I used to think that you should not talk about yourself in your blog content. I actually read it somewhere and for a while I was careful not to do it.

“Always think about your audience. Nobody cares if you’re having coffee…”

But today I have a different opinion. Today I strongly believe in delivering the human being in your content. Let me tell you what I mean and share with you my own experience and what I learned:

Becoming Human Online

Following the rules

When I started blogging I followed a set of rules that was gently injected into my brain by the big boys in the blogosphere. I’m not saying it was bad advice, keep reading. For a while I kept myself out of the equation when I was writing content, I focused on talking to YOU and providing value for YOU.

Experimenting a little

I was able to start building an audience but, at some point I got uncomfortable and felt like I was reading the news. I started experimenting about how I write, I started using WE instead of YOU and, little by little started sharing my own thoughts.

Be fucking human man…

But somewhere in the process I was able to relax and write in the same way I would speak to you if you were right in front of me. I don’t have the best grammar either, English is not even my first language but hey… this is really me. And people seem to appreciate that.

I give you facts, opinions, I even admit that I’ve said something in the past and now I changed my mind. I talk about me, you, us, Bob Marley. Who cares.

When you start been too careful about what you say and how you say it, you stop being human.

What I Learned

First, I think that if you’re barely starting to blog or you haven’t yet started to build an audience is better to stay clear. Let’s be honest, if I don’t know who you are I really don’t care if you’re a coffee lover. Even if I love coffee too. I think it’s very easy to lose readers like that at the beginning.

My second point is that you need to experiment in order to find how to express yourself in a natural way. See how some people say that you need to find your voice? that sounds complicated, just find the way to be yourself. Period.

And lastly, be you, speak out, give your opinion, express your thoughts. If you find the way to be yourself when you write online, you are able to give so much more to your audience. Believe me, people can feel you.

@JonMorrow, Associate Editor of Copyblogger, calls it bonding. You tell people about yourself so they get to know you. People like to do business and buy products from someone they know.

Let’s look at some ways of humanizing your content:

Your Personality

How is your blog different?

How is your business different? For years I wasn’t able to answer this question. I thought the question was just stupid. I had a business that for a while was by far the leader in a segment. It was clear to everybody. I still didn’t know how it was different from the competition or at least how to come up with enough B.S. to answer the stupid question.

All blogs look about the same, same technology is accesible to everybody, stock photography is everywhere… There is only one aspect of your blog that is different from all the others: YOU.

If you don’t deliver yourself in your content, you blog is just like any other blog.

Your Perspective

Why do I care about reading YOUR blog post about “How to become an early riser” when I can read it from 10 other blogs?

Because you have your own thoughts and points of view about a topic and you make sure to express them in your writing. I enjoyed reading about productivity from Leo Babauta because I was able to feel a connection with how he approaches the whole thing. I actually bought his book knowing I wasn’t going to follow his method (I have issues with methods, specially on productivity) but his perspective gave me so much it was totally worth it.

Your perspective sets you apart from others and makes you human.

Your Tone

The tone you use in your writing may not seem as important as the other points but it is. It allows you to express yourself in a unique way. As I mentioned before, forget about “finding your voice” and focus only on finding yourself.

Do this exercise, visit some blogs and see if you can identify the blogger’s tone of voice, you will totally be able to tell if that person is trying hard to write like that or if it feels natural. Try to recognize different tones and tell me if you don’t get a little bit of the human being behind the words.

Tell Your Story

There is one more thing I did a few months ago, I took my “Who Is This Dude?” page and I made it more personal. I decided to share a little bit more of who I am, a short version of my story and how I got here. Shared a couple of lines about my kids and my current dreams. Nothing too crazy.

I’m not trying to say that I did a great job or that my story is so kick-ass but here is what happened. It turned into one of the most visited pages, a lot of people visiting for the first time hit this page after landing on a post (you can see this kind of stuff on your Google Analytics by the way…). I’ve received tons of positive comments about it and believe it or not, I have landed a couple of clients that actually said “I read your story, you’re my kind of guy and I wanna work with you”.

Story telling sells. Telling your story makes you human and, people want to associate with human beings.

