The first presentation of the day, titled “Social Media and Public Health,”  is being presented by CRT/tanaka’s Geoff Livingston, senior VP and author of Now Is Gone. Kim Blake of CRT/tanaka is the current president of the Virginia Society for Healthcare Marketing and Public Relations.

Social media is obviously the topic of the day, not just here in Richmond, Virginia, but also in healthcare organizations around the country.

Right now Geoff is focusing on social media and public health, beginning with H1N1 (Swine Flu). He suggest that people check out what the CDC is doing with Social media. http://www.cdc.gov/SocialMedia/Campaigns/H1N1/#SocialNetworking. The CDC has 25,000 fans on Facebook! Check out their Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/CDC?v=wall. CDC also has sites on MySpace, DailyStrength, CaringBridge, and is active on Twitter. You can follow CDC tweets related to the Flu, or its use of social media.

People in the group asked about monitoring tools. Geoff rightly recommended that they use a variety of tools, given no one tool captures everything. There is no perfect tool out there. In my article on developing a social media marketing plan, I list a number of free tools that can be effective when combined. Contact me and I’ll be glad to send you a copy of the article from Healthcare Marketing Advisor magazine. Monitoring doesn’t have to be expensive. Here’s a paragraph from that article:

Monitor – Develop a plan for actively monitoring social media conversations. It is essential that you know what’s being said about your brand online. You can use Technorati’s daily custom RSS feeds to get quick updates on blogs that mention your hospital’s name. Technorati is the biggest blog search engine, indexing over 60 millions blogs. BackType notifies you when people comment about your hospital on blogs. Receive updates as they happen, or at a the frequency of your choice. BlogPulse is a blog search engine that reports on daily activity relative to your brand.  To monitor conversations on Twitter, try TweetBeep. It keeps track of conversations that mention your hospital, with hourly updates. Another option is to use Twitter Search (search.twitter.com), and establish an RSS feed on your query. For monitoring conversations on message boards, try BoardTracker. It lets you monitor forum posts and topics. SocialMention.com provides quick snapshots of conversations surrounding your hospital’s brand. You can set up daily email alerts. Facebook Lexicon lets you search your hospital’s name and immediately see how often it is discussed on Facebook users’ walls. MonitorThis allows you to subscribe to more than 20 search engine feeds at the same time. Meanwhile, Digg and Reddit let you search for submitted stories that match your hospital’s name. The most obvious tools are Google Alerts and Yahoo Alerts. If you don’t have these set up for your hospital, you should do so immediately. Each service will send you email alerts when your keywords come up in blogs or traditional news reports. Finally, Filtrbox works much like a Google Alert. It searches millions of sources and emails you ranked results for your search terms every day. Take some time and get to know these various tools. Choose the ones that are the least labor intensive and that can most easily be integrated into your team’s daily routine. You can also use these monitoring tools to track conversations about your cross-town rivals. (Source: Dan Dunlop, Developing a Social Media Marketing Plan, Healthcare Marketing Advisor)

One of the things the group asked about is the value of the name “social media.” It is difficult to sell the concept with the social media label. My suggestion would be to talk about “engagement marketing.” It is more descriptive of what is happening, and sounds more business-like. Geoff didn’t mention engagement marketing but said he has been shying away from the “social” label.

Geoff also spoke about the importance of avoiding shiny object syndrome – wanting to jump into every social media platform that looks cool.  The answer is to be strategic and go where your audience is.

This was a good presentation. It is clear from the question posed by the group that we could benefit from a best practices sharing session. Hopefully that will happen as the day progresses.

Post by Dan Dunlop, The Healthcare Marketer

Rachel Happe is hosting this weeks #socialmedia session. I bring her up for a reason, which you’ll soon see. For those of you that are unaware of what #socialmedia is, I will quickly explain and then get to my point. Every Tuesday at Noon EST, Jason Breed of Neighborhood America and myself host a one hour Twitter session around the business of social media. Every week we have a different host to moderate  a session wrapped around some of the hottest social media issues revolving around business. They’re job? To challenge and question and probe participants to reach higher in their assumptions about what social media is.  The list of people that have hosted over the past few months is like a who’s who of social media practitioners. They include Jason Falls, Geoff Livingston, Toby Bloomberg, Lee Odden, Mack Collier, Danny Brown, David Alston and Beth Harte, to name a few.

Now more to my point. In one of Rachel’s recent posts on her new project blogsite The Community Roundtable, which I highly suggest you check out, she does a snap shot  view of how community managers use Twitter. She highlites  Connie Bensen, Dirk Shaw, Guy Martin, and herself. In each case, we see how each person manages to monitor the twit streams in their space. In every case, they all manage to monitor the sandbox or boxes in which they play. Why? Because it gives them more information, knowledge and data. And the best part, it’s free and for the most part passive.

Call it competitive intelligence or call it consumer intelligence, call it whatever intelligence you want; but don’t dismiss the value of this information. On the surface it may not deliver the troika that I constantly talk about when talking about hard ROI in social media- make money, save money, or increase equity but if I were going to place a value on competitive intelligence I would say, to use a few sports analogies- It’s the 6th man in basketball, the utility club in golf, the setter in volleyball, the pitcher with the rubber arm in baseball, or the slotback in football. Simply put, don’t underestimate or discount the value of competitive intelligence.

To not take advantage of competitive intelligence that is freely available is more like giving the competition a constant headstart. Or better yet, if you are a hitter in baseball, you’re starting with a strike before you even step in the batters box.

