? are you going to do it in the morning? how many times? Is it worth trying to be in as many places as possible or are going to focus on only a few? This will help you have a clear picture and achieve better results.

3. Schedule Everything

Everything should be scheduled. Do your homework, you should know what are the best days to publish content, I find that Mondays and Wednesdays have been better for me but this can be different for you. Be specific, get it down to times, it might be better to post in the morning or afternoon. Consider other time zones.

Your social promotion should also be scheduled, some people say it’s better to tweet between 3pm to 4pm, I’ve seen better results. Depending on the number of tweets per day you might consider posting your message twice that day. Consider using scheduling tools to spread your messages during the day.

4. Your Main Social Networks

A must. If you’re not promoting your content on the main social networks, you are missing out on the biggest traffic sources out there. Make sure your post is at the top of your wall, your Twitter and make sure you don’t ignore LinkedIn. If your Twitter and LinkedIn profiles are not connected and feeding each other automatically, do it manually.

5. Bookmarking Your Post

Bookmark everything. Your checklist should include submitting your blog post to Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit and even Google Bookmarks. Also, take in consideration other services that might be relevant, you can include Mixx and others, just don’t go crazy about this, some networks will not do anything for you.

You should also get familiar with the etiquette on some of these services.

6. Join Blog Networks

Some blog networks such as Blogged or NetworkedBlogs can also provide additional visitors. These two I’m mentioning here can also be integrated to your Facebook as applications. You don’t need to spend too much time here, just set them up.

7. Niche Communities And Additional Networks

Identify additional networks and smaller communities within your niche. Every industry has one or two dedicated networks, if you are in the food or design sectors for example, there are plenty of social platforms and communities you should be involved with.

8. Get Out Of Your Blog

You already did the work inside your blog, spent a few hours preparing your post, getting a nice picture, etc. Now it’s time to come out, the only reason to comeback to your blog is to respond to comments but most of your efforts are to be allocated somewhere else. Make comments on other blogs, interact with your community on other platforms, get out. Now!

Share others. Yeah, I said “others”. Don’t look at me like that…

9. Be Very Active

Plan to spend more time online on the days you’re publishing content, be more active, tweet more. Be present. Have your Twitter client open.

10. Create A Support Group

One thing that can help your content with a little push is having others share it with their networks, if you can have previous agreements with a few people. In some cases this is kind of unspoken and it just happens organically, it has to be a small group. In my case, I know I can count with at least a few Tweets, Facebook shares and a couple of Diggs. I do the same for these people.

Reciprocity.

Elsewhere…

This time I thought I would share a few blog posts I enjoyed on the topic of self-promotion…

• The Myth of ‘Great Content’ Marketing Itself from @problogger
• The Art of Shameless Self-Promotion from @copyblogger
• Content is not King. Self Promotion Is from @lisabarone

Enjoy!

How Do You Promote Yourself?

Share in the comments sections if you do some of these or if you have your own way of doing it…

Are you feeling like you are the only one that doesn’t get any results from social media? Are you getting nothing but frustration while everybody else and their grandmas are talking about monetizing, getting prospects and all kinds of success stories?

Questioning your strategy is a good start. Here is a list of items that might be damaging your personal brand or preventing you from achieving those hard to get goals…

1. Your Content Is Self Centered

I said it before and it doesn’t sound very nice but nobody cares about you or your product. People care about how your product can provide a benefit or cover their needs. Turn it around and think about others. How you can be of help and provide value to your potential prospect. A good exercise to get started is to not allow yourself to write in first person.

2. You Don’t Come Out To Play

You are so focused on creating content and making your blog better that you forget about getting out and interacting with people in other platforms. If you don’t come out and play, when you finally decide to go to the park the other kids don’t even know who you are. A great way is to visit other blogs and comment, but don’t just say “Good Job”, have an opinion. Stay in your field, after all, you know what you’re talking about.