Making Connections

When you start your whole online presence as a business or personal brand by humanizing what you put out there, you are making it easier for people to connect with you. Your audience will relate to your story, agree or disagree with your opinions and, starting a conversation with you will feel organic.

This is the same reason we sometimes advise to remove your logo from your social profiles and become the front man of your business.

Final Thought

Here is what I did with this post, I told you how important it is to humanize your blog content and, I did it by sharing my own experience and my points of view, right or wrong, my 2 cents. Did it come out like a “me, me, me” post? I hope not.

What are you doing to humanize you content? Share with the rest of us in the comments section.

Did you join Quora already?

Don’t worry, I’m not planning to give you a ride through how it was conceived, who the founders are or how much money they raised. So in order to get that out of the way if you’re not familiar with the story, let’s do the quick version in one paragraph…

Quora is a questions and answers site with the social network characteristics, you can follow people and they can follow you back, you can vote on content, etc. It was founded by two ex-Facebookers in ’09 (why is it always 2 guys? can’t they be 3?). Investors dropped a ton of cash on them with the hopes it will turn out to be the next Twitter and more recently, it has been the talk of the town now that it is completely open and spreading like there’s no tomorrow.

An article on AdAge said the application at the moment is mostly inhabited by social media types. I don’t know, I think they are called “early adopters” but whatever.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s move on to what we really care about…

Why Should You Join

I wrote 4 reasons why you should join Quora today. I know you have your own opinions on the matter so it would be cool if we discuss it in the comments section. So let’s do this thing…

1. Build Trust

It is a perfect opportunity to be helpful, another way to focus on others and deliver your 2 cents.

Quora will turn into a great social proof vehicle whether you like it or not. Your answers can very easily help you position yourself in whatever niche. This a tool that can help you claim expert status. Everything is done in public, right in front of your audience.

Very simple: Quora is a must to build your personal brand.

2. Your Community Is Already There

“Why should I start somewhere else if I’m already here and have connected with a growing community?” It is natural to think that. I’m always the first one to tell people not to try to spill their awesome sauce in so many places.

I have already connected with 400+ people in the first couple of days without any work. This is done at the registration process through connecting your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Nothing new, right? Well, I actually found so many people I see on Twitter on a daily basis that besides feeling like the last one to get to the party, I realized that my tribe was already there.

Quora is the hottest thing since Foursquare. Is it going to be next Twitter? Who cares. If you focus more on the human aspect of things you will be able to create an awesome experience for your audience and for yourself.

3. The Mechanics

The mechanics are very cool because besides the game rules it’s pretty much controlled by the community. Not only you can vote on relevant content but you can also edit.

Why is that so special? you ask. The power of community baby, this prevents misuse of the platform like excessive self-marketing, content manipulation and others. I said before that Quora is a must for personal brands but you also need to be careful in learning the etiquette. Make sure you take some time to observe.

4. Get Some Traffic Love

I can’t say that I have been very active since I joined and SocialMouths already had some traffic coming from it this past week. Please don’t head over there to sign up just to generate traffic, applications and networks don’t bring any traffic to your site or blog, YOU do.

Final Thought…

Don’t look at Quora as another network you need to maintain and be present all day. Look at it as another way to put yourself out there and communicate a valuable message to the right audience.

Oh! I almost forget, here is my Quora Profile if you care to connect with me over there =)

Participate by adding your comment, what do you think? are you already in? or what is your experience so far? Also, be my guest and add your Quora Profile URL so others can follow you.

Elsewhere

3 awesome things happened earlier this week for SocialMouths. It all started with the 8th issue of the digital magazine “In Tree Houses” which features me for the second time along with heavy hitters Chris Brogan, Naomi Dunford, Naomi Niles, Fabian Kruse, Cori Padgett and others. Here is the link to download it for free. I freakin’ love this magazine!

SocialMouths was also nominated (for the 2nd time) as one of SME’s “Best Social Media Blogs of 2011” Finalists along with some pretty scary names and also with some friends like Kristi from Kikolani and Stan from PushingSocial. I was also part of a list that makes me really happy, it was the “24 Bloggers Who Will Entertain, Inform and Inspire The World in 2011” by Srini at The Skool of Life. Truly a list of very inspiring individuals, some of them I read just to get started every day.