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What can Sarah Palin teach the world about social media? Seemingly, given the quality of this blog post, a lot more than she can teach us on most topics. Additionally, if you don’t read Andrew Sullivan’s amazing Daily Dish on The Atlantic, do so now. The man’s coverage on the Palin debacle is second to none.

Geoff Livingston is compiling a list of the best photographers on Twitter. And it’s ace.

Oh, yet more Twitter-related news. Keep an eye on the LucasArts feed for some promotional Tweetage. Read about the situation a little here.

After his death today, Robert McNamara’s What I’ve Learned has been dug up by Esquire. If you’ve not seen Errol Morris’ documentary on McNamara, Fog of War, seek it out.

Lori Drew has been acquitted the MySpace bullying case. It’s one of those decisions which leaves a bad taste in the mouth for the moment, but it ultimately the right one.

Some people only need to see a nude, gay Austrian model character creation to be offended. Which, in itself, is offensive. Oooh, I’m offended.

Nicholas Kristof is naming the best children’s books ever written. Anything by Roald Dahl for me.

Play the District 9 viral game.

Drinking and riding? A fair pursuit?

I know you love reading this blog, but have you ever wondered what other blogs are out there advocating positive social change? I have problems keeping track of all the microphilanthropy sites out there, but thankfully Social Actions has a great list compiled that complements the Charity CHAMPS list really well (and even overlaps in lots of cases, we’ll have to work on getting it all together). But now there is also a very comprehensive list of blogs about social change, called the List of Change. Started by Geoff Livingston, Beth Kanter, and Shannon Whitley, the list showcases cause bloggers who are trying to positively affect lives throughout the world.

The blogs are listed in order of popularity or clout, using a bunch of metrics from Technorati Rank to Google Pagerank. Not surprisingly a lot of the top ones are by non-profit advertising and marketing professionals who obviously know how to get up there in the ranks. But mixed in there are some grass-roots blogs as well. This blog right now is ranked #144.

So grab a cup of coffee, enjoy the reading, and get involved with the causes!

Geoff Livingston wrote a blog post yesterday declaring social media is dead. As you can imagine, it’s generated some comment and debate. Geoff is a public relations strategist with CRT/Tanaka, CEO of Livingstone Communications and a (the?) driving force behind Blog Potomac. I saw him present at the Society for New Communications Research conference, but I didn’t meet him. He has a lot of respect in social media circles, so I’m interested in his opinions. But I don’t have time to consider this particular one.

Originally published on Conversations & Connections, my SAS social media blog

Over the last few weeks I have noticed a few articles and videos celebrating Detroit.  Being a very big fan of Detroit I  was very ecstatic to  see that people appreciate the city  I love.    Here are my three favorite story’s about Detroit.

1. A great video done by the Great People at Model D.

2. Here is a great story from an outsider (Geoff Livingston)  on the determination of Detroiters to turn their city around.

3.  Last but not least,  A great story in CNNMoney.com on why Detroiters love Detroit.

Do you know any great storys about Detroit?   Please share them!

Last July, I wrote about Livingston Communications being acquired by Social Media Group. That was actually a premature congratulations based on a premature announcement made by both those parties.

This time, he waited until the deal closed, but yesterday he announced that Livingston has been acquired by CRT/Tanaka.  Congratulations Geoff.

Det er ikke noen hemmelighet at etterspørselen etter kunnskap om sosiale medier er stor i Norge, og derfor er også Sermo Consulting i vekst. Men det er ikke bare her i landet våre tjenester er etterspurt, og blant annet flere selskaper i USA har kontaktet oss. Bakgrunnen er at de kjenner enkelte av oss fra tiden i GCI Group (nå Cohn & Wolfe), og også hva vi står for.

Selv om dette selvfølgelig er en kompliment, så har vi rett og slett ikke kapasitet til å yte full service på begge sider av “dammen”. Derfor har vi i dag ansatt Geoff Livingston, som tidligere har drevet et mindre digitalt PR-byrå i Washington. Dette byrået skifter i dag navn til Sermo Consulting USA.

- Jeg har kjent Sermo Consulting og deres tidligere prosjekter i flere år, og det blir en glede å jobbe med det jeg mener er kanskje det beste miljøet innenfor sosiale medier i Europa. Sammen kan vi gjøre Sermo Consulting til en global aktør, sier Livingston i en pressemelding som sendes ut i USA senere i dag.

Livingston er kanskje mest kjent som forfatteren bak boken “Now is Gone“, som han ga ut sammen med Brian Solis for et drøyt år siden.

Geoff kan nås på Twitter, @GeoffLiving.

Dette var altså en aprilspøk, men se ikke bort fra at det er en viss sannhet i det allikevel. Takk til Geoff for sporty opptreden.

In the Buzz Bin’s March 10′th post on “Reallocating Marketing Resources“, Geoff Livingston brings up several common objections to social media, primarily swayed toward cost justification and ROI.  It’s a great post with reference links to sources of facts to be considered (such as people preferring social over email, customer review preferences, etc).

I spent a little bit of time (and these days, “any” is tough to come by) putting together a response and I wanted to restate it here:

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If history repeats itself, we’ll see many deny their Social Successes for as long as they’re able to. This will keep their competition out of the space, allow them more penetration, and keep costs down. In my 14 years in the Web industry, we’ve seen it with classic websites, seo, ppc, and email marketing.

I say let’s quit trying to publicly quantify it all, allow those that BELIEVE in social (on pure faith) to make strides past traditional thinkers. Let’s have those that find the merits of social self-evident, those that believe this is how business should be done, leapfrog the naysayers and rock on… into the sunset, with their fans. Thus, seizing the days until the non-believers get a clue.