3. You Are All Strategy

If you are so attached to a strategy that you’re not even allowing yourself to experiment a little, you need to let go. I don’t care if you read it from a Social Media superstar. Test different things, allow yourself to make mistakes. When Gary Vaynerchuck was asked (on CNN) what was his strategy, he responded that there is no strategy but to follow your heart. I’m not against having one but leave enough room to be spontaneous. You don’t want to be a robot…

4. You Are Only Promoting Yourself

You’re suffering from the “me me me” syndrome. Nothing wrong with promoting yourself, the problem is when you become a broadcaster of your own message. This is different than any other media, in traditional media you wouldn’t run an ad promoting somebody else. Find content that you thing would be useful or interesting to your prospects and share it with them, I don’t care if it’s your own competitor. If you haven’t noticed, competition has a whole new meaning today, but that’s another post.

5. You Are In The Wrong Place

You might be hanging out in the wrong network. Most likely you know your target market, all you need to do is identify where the hangout is. I’ll use myself as an example (sorry…), I get no love from Linkedin members. Why? Because I’m talking to people, entrepreneurs and independents, not to companies. When I used to own a skateshop, my hangout was MySpace. Eliminate any networks that you feel are not right for your kind of product or service and focus on fewer ones.

6. You Are Not Engaging

I’m sure you heard this a lot and I’m sorry to tell you that if you don’t start conversations with real human beings, nobody is going to notice you’re there. Engage everywhere, not just when people comment on your blog. You can also engage in existing conversations, provide help or answer questions every chance you get. Also, make sure you always interact with the intention to help others, not yourself.

7. Your Content Is Not Being Shared

Make sure your blog is providing visitors with the necessary tools to share your content. Use tools such as Tweetmeme or Digg buttons or sharing systems like ShareThis. Make it easy for them, some people will share your content anyways if it’s worth it but don’t expect anybody to go the extra mile for you.

8. Your Blog Is Not Converting

If you are driving traffic to your site but you are not converting, you should probably take a hard look at it. In my previous post “12 Things To Consider Before Launching Your Blog“, I talk about different aspects you need to consider to have your blog work for you and help you reach your objectives. Are your messages clear? Are you using calls to action? Do you have too much clutter? Take some time to question everything about it and pay attention to successful people in your niche.

9. You Are Focused On Closing Sales

There are no direct sales here, you better forget about it. “Cold-Calling” is dead. You need to focus on building relationships instead and have the patience to let your prospects come to you. If you are used to pushing sales, think of a new concept: PULL instead of PUSH. A hardcore salesman gets no love on social media.

Be generous with your knowledge, people are going to ask you questions and you need to see this as the perfect opportunity to knock their socks off. Now they’ll remember you!

10. You Are Not Familiar With The Etiquette

I’m not saying you need to become a pro but at least get the basics to make sure you’re using the different networks properly. Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter are not the same thing. There are different ways to communicate, to approach people or to share content. Making mistakes is only human and asking is also allowed, making the same mistakes over and over again will damage your personal brand.

A good example is when you’re sharing content, learn how to properly credit the source or how to use short URL’s.

Final Thought…

Question everything. Test new things. Do your homework. The Internet is like putting things on paper, so make sure you represent yourself honestly.

Feel free to add your thoughts to this post…

Photo Credit: len-k-a

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Yep… The conversation has left the building and you might not be aware of it.

Do you know exactly what happens to conversations on the social web? How far they go or where they die? Are you aware of the real impact created by your latest blogpost? Once the conversation leaves the blog, we lose visibility of it, but that doesn’t mean it died.

Let me give you an example, we’ll pretend that you wrote and published an article on you blog and posted a link on Twitter. If you want to see if you had any retweets, you go to your @mentions page on Twitter and you see the actual tweets. Now, here is the question, what happens when somebody tweets about your content and doesn’t give you that @mention? Look at the following graphics:

The first graphic shows a tweet that includes 2 elements that make it easy to track. First, the mention of the Twitter handle of the author which will automatically display on the @mentions page. Second, it is using the same URL and that will let you track it, in this case it is an Ow.ly URL.

