"NOT having a personal brand is like standing in a stadium full of people and hoping work will find you."
There is a difference between a personal "brand" and being a kickass 10 year-old pitcher. What your son has is budding reputation, not a brand. The brand comes in when he/you/the coach/the company starts putting a phrase, ID or "brand" around your son.
In my case, building a personal brand inside Dell was vital to my survival. In a company with over 80k workers and lots of really smart people how would I get my name on the radar of the executives that might actually give me a shot at something bigger than I was already working on?
This was never more apparent then during a global online "innovation" contest. When I stepped up, after about 30 or so entrants, one of the insiders hooted, "Jay-Maaac!" My nick name had become a brand. And at that moment I stuck out from the crowd as someone to be watched.
Turns out my idea was chosen as one of 7 finalists out of 71 entries. In fact, I had 2 ideas chosen. Is that a rockstar? Well, the VP who sponsored the contest was let go within a few months of the first round and the winner was never crowned. Was it a personal brand? Yep, right there in the crowd, a person basically "sponsored" my pitch. And since this person had been at Dell for more than 7 years, his calling me out was a huge boost for my confidence.
I can think of some branding to apply to your son, but for now I say he should perfect his craft and keep working hard. The "brand" will be established in the process of becoming an ever better player and more importantly a good person.
@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/personal-brand
Note: I really want to explore the elements of personal branding in a future post. But for now, go Google or Bing yourself and see what your "internet brand" says about you. If it's not what you want it to say, then you'd better get to work. Many people and events can affect your personal brand, but taking control of your brand on Google or Bing is a matter of effort and strategic work. I can tell you more about that in a bit as well.
Jan 21 2010
Social Media Proves Successful as ROI for Business, LinkedIN Group Flames On
Posting to the Social Media for Business is CRAP (discussion thread has been deleted) discussion group, I thought I would capture the discussion a bit higher up the communication chain here and see if there is some dicsussion that could happen here.
From my post this morning on the eMarketing Network Association Group on LinkedIN. I think the CRAP answer has been driven to the ground. If you still think it's CRAP you must not be paying attention, or you are living on a different planet. Perhaps winding down this group is a good idea. (with 2,590 posts across 133 pages, this maybe the most active discussion on LinkedIN.)
We could start a new on on the eMarketing Association Group called Social Media Proves Successful as ROI for Business… Maybe not as inflammatory… Just an idea. I'd leave that idea to someone else for now.
What we have here is momentum. People see this thread repeatedly with all the commenters, and then they respond. Either with a I AGREE or I DISAGREE or THE JURY IS STILL OUT IN MY OPINION.
All of those are good responses. They beg for engagement. And many here are engaging at a high level. A few have gotten stuck on sales and attacks, but they are clearly the majority.
So maybe we ask that this discussion be left open to continue the dialogue. Dialogue as in conversations going both ways.
@jamcofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/linkedin-hot
http://bit.ly/socialmedia-is-not-hate (suffer not the trolls!)
Here is a story that stoked my response to the original author's attacks at me and claim that he is going to shut the group down in the next few days.
Claire Burdett shared this great story:
Facebook, Twitter, & Wikis Really Do Impact the Bottom Line
Excerpt: The "ENGAGEMENTdb study" shows that companies who measured as having "the greatest breadth and depth of social media engagement" grew revenues by 18% over the last year, while the companies that were the least engaged dropped 6% on average.
Charlene Li: "This is the first study of this depth on the top global brands and we think the results provide a good guide for corporations and brand marketers in every industry," says Charlene Li, Founder, Altimeter Group. "The success stories we have uncovered provide a blueprint for companies making decisions about how to best apply their marketing and consumer relations resources."
from WebProNews
http://bit.ly/sm-bottomline
Tags: altimeter group, association group, branding, charlene li, commenter, conversations, crap, dialogue, ecommerce, emarketing, emarketing association, emarketing on linkedin, is social media crap?, linkedin emarketing, linkedin goes viral, momentum, NING, online brand support, online branding, online marketing plans, paying attention, trolls, viral discussion on linkedin, webpronews
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