Seriously, would you rather work in an industry where a social media mindset prevails, or some mechanized Chaplin’esque existence that no longer belongs anywhere but the Twilight Zone. Let the good guys gain some ground!

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Now back to getting ready for sx. I’m road tripping it this year and the morning’s winter weather advisory has me worried about staying on schedule. I enjoy driving, but not in sleet.

1. DigiMarketing: The Essential Guide to New Media and Digital Marketing by Kent Wertime and Ian Fenwick
2. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. By Seth Godin
3. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. By Charlene Li:
4. Creative Company: How St. Luke’s Became “the Ad Agency to End All Ad Agencies”. By Andy Law:
5. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
6. The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam
7. The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media. By Paul Gillen
8. Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery by Garr Reynolds (Author)
9. Now is Gone: A Primer on New media for Executives and Entrepreneurs by Geoff Livingston with Brian Solis
10. Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business by Larry Weber

WAIT THERE’S MORE!
Here’s a link to 20 FREE online eBooks related to Social Media.
20 Free eBooks About Social Media | chrisbrogan.com

Enjoy!

Here’s a sneak peak at the Sunday, Feb. 15 New York Times Sunday Magazine:

Illustration by Peter Arkle for NY Times

Page 14: William Safire takes a look at the etymology of the words mash-up and remix in his On Language feature.

Page 15: In The Medium, Virginia Heffernan muses on writing a Facebook Status Update.

Page 17: Rob Walker’s Consumed column uncovers the artist behind Twitter’s Fail Whale. 

Next week: A fashion spread with pre-eminent bloggers/supermodels Greg Verdino, Adam Broitman and Geoff Livingston.

This afternoon Albert Maruggi, a PR thought leader with over 25 years of experience, hosted the first ever “Social Media Throwdown”, featuring a battle of wits between social media behemoth Geoff Livingston and brand strategy savant Hajj Flemings. The topic? The existence and importance of personal brands.

For his part, Livingston argues that personal brands are not only difficult to achieve, but that companies that promote the brands of their employees do themselves a disservice; whereas Hajj contends that “personal brands” are an integral part of what makes us human, and as such, one of the key reasons we provide value to teams and organizations in the first place.

Now while I don’t usually make it a point of stepping into the ring with two heavyweight champs (much less one!), I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I agree with my man Hajj.

To illustrate why, let me address each one of Geoff’s “7 Corporate Pitfalls to Promoting Personal Brands,” in turn (I apologize in advance for the sports analogies):

1) The personal brand is a cost to the company.

Though I wholeheartedly agree that you must never let employees build their own brand at the expense of a company’s, I would argue that: a) the best organizations sustain their vision in large part by investing in the brand of their people (e.g. Google, Amazon etc) while b) the companies that impose their “personality” on employees’ creativity, intellect, passion, and moral compass are  more likely to “fail” (e.g. Lehman Brothers, AIG, General Motors etc).

2) The now popular employee is likely to get poached: a common concern I hear is that competitors can easily identify the stars, and hire away these folks…

That’s certainly a risk. But if you ask me, it’s one that companies absolutely have to take. For starters, an organization’s ultimate success is built on the collective and individual growth of all of its employees. Secondly, the more well-regarded a particular employee/manager is, the more well-regarded his/her organization becomes (e.g the Livingston Communication brand ironically, is reflective of Geoff Livingston’s stature). Finally, in an era of high turnover, stars are much more likely to leave  if they feel their wings have been clipped.

3) Employee exits leave a chasm to fill… after they’ve built up trust with the market using social tools, they leave the company, and a gap is left that the brand can’t fill.

I suppose, but I would contest that if you build an organization the right way and put the right processes in place you should be able to replenish your coffers rather easily. For instance: you think Pete Carroll of USC lost any sleep over the departures of Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush? I think, after 7 straight seasons of 11 or more wins that’s highly unlikely.

4) The personal brand has a human failing, which then gets aired out in the marketplace and tarnishes the company’s entire social media effort in process. Think this can’t happen? Let’s go to sports and Barry Bonds. His steroids use has permanently tarnished the records he carries and the entire era of MLB he dominated.

Sure, but I would counter that when you build an organization the right way from the ground up you are able to do two things: 1) prevent those sort of failings from happening and 2) overcome and thrive in spite of them. Thus, as much as I loathe Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Roger Clemens for instance, Bud Selig, his $18M salary, and his negligent testing procedures are far more culpable in my mind.

5) Similar to Risk 1: The company sacrifices building its own larger commitment to the marketplace by building a personality. In essence, building the personal brand is a distraction from the company’s real purpose, which is serving its stakeholders.

I agree that companies should never sacrifice a customer-centric approach for the individual glory its employees. However, by definition employees are stakeholders as well.  Therefore I would argue that their success is directly correlated to end-user satisfaction.

6) But how long until people realize that seeing individuals as the only voice of the company on the Internet is an indication that the company doesn’t really care about the social web?

Individuals should never be the sole voice of a company; nor should their voice overwhelm those of their peers and customers. But I also believe that a “star” employee who is given the freedom to connect with a target audience in a manner that is consistent with the company’s core principles is a powerful ally.

7) A solo personality can polarize customers, or push away potential prospects. A team offers different voices and tones for different stakeholders.

True, but a strong personality that acts in accordance with the larger principles and mission of a team (e.g. Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, etc) can also captivate and unite an audience on a monumental scale.