This is a different case, and you might be thinking right now that the author didn’t get credit, but this is awesome, a person is sharing your content. The reason it doesn’t look like the one on top is probably because that person arrived from a different source, it is clearly not a Retweet. Here is the question, how do you even know this ever happened if you are not mentioned and it is using a different URL?

So What Do You Do?

You need to track reactions related to that specific post. Sounds easy? It is. These reactions are happening on different social networks, somebody makes a comment on your blog, another person Diggs your story or submits it to Reddit. Wherever the conversation goes, you need to follow it.

Why? Think about this for a second, if you are creating content to attract more prospects and there is an existing conversation somewhere out there about what you said… aren’t those your prospects? shouldn’t you be involved?

How To Follow The Conversation Around You

As usual, I will mention some specific tools you can use, in order to find out who is talking about you.

UberVU

UberVU gathers all the activity related to one specific URL, it doesn’t matter if it was tweet, a digg, a stumble or a comment on your blog. This way, you’re collecting data even if you were not mentioned or the person didn’t use your tiny url…

The other feature I love is the alerts. You can setup email notifications to stay up-to-date on every reaction that happens on the social web. UberVU also generates charts for easier analysis.

Disqus

Is the commenting system that you see in this blog. Disqus actually displays all reactions right at the bottom of the post and it doesn’t generate any analytics for you, but what’s important about this platform is that it literally takes the conversation out of the blog. I have to clear that up because the last time I said that, someone asked me “what’s the point of taking the conversation out of the blog?” and the answer is that it is really not up to you. What Disqus does is give you the possibility to keep up with it.

Bit.ly

As you probably already know, Bit.ly is a URL shortener, but there are a couple of things you might not know. It recently passed TinyURL as the most popular URL shortener and more importantly for you and me, it can be used on Facebook and it tracks the number of shares you get by your friends. If you look at the following graphic, you’ll notice that it is tracking the number of clicks on the URL you create and the ones created by others under the same service, but it is also tracking the number of conversations in different platforms like Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed or Backtype.

Take a quick look…

There are ways to take a quick look and have an idea of what’s going on, mostly with Twitter. If you use websites like Topsy or Tweetmeme, you can see who has been tweeting about you or your content. You’ll be surprised of how different the results are. In this story shown on the graphic for example, which is my latest post “10 Reasons Why I Use HootSuite… And You Should Too“, Tweetmeme says it got 18 retweets while Topsy says it was 24, but the count is useless if you don’t do something valuable with all this.

Wrapping Up

Do you still wonder why focus groups and surveys are dead? Companies are listening to this stuff because it is the real deal, people talking about one specific topic without any restrictions. See it this way, that is your prospect out there, she is talking to somebody else about your service and doesn’t know you’re listening…

A final thought to wrap it up, how about you connect with these people, there is nothing more targeted than this.

What do you think?

I have been thinking lately on finding better ways to explain what I do since I don’t really claim to be a designer, a developer or a writer. I have a couple of ideas I’m doing this week, the first one is offering FREE 1-Hour consultation calls to have one-on-one interactions and have people ask whatever they want with no strings attached. I already posted that to my Facebook Profile. The second idea was to redo the About Me page so the message can provide more clarity…

And lastly, since the{naked}elephant was just massively re-designed and re-launched, I thought it would be cool to show people what’s behind it and that way show what the hell is it that I do. So here it is:

Chasing Simplicity

While the information provided in the original site was valuable, the site had too many sections that were mostly readable with no interaction needed on the user’s side, which makes it a one-way channel.

This time we wanted simplicity to be one of the main ingredients, clean the clutter and get the whole site naked to its key messages. Besides the blog, which is now the homepage of the site, there are only 3 sections: Get To Know Me, What I Do and Hire Me, of course there is the Contact page with a lot less visibility…  What else do you need to know, right? The rest of what you have to say comes through your postings.

Clarity in your Key Messages

I always tell people not to focus on the sections the website is going to have, focus on your key messages instead and then worry about how they are going to be displayed. Question everything, if you don’t, how are you going to provide answers to your visitor. Think about what your business is, why did you start it? for what? the benefits you offer or how you are different. These answers are going to provide answers that will help identify what you want to put out there.