Thank you all for the support!

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.

Yep, it’s that time of the year when we publish and consume an unusual amount of best of and top 10 list. And who am I to change the tradition?

So today I’m delivering a compilation of the Top 10 posts of 2010 right here at SocialMouths. In case you missed something…

Also, there are a couple of things I want you to read at the end of this post =)

But before I start with that I have a quick…

A Thank You Note For My Readers

I want to do this now because I know the last week of December is very slow as many of us disconnect to be with our families.

I can’t deny that this has been a great year for SocialMouths in terms of the things you can measure. I’m at about 50k monthly pageviews, bounce rate is insanely low, the subscriptions are at a growth rate that I didn’t expect and I could keep going… I’m thankful for that because it means some of you like what I’m putting out there.

But I’m mostly thankful for the great connections I have been able to establish as clients, fellow bloggers, readers or just friends. The focus for 2010 was to try to deliver as much as possible without asking for anything in exchange but I was definitely able to also receive so much awesome sauce from you guys that I feel I need to come back in 2011 with much more. So that is the intention!

I don’t wanna put you to sleep so… Thank You. Thank You. Thank you!

The Top 10 Posts Of 2010

Instead of building this list based on traffic only I took some of the engagement measurements from PostRank, which provides me with a better understanding of how you guys interact with the content, inside and outside the blog. Let’s see what came up:

1. How To Build Your Facebook Landing Page (If You’re Not A Programmer)

Building a Facebook Landing Page is easier than you think, even if you are not a programmer.

This week we’ll look at a topic that might seem basic for some. For other people, specially new visitors, this might feel like “been there done that”. Yes, there are too many blog posts out there that have discussed the topic but I’ll promise you this: In the usual SocialMouths style, we’ll go over the why, the what and the hows of building a landing page for your Facebook Page. Why is it important? What do we need to consider? and…

A guide to building a basic Facebook landing page. Yes, step-by-step, with screenshots and everything! You already know how I love to be very visual.

Read The Post…

2. 15 Blogs To Follow If You Want To Kick Ass Online

Being successful online requires that you beat a pretty long learning curve and while I try to contribute with my 2 cents, there are amazing bloggers out there that you should be reading on a regular basis.

These people put their amazing talent and knowledge into blog content and deliver it to their online communities week after week.

I have to advise you that if you see that I’m not going with the obvious is for 2 reasons, one because I like helping you discover stuff that you might have missed (there is just too much content out there…) and two, not that I don’t occasionally read the usual suspects, but this is the stuff I visit frequently. Also let me say that this is not a ranking so don’t pay attention to the order.

Read The Post…

3. 7 Examples Of Kick-Ass Personal 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.

Read The Post…

4. 10 Tips To Drive Twitter Traffic To Your Blog

Do you wanna drive Twitter traffic to your blog like it’s 5pm in Los Angeles?

Okay, I understand this post is not for everybody. I wanted to write it anyway because I’ve had a few people ask about my own experience, so I decided to share some of the things I do.

Twitter can become your blog’s best friend when it comes to traffic. I’m not suggesting that you use it for that purpose only but, if you run a blog and feel like you could be getting a little more love from it, perhaps you should adjust your strategy and integrate some of these tips.

There are some basics that we are going to skip, like having a good descriptive bio, link to your blog, take advantage of the real estate on the background, etc.

Read The Post…

5. 20 Social Media Divas You Should Be Following

To finish the week, we wanted to spread some love and create a list of the most influential women in social media today.

These women are either providing great content online or leading the industry into new concepts or technologies. The truth is that they are leaders worth following online.

Two things to mention before going on the list:

First, There is no specific order, this is not a ranking, I just listed 20. And…

Second, of course there are many more that I probably left out but it’s your turn to add your favorite divas in the comments section of this post.

Read This Post…

6. 13 Quick Tips To Write A Successful Post

Writing content is not easy, no doubt about it.

Then we usually go and start worrying about how to make that content easy to share, how to provide valuable information, how to engage readers and so on to make it even harder.