Lastly, in response to Livingston’s closing argument suggesting that “Teams win and stars lose:” I would contend that it just ain’t that simple:

1) First of all, while it is absolutely correct to say that stars can’t succeed without role players, last time I checked, role players can’t exactly succeed without stars either! Can you imagine the Bulls without MJ, the Cavs without LeBron, or the Colts without Peyton Manning? There’s a reason they were and are MVP candidates year in and year out. It’s because without them, their teams wouldn’t be very good.

2) On the best teams, even role players develop personal brands/identities that are consistent with the overall vision. For instance on the championship Bulls teams (since Geoff brought it up): Rodman was the pest/rebounder, Pippen was the lockdown defender, Steve Kerr was the 3-point specialist, and Toni Kukoc was the jack of all trades.

So, while there most certainly is no “I” in “team,” there isn’t necessarily an “I” in “personal brand” either.

Thoughts?

Geoff Livingston over at the Buzz Bin has some meaty thoughts about personal branding vs “team social media” within a larger company. This is a valuable discussion. Personal branding for a solo entrepreneur is one thing, but how do we approach putting a “face” on an organization when interacting with the world at large? Just for the fun of it, here’s a mega-post with a bunch of recent links touching on personal branding, from David Petherick.

Mario Sundar is on a tear on his personal blog. First, Using social media to help your friends find a job (this is a real passion of mine). Then, Perfectionism ain’t Bliss -  just do it and don’t worry about making it perfect. And finally, some lists of Twitter worthies to follow. Mario, for those who don’t yet follow him, is LinkedIn’s chief blogger; he also maintains his own personal blog.

Image Recognition Software/Service – from TechCrunch blog. This is a big deal, actually. There are so many images now published on-line, a huge challenge is going to be finding/sorting/identifying/filtering. Here is one company (Milabra) that’s making a run at it, and their solution sounds very promising.

It’s easy to just listen to the voices that you already agree with. We also need to consider other points of view, lest we become infected with group-think, or an inflated sense of self-importance. This muse/rant by Kevin Palmer is a needed corrective as we consider the place of social media in the world. Guest post is found on Social Media Explorer blog – it must be good, because I rarely point to the same blog 2 days in a row (nice job, Jason Falls)!

Downturn. We’re in it. From the NY Times Small Business Toolkit section – Lessons Learned from Hard Times Past. There’s a surprise quote in there…

PLUS – What Happened to your Nose? The latest from Ann Handley’s A N N A R C H Y blog. If you’re not subscribing to this wonderful treasure of muses and amusements, you should be (Ann – the Zamboni reference is a stroke of genius!)

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(Image credit)

PLEASE NOTE: There is reason to believe that the Google/Feedburner changeover has created “issues” with RSS feeds for my blogs (and others). Here are the feeds for my three blogs; if you’re a reader, would you please re-subscribe just to make sure? Thanks!

:: Subscribe to the StickyFigure blog (that’s this one!)

:: Subscribe to the Steve’s Leaves blog (that’s my personal blog – you’ll see a story from there below)

:: Subscribe to the Impactiviti blog (that’s a pharma-specific blog, for my consulting business)

Below is a quick compilation of links that I received or found this week that I either tweeted or retweeted that mattered to me or to the people that are in the  Twitterspehere.

I received this this morning and it immediately raised a question for me in regards to whether Fortune 500’s should be on Facebook,  The question:

1) Can Enterprise Social Networks Gain Traction? My point being, perhaps we really need to define or look at what traction is.

2) Came across this and it seems interesting  so I’m gonna give it a test drive later Eyejot

3) For job seekers Adobe Acrobat is looking for a part time Community Manager

4) I’m wondering if this should surprise anyone? Colleges are using social media more than Fortune 500 & Inc 500 in the area of blogging…

5) There’s probably a few here I have not used but perhaps you have not used any of these 33 trend tracking tools

6) Mashable came out with a great post yesterday about 40 of the Best Twitter Brands & the People Behind Them And I thought it interesting to see how some use or view the power of Twitter. Who do you think uses it most effectively?

7) Valeria Maltoni and Geoff Livingston did a duel post on Top 25 Ways to Stop Wigging Out and I have to tell you, I might have to tape it on the monitor or on the fridge, because to be honest right now, there is so much happening in all of our lives, I get the sense that we all are scramblin’ for scraps sometime.

I got such a tremendous Twitter RT reception for the following Tweet and post titled “Create the change“:

My advice to you is to not wait on Barack Obama 4 change. Create the change yourself, in your own lives

9) How timely and “in the mix” are your tweets? Check out Twitemperature I know, it’s one of those hit and run type of Twitter apps. But still.

10) This is a must think piece here How Twitter Can be Corrosive to Online Marketing

I think I’m going to start doing this on a regular basis, simply because there is so much info that I miss and that you miss, maybe this will help. Send me one that is worth sharing that I might have missed. Educate me, please.

6 days into 2009 and I’m sure we all have our goals set or we’re busy finalizing what we are going to do. I make these lists and I write down thoughts at a furious pace and still, in the back of my mind, I’m constantly wondering what everyone is collectively thinking right now. By everyone, I’m really referring to small and medium sized business owners. The economy sucks and business is wayy down..

They have to be wondering where the business is going to come from or how they are going to get business utilizing their existing forms of advertising, sales, and marketing. The problem is,  how effective do those continue to be? Were they ever? Do they know they are not working? Do they utilize metrics or do they fly by the seat of their pants to measure their effectiveness? Do they understand that there is more for less out there right now? Or is it less for less? Their heads have to be swimming. I know mine is.