I think the{naked}elephant is honestly representing who Andrea is, even in little details, if you know her then you know she does get distracted by shiny objects.

Call To Action

Tell your visitor what you want them to do, make it very obvious. If you sell products, want people to sign-up for your e-book or whatever you do, that end-user visiting your site needs to know what to do or he/she will look around and surf away…

You have 3 things to do here, get to know Andrea, what she does and hire one of her services. If you want to discuss things contact her, and when you go to the contact page, she tells you that the best way to do so is email. Don’t be afraid to be upfront and informal, this is not a financial document.

Brand Consistency

It has always been there. It’s very tempting to change your Facebook profile pictures every 2 weeks because you get bored, people should remember your face and when they visit another network, know it’s you…

You should be recognizable everywhere I go, from one network to another, if a person goes from your site to your Twitter. Sometimes I don’t even know if I’m still with the same person.

When I did the photo shoot (I admire and respect photographers and in no way I intend to consider myself one) I took different variations thinking of the future, I have pictures in different places and wearing different stuff so I can spice things up a little from time to time without going too far from the brand.

Spreading Awesomeness and getting some traffic back to the site

As I mentioned on my previous post 5 Social Tools To Help You Spread Your Awesomeness Outside Your Site, it is important to come out and play, spread you content out there and bring some traffic back to your site. Hold on! while you might be tempted to go to as many places as possible, most of those efforts are going to be wasted, first, analyze your traffic, test a few places and compare results, then do it again. This a test, test, test game…

After trying different things, Andrea now focuses on Facebook, Twitter, Digg (I’m writing a post about it…), a little StumbleUpon and then making direct connections with people offline. Is it time to stop to testing? Of course not, you’re always testing, even if everything is running smoothly. I just started a Flickr profile… let’s see what happens.

Technology makes a better user experience (and makes you look good…)

I added a couple of things to create a better experience for the visitor:

• We implemented the Disqus commenting system which takes the conversation to whole new level, now the site has Facebook Connect or you can also comment as a guest only.
• I integrated LinkWithin that recommends related posts within the site and it helps you increase readership, average time on site and lower your bounce rate.
• The site is now running on Thesis Framework 1.6, only the most robust WordPress theme available.
• I added the blog to NetworkedBlogs and integarted the application to the Facebook Fan Page and now you can see the blog feed in one of the tabs. Of course her Twitter feed was there already.

To recap what I did for this t{n}e makeover…

• Design (including all graphics and layout).
• I took the photos.
• Site development.
• Created and deployed the personal brand.
• Created all social media accounts, profiles, channels, etc.
• Analytics and all that stuff in the back-end that you don’t get to see.

The Key: Partnership

This whole process is a co-creation, when you have a very clear concept of your business core values, it is very easy to communicate, to lead and to build something that really represents you. In this case, that is exactly what Andrea does and it is clearly translated into the site. This makes the whole thing easier on my side. I have to admit that sometimes she sees things that I don’t but then again… creative development is her middle name!

So feel free to make comments or suggestions… this is not over yet.

We talk a lot about the importance of  having an online branding either for your business or personal, but I have a better question for you: What’s behind it?

I guess what I’m saying is that more important than your branding is the foundation of your business, the core of your product or service.

You can collect followers on Twitter but that’s not going to take the business anywhere if your product or service is not kicking ass itself. Sometimes entrepreneurs fall into seeking for better ways to market and close sales when we really should take a step back and rethink everything from that foundation.

It has been said that it doesn’t matter how good your product is if it’s not presented under a good image, it’s not going too far. Good design and branding can take you to next level, of course there are exceptions, I happen to think that while I love the simplicity of it, everything Google does is pretty ugly, but they still dominate the world… On the other hand, if your product or service is not remarkable on its own, awesome design and branding are not going to accomplish much more than creating a good first impression.

Having a lot of money to hammer your product into your target market through advertising is not an alternative anymore specially if your a small business, don’t waste your marketing dollars.