How do you write your content? There are just too many things to consider…

In the last couple of weeks I was asked a few times on what are the things I consider when writing a post, so I thought of putting a list or items together which then turned into this post. I hope it can of help to you.

I will also ask you to participate by adding to the list or simply discuss the recommendations I’m posting.

Read This Post…

7. How To Set Social Media Goals

The point of setting goals and tracking results is to become aware of how your actions impact the outcome.

If you take conscious steps and then observe the reactions, you become responsible and completely aware of how you control those results.

Awareness = Control

If you think you can’t control what happens in social media, perhaps you should try taking a look from a different angle. Just looking at the pretty charts on Google Analytics or the number of Retweets on your posts won’t be enough to actually gain control over the results.

One of the things I love about blogs like ThinkTraffic is how they publish monthly reports, mostly on how they grow blog traffic. They turn themselves into a case study as a way of teaching people with their own experience.

Read This Post…

8. Why Is Social Media Not Working For You

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…

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.

Read This Post…

9. Social Media: So, Are Numbers Important Or Not?

Followers, Likes, Retweets, Subscribers… Is any of this stuff important? I’m sure you’ve listened to both sides, “get more followers” and “numbers are not important”.

There is a lot of noise on both sides, people telling you that numbers are important are usually trying to sell you some kind of software and people telling you they’re not, have 50k followers and get retweeted like crazy. So which one is it?

I’m going to tell you when and why numbers are important, or not.

Let’s take it step by step…

Read This Post…

10. How To Promote Your Blog Before Its Launch

One of the toughest parts of starting a new blog is getting some visibility.

The problem with doing your initial promotion post-launch is that at that point you have already develop a new series of activities such as content management or front-end interaction. These tasks will considerably reduce your time and resources.

What if you could instead create buzz around your blog even before its launch and before you drop a line of content in it? In this post I’ll share with you a few ways you can build hype about your launch and go live with traffic already coming in your door.

Read This Post…

Elsewhere…

Top 10 Social Media Blogs

It is also time to vote for your favorite social media blog at the Social Media Examiner “Top 10 Social Media Blogs” contest. If you enjoy reading SocialMouths head over there and nominate it (it takes a couple of minutes, really). Go VOTE. Thank you!

In Tree Houses Magazine

It was a great week for me in terms of exposure, I was featured in two different venues that not only are kick-ass but I also consume religiously. The first one is the In Tree Houses magazine by Thom Chambers that went live and is now available for download. If you’re not familiar with it I strongly recommend it. It focuses on how to reach your 1,000 true fans and it always features great individuals. The magazine is loaded with freakin’ awesomeness and it is completely free.

BlogCastFM Interview

The second one is the interview I did with Srinivas Rao for BlogCastFM in which we discussed the creation of compelling personal brands, building small communities and spending less but more meaningful time on your Google Analytics among other things. This is another one of those sources of great content I never miss and what I love about it is that it is based on audio interviews with the most relevant bloggers, online marketers and digital entrepreneurs around.

So thank you both Thom and Sniri, you guys inspire me.

Over To You

One more thing, so I’m able to deliver more in 2011, I wanna ask you to tell me what topics you would like to read about on SocialMouths. What kind of questions do you have that I can hopefully help you with. Use the comment section below, go crazy!

I’m not done this year but, like I said at the beginning, the last couple of weeks of December are slower so I wanted to do this now.

Hope you enjoy the posts!

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!

Being successful online requires that you beat a pretty long learning curve and while I try to contribute with my 2 cents, there are amazing bloggers out there that you should be reading on a regular basis.

These people put their amazing talent and knowledge into blog content and deliver it to their online communities week after week.

I have to advise you that if you see that I’m not going with the obvious is for 2 reasons, one because I like helping you discover stuff that you might have missed (there is just too much content out there…) and two, not that I don’t occasionally read the usual suspects, but this is the stuff I visit frequently. Also let me say that this is not a ranking so don’t pay attention to the order.

Why am I sending traffic to other blogs? Am I crazy? That’s just how I roll… enjoy and I hope you find something awesome!

Think Traffic

I just love the approach, it presents a different view at building website traffic. It delivers advice that’s easy to understand and also the transparency to showcase itself as a case study so you can learn from real experience. ThinkTraffic is the second blog from Corbett Barr, author of FreePursuits.