Initially I would have said No,  SMB’s are not aware of their advertising, sales and marketing effectiveness, but in that sense I was referring to “as it pertains to social media”, as in how effective could all these initiatves be if they were using social media, and that is completely true. SMB’s do not know much about how social media might be able to turn the tide.The power. The effectiveness. The impact.

But they do know plenty about what is and what isn’t working in regards to their  sales and marketing initiatives. I love what Christian Maurer says about this:

In today’s business climate, sales organizations think that they have to increase their activities to counteract the increased reluctance of customers to buy. These increased activities will however not necessarily be rewarded by higher revenue.One might end up trying to get more juice from an already squeezed out lemon

So enter Social Media. The darling of the last few years. We go from product centric to customer centric. But how do you articulate that social media could be just what the doctor ordered? Well I could wax eloquent on that question for awhile but I’d like to refer you to Kyle Lacy’s 4 part series on social media marketing for the small business as a primer. It’s a wonderful piece and more so, it exposed me to a great blog for small business called The Marketing Spot. I highly recommend you add it to your list in 2009.

Ok so back to you Mr. and Mrs. SMB how do you go about learning whether Social Media is the cure for what is ailing your business? And how do you do it quickly because you don’t have time to ramp something like this up. WHAT DO YOU DO FIRST?

-You could try and learn about “It” on your own but you need to know what “it” is. This might help.

-But then after you figure out what it is, you then need to know who you can trust or what to look for in a social media consultant, because you don’t have time to be doing this, right?

-Once you figured out what to look for, then you need to decide “who to look for”

-So now that you have “that” person or agency selected, now you have to have a strategy and they have to share that with you, so that you know exactly what they are trying to do for you and your business.

-A blueprint of how that person works is a good thing to have, it lets you know exactly how they work and it is a key component that we talk about all the time and that’s transparency in social media. Amber Naslund does a great job of discussing her “blueprint” in this post.

-Now that we have the strategy and the blueprint, it’s time to implement. Don’t worry though, your accomplished social media strategist knows just what to do.

OK, so you know what it is, you know what to look for, you know who they are, you know what they’ll do and you know how they’ll do it. But the last thing we have to do is we still have to measure what they’ve done.

-We talk all the time about how to measure social media but here’s a simple framework for measuring it’s effectiveness.

With that in mind, I end with this; As long as you know upfront what you are trying to accomplish and you adhere somewhat to these steps above, you may just have figured out how to incorporate social media into your SMB marketing  plan! But don’t stop there and don’t rely solely on your social media expert/strategist. Take the time to learn as much as you can as you go, so that you can understand the sea change that is happening within the worlds of PR, marketing, advertising and communication.

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It's not you, or at least it shouldn't be

In today’s hyper-connected, no-barrier-to-enty, Consumer-generated-content world it’s hard to escape the cult of Personal Branding. Everyone has a website, blog, Twitter account and Facebook page and they aren’t afraid to use them. But it seems to me we’ve reached an inflection point, and what was once smart move now feels self-congratulatory and driven more by ego than producing value.

I think we as marketers, strategists, consultants and social media participants need to re-think what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. What’s the purpose of having 15,000 people following you on Twitter? To help clarify my thoughts on this issue, I went back to article that really launched one of the most influential magazines of the 1990s:

Fast Company, Tom Peters and You!

Back in 1997 Fast Company changed the way business people thought about themselves, business, branding and marketing with the “Brand Called You” cover story by marketing guru Tom Peters. The article is worth reading again, some 12 years later. In going over it again myself I got the feeling that, like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy, the original intent had lost some of its clarity.

“Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand.” – David Ogilvy

With the advent of social media platforms like MySpace and YouTube, content sharing sites like Digg and microblogging tools like Twitter, people have taken personal brands to mean “look at me,” and when enough people did, presto!, you had yourself a personal brand. But that’s a gross misrepresentation of what Peters was saying, or at least what he meant. His idea of a personal brand was one that provided value. Unique value that set you apart from others. Yes, you can get 23 million people to hear your pleas on behalf of Britney Spears, but I’m not sure what value (beyond comedic) you’re bringing to the table.

The “Brand Called You”-era is dead.

Should you have personality, a distinct P.O.V. on issues and are qualities like honesty, integrity and hard work still important? Absolutely, in fact those qualities and attributes will always be (and have always been) valuable. But the inward-looking focus on branding yourself is no longer the best way to serve yourself.

Here’s what Geoff Livingston said back in November of 2008:

There is a big difference between reputation and personal brands. Reputation is built upon past experiences — good or bad, a real track record. Personal branding is often an ego-based image based on communications. A personal brand can demonstrate a person is there, but it’s often shallow and can be contrived. It’s just like a sport stripe on a car, nice but no engine, no guts, no substance.

It’s become a lot easier to create a personal brand. Gather up 3,000 Twitter followers (by any means necessary); create a Facebook page and start blogging. In three months you just created your personal brand. But, as Geoff put it, that’s just a racing stripe. Of course the very best of breed, the Seth Godins and Chris Brogans have created very strong personal brands by creating real value for thousands of people every day. Their personal brands are focused on helping others, not on promoting themselves.

The Brand Called Me, Me, Me!

Scott Monty, formerly of Crayon, now bringing his intelligence and expertise on behalf of Ford, also has seen the rise of Personal Branding as a form of egotism:

I’m tired of seeing social media bloggers focusing inward. Whether it’s a laundry list of the latest appearances, self-referential links to previous entries in the blog, or thought leadership that feeds an overinflated ego, their sites become a great monument to…themselves.