So there it is, branding should be a secondary element, you got nothing if what’s behind it is not equally good. Imagine how many leads you can burn if you go out there on social media websites trying to promote something that is half way done because you think you can improve things with time, not only you can come short on fulfilling those expectations, but you can also damage your reputation.

Developing a product or a service is also a creative process, it might take longer than you have plan for, but it’s always better to take that time. When you create something of quality, the whole marketing approach will happen in a more organic fashion. Don’t forget that social media is based on conversations between consumers, consumers that are eager to share with their friends ALL their everyday experiences, either good or bad, and you don’t want to fall into the bad experience category. Stuff spreads pretty quick online.

Bottom line, take the time to plan your kick-ass branding and your strategy on how to deploy your message all over the internet, but first take the time to build a strong foundation.

Share your thoughts…

Elsewhere…

Don’t forget to get your Vanity URL from Facebook tonight starting at 9:01pm (PST), even if you think it’s not important today, you will one day. Just go to facebook.com/username

We have already seen plenty of success stories from both brands and small businesses leveraging the power of social media. We have also seen the development of leaders becoming celebrities in their fields through both Facebook and Twitter.

Companies have been successful at putting a face in front of their logo and individuals have become known without the help of a powerful brand to back them up. Numerous studies have indicated how consumers trust more a brand with a blog and social media presence.

Now, how important is it for you to be branded as an individual? Or is it the right moment to do so? The beauty of social media is that it has changed the way we communicate, when everybody used to say that eventually we won’t talk to each other because of computers, emails and texting, social media has brought us together like never before. We communicate more and more everyday.

The audience became the content provider. If you have something to say, not only you can say it, but you can do so in different formats. TV and the advertising industry used to dictate our content, now we’re more interested in listening to what leaders have to say.

First, get your brand

• Regardless of if you are ready or not, you should be checking if your name is available as a domain, preferably as a .com if your lucky and purchase it. You might have to get a little creative with variations or extensions but try to get as close as possible.
• Create an email account with your domain, web-based emails such as Gmail or Hotmail are just not professional.
• Go to Twitter immediately and do the same, the demand for this names is increasing so fast (and they’re free…) that you are risking ending up with a @johnsmith23677353 and that’s not good.
• Do the same with all the other platforms. Start with the main ones such as Facebook and Linkedin.
• Fill out all the information and be consistent in all the networks.
• Put a face to it. Your image on every profile should be your face, don’t try to be funny with something only you understand…

You are not an entrepreneur…

What’s your expertise or your passion? Most likely you have that one thing in which you’re an expert or have an interest. Companies are setting up their employees on Twitter for a reason, people are more important than brands. Start sharing your knowledge little by little and build confidence. Start generating traffic organically. Meaningful relationships. If your content is good or at least you are linking to great stories on the web at the beginning, they will follow you. Just start.

Boost your career

Remember resumes? Over the last few years, not being on Linkedin became embarrassing. Now, companies are looking into how much influence you have, are you a good candidate or are you a leader? You can literally become the candidate of choice. Social media provides you with such visibility that there are people getting job offers on Linkedin and even over Twitter every day.

Listen to Seth Godin

Seth Godin’s new book Tribes emphasizes on the importance to become a leader and promote change. People want to be lead and not by brands. Anybody can do this, and social media is a great tool. This video from TED is about 15 minutes long and it has been around the world in the last few weeks, but if you haven’t seen it, I recommend you take the time…

A no brainer…

If you ARE an entrepreneur or a professional in any field, you cannot afford to ignore social media anymore. You need to brand yourself as the expert and offer your knowledge and experience as your PR strategy. Find a way to identify yourself and make the connection with your brand. In this case, you should seriously consider blogging too.

Remember that social media is based on honesty, big web startups are actively talking to users when their system is down, usually this will put any business down, but when you are honest and you give it a personal touch, people appreciate it.

Whether it is a good cause or a business, you need to focus on leadership and start a movement. Even if you’re not ready, start talking about it.

Share your thoughs…