The Launch Coach

Dave Navarro, known as @rockyourday on Twitter, takes it to the next level by teaching you how to launch and sell products online like there’s no tomorrow. TheLaunchCoach is a great resource to learn how to monetize your online presence. He’s also the author of the famous ebook “How to launch the **** out of your ebook”.

ViperChill

Glen Allsopp teaches you how to build traffic, get hundreds of comments, tweets and subscribers. My advice is that when you are trying to learn from somebody, do so from a person whose achievements are obvious. ViperChill has that. If you need creds, this kid was the social manager for brands like Land Rover, HP and Nissan at 18 (No, that’s not a typo…).

Mars Dorian

If you’re tired of reading the same old boring crap about online marketing and personal branding, Mars Dorian is your guy. Just out of the ordinary, kick-ass content with fresh design and writing style. One more thing, you gotta love the photography! Also follow him on Twitter.

Fuel Your Blogging

Part of the Fuel Brand Network, it delivers advice on all aspects of blogging from writing content to promoting and building community. Fuel Your Blogging feels very light as they usually craft very short and fresh posts. Most of the content here is created by Brandon Cox, who deserves a special mention.

IttyBiz

IttyBiz has the perfect tagline to describe itself, “Marketing for businesses without marketing departments”. The blog is ran by Naomi Dunford, who is a true ninja if you hang around the social platforms and the blogosphere. Make sure you visit the store for a collection of kick-ass marketing products.

CopyBlogger

I don’t need to introduce CopyBlogger. The only reason I have included it in this list is because I think this is really a solid source for any level. The blog includes amazing sections on topics such as Landing Pages, SEO or Copywriting 101 (look over the left sidebar…).

Social Media Examiner

Solid social media advice for business people, lots of it. Usually very meaty posts with lots to chew on. What I love the most about Social Media Examiner are the contributors, you get content from people like Denise Wakeman or Mari Smith.

The Hubspot Blog

Hubspot talks about blogging, SEO, social media, analytics and other stuff, but what I like about it is the Lead Generation advice. In this case we’re talking about a company rather than a blogger but we are after the knowledge to beat the learning curve. Hubspot also offers a lot of webinars that are very good resources to speed up you learning process.

Convince & Convert

Another one in the social media department, this one is a little bit more on the advance side. Jay Baer’s Convince & Convert is probably one of the only blogs I read on social media. Solid and consistent content.

Kikolani

Straight up kick-ass advice on blogging and social media. Kristi Hines of Kikolani is not afraid to lay it all out, she shares a lot of resources, links, tutorials, etc. She also contributes to sites like SME.

Famous Bloggers

Do you want lots and lots of content on blogging in general? Famous Bloggers has an awesome frequency of quality advice. This is another one with lots of contributors, I particularly look for stuff from Kristi Hines, Hesham (its founder) and Julius Kuhn-Regnier.

TopRank

One of the most recognized blogs in the online marketing world. Top Rank is definitely one of the few you need to have in your learning toolbox. It covers SEO, social media, content marketing and PR. Top 5 in the AdAge Power150 blogs. Also, follow Lee Oden on Twitter.

Kaushik

You can’t ignore analytics. This one is from Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0. Leaning more towards the advance level. Long posts loaded with great concepts, thoughts, examples and graphics.

Search Engine Journal

I have to admit I don’t read much about SEO, Search Engine Journal is probably one of the only places I visit because of the content, easy to understand for regular human beings. The blog also delivers content on social media, PPC and other very useful topics. Look for Ann Smarty‘s posts…

Me?

Hopefully I can continue to build up SocialMouths and provide value too. Let me know if there is something you would like to read here or if you have any ideas on what direction you would like me to take. I’m always open to ideas, specially if they’re kind of crazy!

Your Turn…

As usual, in these kind of lists, there is always somebody left out… I’m sure there are lots of cool people and blogs delivering awesome content that I failed to include, but I need to keep working, you know?

So why don’t you help me by adding your favorite blogs and participating in the discussion by adding in the comments!

Tweet

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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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.