That’s the trap of the current ‘Personal Brand’ or “Brand Called You’ thinking. How can I get more attention for myself, my blog, my Twitter feed. There are just very few people who provide value for the eyeballs and minds they are furiously trying to gather. I think most people engaged in conspicuous personal branding are missing another key element: It’s hard for other people to become engaged in your efforts. What’s in it for me when you get your 2,000 Twitter follower? The answer: not much.

Becoming a brand manager by being a… brand manager

Here’s Tom Peters from that Fast Company feature:

To start thinking like your own favorite brand manager, ask yourself the same question the brand managers at Nike, Coke, Pepsi, or the Body Shop ask themselves: What is it that my product or service does that makes it different?

This is something I think a lot of people misinterpreted or maybe just simply missed an opportunity. Today, thinking of yourself as a brand is like swimming in an ocean full of sharks all fighting over the same seal. That’s a blood red ocean. I think there is still an opportunity to have a Blue Ocean Strategy. By creating a brand that lives outside yourself.

Here’s another excerpt:

One key to growing your power is to recognize the simple fact that we now live in a project world. Almost all work today is organized into bite-sized packets called projects. A project-based world is ideal for growing your brand: projects exist around deliverables, they create measurables, and they leave you with braggables. If you’re not spending at least 70% of your time working on projects, creating projects, or organizing your (apparently mundane) tasks into projects, you are sadly living in the past. Today you have to think, breathe, act, and work in projects.

Now that’s an idea I can get behind. But instead of making your personal brand your project, why not make creating an actual brand your project? Rather than trying to impress your boss, colleagues and peers by having an awesome LinkedIn account, why not create something external and tangible. I’ve referenced Seth Godin as someone who has gone about creating a personal brand the right way, but he’s also created things like Squidoo and Triiibes, brands in and of themselves that live without and beyond his participation, yet are unmistably his creation.

Putting My Branding Where My Mouth Is

I’ve put a lot of work into creating Eyecube as my personal brand. I’ve learned a lot, made plenty of mistakes, but overall I think I’ve made a respectable contribution to the greater marketing community. But long before Eyecube I was the founder of Arsenal America, the official supporter’s club of Arsenal FC. From nothing, with no money, I created one of the top U.S.-based supporter’s clubs. Even though I haven’t been actively involved for a couple of years, Arsenal America is still a vibrant brand with members throughout the country, the vast majority of which I’ve never met.

A few months ago I launched Foundtracks, an art project / creative outlet that I’m excited about continuing in 2009. It’s still very early for Foundtracks, but I think it has potential to inspire others to create their own artifcitions.

These projects aren’t money makers, but they demonstrate my ability to promote something other than myself, work with others and compete in the marketplace of ideas. Those sound like the type of attributes an employer or client would be interested in.

I’m certainly not alone in seeing the value of creating external brands. Take a look at this recent New York Times article citing ad agencies that are creating their own brands. Listen to what Ben Jenkins, the strategic director of Zag, a division of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, says:

“Advertising is a massively old model based on the 1950s. As media has proliferated, it’s become a lot harder for us to earn enough money off our ideas,” said Ben Jenkins, . “Zag is about creating the properties ourselves from scratch and having 100 percent of it.”

Let’s do a quick rewrite and see if it doesn’t still ring true:

“Personal branding is a massively old model based on the early-2000s. As social media plaforms have proliferated, it’s become a lot harder for us to earn enough money off our blogs. Now it’s about creating the properties ourselves from scratch and having 100 percent of it.”

The Challenge For 2009

So, for 2009 I think I might pull back a little bit on the Facebook Friending Frenzy, or not check my Twitter Follower/Following ratio quite so diligently. It’s not that I think those social media channels are worthless or irrelevant, I think they are very valuable. But I think I could learn a lot more about brand stewardship by creating something that other people can interact with and even contribute to. If I can prove my abilities to create, maintain and grow a real brand – with virtually no resources – then I think I can demonstrate to my company and our clients that I can provide real value to them.

I’ve already got some ideas, but I would love to hear from you, please let me know your thoughts.

Last week I read a great post (with a big smile on my face) by Geoff Livingston’s called I Don’t Care About Your Personal Brand. Granted this post was made back in November 2008 I am a bit late but heck there’s  no rush is there anyway?

To cut a story short Geoff suggested that too many people in the personal brand space sell it as an individual business model for professionals to weather the recession  and that in and of itself is not sustainable. Do you know what Geoff I totally agree with you!! It’s not!

As a career guide of some 15 or so years I am alweays dubious of new terms and phrases that come into the sphere for career guidance. Like “life coaching”  the term “personal branding” has taken on a life of its own and many people who have jumped on the bandwagon have tarnished what is effectively one of mant tools for career management. Let me state quite clearly that I am a huge fan of such a tool. I follow on twitter what I consider to be some of the best advocates of the genre, have RSS feeds from those who I consider experts on the matter and even have google alerts on the subject. I think it is important to model the strategies that executives, freelancers, entrepreneurs, portofolio careerists and most of the sports and entertainment stars have taken. Why not use the emotive principles employed by Coke, Revlon, McDonalds, et al to boost your own career?

This however is only one tool in the career management box and should be seen as part of a whole rather than the whole itself. As a career guide I get my clients to focus on their Achievements, Personality, Beliefs, Personal Brand, Networking Skills and Presentation Skills. These all combine to form your REPUTATION. Can you deliver what you say you do? Are your skills up to scratch? Are you as good as your LinkedIn profile suggests you are?  Whether an undergraduate or silver fox on that wonderful thing we call the career path people will be interested in the integrity of your reputation.

So a bit like what Geoff said it really is about Reputation Management. No point fluffing up all this lovely literature on blogs, tweets, linkedin, facebook and whatever other manifestation of social media one uses it is your reputation that counts. That said andy true consultant dealing with personal branding will allow their client to realise that. It is only part of the greater whole. I can whitter on all I want about the fact I speak about careers or am a great teen motivational speaker but those who buy me into speak or consult in the main do it based on my reputation. Of course it helps that I have also been on national TV and that’s what people will buy into not any BS that I may put together one night to try and impress someone online.

I think if anything this article will ensure that those of us who write, speak and promote personal branding ensure that our audience dig a little deeper to see that it is part of the whole career management package. It does work. Of course it does my clients have shown it does and the those who have invested time in their brand e.g. Richard Branson, Will Smith, (please note these are not my clients although I wish they were!) have shown how with time and patience you can build critical mass that people will buy into not only the shiny they see on the outside but also the evidence that you can deliver on what you say you.  My personal branding keynote is called “It’s Me You Want!” and as it is states it is about convincing people why they want to work with you. Why? Because they care!!!

I økonomiske nedgangstider tyr mange bedrifter til kutt i markedsbudsjettene for å senke kostnadene, noe som igjen betyr at bedrifter må tenke smartere i kommunikasjonen sin. Smartere vil bety at flere og flere tenker på å bruke nettet og sosiale medier for å nå målgruppene sine. Mange konsulentselskaper har skjønt det, og man trenger ikke være rakettkirurg for å skjønne at 2009 blir året der “eksperter” innenfor sosiale og digitale medier kommer til å dukke opp som kakkerlakker på et dårlig hotellrom.

Den amerikanske digitale PR-rådgiveren Geoff Livingston, som blant annet har skrevet vår “bibel” Now is Gone, har skrevet et blogginnlegg der han ramser opp 25 måter du kan se om din digitale rådgiver er en “carpetbagger”, eller kvakksalver på norsk. Jeg tar meg den frihet å kutte det ned til tolv punkter som jeg mener passer bra i Norge. Dette er punkter du definitivt bør se på hvis du er bedriftsleder og trenger en rådgiver innenfor sosiale medier i 2009.

Vær skeptisk hvis rådgiveren din eller byrået ditt:

1. Gir deg et tomt blikk når du spør om å lytte til samtalen på nett
2. Snakker til nettfolket og ikke med dem
3. Ikke ser hvordan en sosial mediestrategi passer inn i en overordnet kommunikasjonsstrategi
4. Foreslår at “det første du må gjøre er å starte en Facebook-gruppe!”
5. Foreslår å “være” deg for deg i den sosiale mediesfæren
6. Insisterer på at du må ha en blogg – helst så fort som mulig
7. Driver en blogg som:
   1. Er under seks måneder gammel
   2. Ikke har noen kommentarer (eller enda verre: ikke har en kommentarfunksjon)
   3. Oppdaterer mindre enn fem ganger i måneden
8. Definerer sosiale medier som en rekke tjenester (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, MySpace, Wikipedia, osv.) og ikke som et nytt tankesett i kommunikasjonsfaget
9. Foreslår en konkurranse på nett, uten dialogmulighet eller langsiktig mål, som første tiltak
10. Snakker om sosiale medier som “massekommunikasjon”
11. Garanterer resultater uten å vise til tidligere erfaringer eller relevante kundecaser
12. Akkurat har opprettet en egen avdeling for sosiale medier eller nylig ansatt én ekspert på området.

Har du blitt kontaktet av en digital kvakksalver?

I asked Geoff Livingston (@geoffliving), CEO of Livingston Communications, what he thought of the MotrinMoms uproar, and he confirmed what many on the #MotrinMoms Twitterstream have suspected, namely that

a focus group would have stopped this from happening.

Geoff would know; he was just at the Society for New Communications Research awards ceremony with Shashi Bellamkonda (@shashib) of Network Solutions, who received an award for Excellence in New Communications, for the turnaround that company has seen in customer satisfaction, directly as a result of the improved social media listening and engagement they worked with Livingston Communications to achieve.

This made me think of the point Laura Fitton (@pistachio) made recently at the same SNCR award ceremony, where she discussed the future of Twitter, and why Twitter matters to business (click on the first tag to jump to the part of her talk I’m referring to):

Sadly for Motrin, what we’ve seen happen this weekend is Twitter functioning as a focus group AFTER the ad was launched.  Generally, it’s considered preferable to get feedback from your focus groups BEFORE launch.

On the bright side, they now have their pick of volunteers:

What might have happened if they had reached out to the community of mommy bloggers on Twitter first, asked them what they thought of the ad, and incorporated their responses before launch?

And here’s the best analysis I’ve seen of this so far, from an advertising guy.

Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Swami at Network Solutions, accepting the 2008 Excellence in New Communications Award given to him and Livingston Communications at the Society for New Communications Research Awards Gala:

Social Media is providing some great resources for small businesses to draw from during the current economic downturn. Coming up on October 29, Network Solutions is hosting the Solutions Stars Video Conference. The conference will be free, and will allow participants to stream video from industry leaders while chatting live with the self proclaimed Social Media Swami Shashi Bellamkonda and Geoff Livingston, author of Now is Gone.

The conference, which will be held between 12:00 pm and 2:30 pm CST, will feature insight from industry leaders on how small businesses can use the internet to their advantage. There will be a large range of topics to choose from, including You Need Social Networks and To Blog or Not to Blog. For a full rundown of speakers and topics for the event see the conference’s website and Facebook event.

Memphis, of course, is doing its part as well! The monthly Social Media Breakfast is getting bigger and better with each passing meeting. Attendees of the Social Media Breakfast meet on the first Wednesday of every month to discuss the latest trends and tools in Social Media for businesses. The breakfast has been a huge success with each month showing greater interest from the public, and consistently eye-opening presentations.

The next Social Media Breakfast will be on November 5 at the Crescent Club in East Memphis, and is open to the public. You can see details, as well as RSVP for the event at the group’s Meetup page.

Be sure to take advantage of these upcoming opportunities to see what Social Media has to offer!

How to create on-line videos – a nice post by Deborah Brown with helpful links, including one to the ever-helpful Jim Kukral.

Telling your company’s story: Good stuff from Drew McLellan, and from Director Tom (for the video/documentary perspective!)

What’s a clig? Find out on the Livingston Buzz blog!

50 brands for 50 years – see this celebration of 50 top brands over the last 5 decades. Hat tip: Plaid (Brand Flakes for Breakfast blog)

Start-up stories – great new series from Scott Allen kicks off with links to informative stories about people who followed their dreams.

FRIDAY PHOTO BONUS: Top contenders for  Nikon’s Small World photography contest. Awesome micro-photography!

FRIDAY VIDEO BONUS: From last year: surely by now you know the story about Paul Potts, right? The opera-singing winner of Britain’s Got Talent? If you didn’t catch this one, you’re in for a treat; and even if you did, here’s the whole sequence of videos all together for you:

If you haven’t seen the sequence of videos from this stirring event, here they are, in order:

First Audition:

Semi-final Performance:

Final Performance:

Winner Announced, and Encore:

1. Guy Kawasaki: I just started reading Guy’s book “The Art of the Start,” and already, I’m hooked and have developed my mantra. Thank you to my boss for recommending it. (We’ll see if my boss keeps up on my blog now. =) I was already a Kawasaki fan due to my interactions and experiences with Alltop.com. Plus, when I found out about the pregnant man a month before it debuted on Oprah from Guy’s Truemor’s site, I thought, this is no ordinary guy.

Conversation: What ingredient turns you into the Energizer Bunny? On a more serious note, in the very beginning, when you were with Apple and all, what made you finally let go of the ledge, and follow that first big idea?

2. Rohit Bhargava: Not only does he work for a very well established company at Ogilvy PR, but he doesn’t let himself get comfortable. He seems to always be on the go, expanding his own personal horizons, and living his passions and interests. I feel that, from reading and following his blog, he is in the business because he truly loves it – a rare quality in a marketer.

Conversation: Let’s talk about 1) writing a book 2) publishing a book and 3) a book tour. This year Rohit published Personality Not Included, and in doing so, not only elevated his personal brand, but also expanded his following, further established his name, helped elevate his company, met some cool peeps, seemed to have buckets of fun, and made a mohawk chicken cool in the process. Not an easy task, especially the chicken.

3. Craig Lefebvre: Dr. Lefebrve’s blog has encouraged and inspired me professionally as he writes, researches, practices and pretty much breathes all items social marketing. I am continually learning from him and inspired by his leadership in a field that is working to grow itself and its professionalism.

Conversation: Dr. Lefebvre has a range of experiences in the states, and from what I gather, abroad. Plus, he’s a professor. I am a journalism major; thus, I love asking questions. And professors have loads of information, but they share that information with a learning curve in mind. Not to be flashy. Not to gain attention. But to share….hence open publishing. First item: Where do you envision the field 5, 10, 20 years from now?

4. Geoff Livingston: Geoff seems like an all-around great guy, go-getter, and someone who ‘gets it.’ Not only has he published a book, started a growing company, leads a great team (go Qui and friends), is a recognized leader in the field, is an off-line role model, but he also sincerely wants to do good. This is the apple in the eye of Socialbutterfly readers. Keep that eye on Livingston Communications and the Buzz Bin. They are going to re-define how we do business.

Conversation: Business is still business, but I’ve read on the Buzz Bin that you all have some tricks up your sleeves that you will be rolling out. And, that this could include a social entrepreneur-type set-up. Now, this is a conversation I am all ears (all two of them) about hearing.

5. Beth Kanter: If you are not familiar with Beth, I recommend getting familiar. She is the go-to-guru for all items non-profit tech. A fundraiser, writer, blogger, practioner, speaker and sector role model, Beth continually gives us her best. I follow Beth’s blog like it’s my job. She offers the tips, she begins conversations that need discussing, highlights those in the field, calls us to action and gets us involved.

Conversation: When do you sleep? Do you even sleep? Though she’s posted about her experiences and shares them, there is something to be said about hearing it first hand. This is why I want to hear specifically about Beth’s outreach and work in Cambodia. How, why, when? I’m an avid traveler, and the fiance and I really did consider the Peace Corps vs. real jobs last year, so would love to hear more how Beth has combined her love for social media, non-profits with work abroad.

6. Chris Brogan: If there is anyone’s writing style I love, it’s Chris Brogan’s. He lays it out. Step by step. And, he magically succeeds in being relational, personal, yet professional and educational all at the same time. Not only do I love Brogan’s resourceful blog, but also his helpful e-newsletters, which had a great free e-book about personal branding the other week.

Conversation: About personal branding…(smile), let’s explore that some more shall we? Now, I am probably one of very few, who have yet to see Brogan present, let alone have the honor of a face-to-face conversation. My question would be: how do you manage multiple personal brands? Or, let me re-phrase: multiple personal interests –> online. Another one: what are the biggest mistakes people make with their personal brand online?

What about you? What would be the conversation you would want to have if you got to meet some of your own personal wonder-bloggers?

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