Archive for August, 2008

Recently, Brian Solis kicked off his “The Socialization of Your Personal Brand” with this statement:

“…Practically everything we create and share online is open to public discovery, interpretation, and feedback—positive, neutral and negative.”

People can be very passionate about their politics and what they believe in is a major part of their personal lives. But when does a person’s politics start to affect their professional brand? 

Yesterday on Twitter there was a stream of outpouring against the nominated Vice President candidate Sarah Palin (“Little Known Fact”). Most of it was fictitious, but some verged on slander.

So as marketers (if you are marketing your company, business or non-profit include yourself) how does participating in politics on Twitter affect your personal brand, which in turn can affect your or your company’s professional brand?

As Brian Solis points out:

“…basically everything you contribute to the Social Web shapes and contributes to your personal brand and how people will most likely perceive it. Hopefully in most cases, it can promote and showcase your expertise, and sometimes, what’s representative online can and will be used against you.”

Regardless of your politics, keep in mind that months or years from now a potential hiring company, client or donator could find your political tweets—separated from the pack—only to be misunderstood or misinterpreted as a standalone, singular comment.

As marketers we know the rule of thumb: Perception is reality. We also know that we can’t control our brands—personal or professional—we can only manage them.

Are your political beliefs so strong that you would be willing to lose a potential marketing job offer, a large corporate client or donation that is desperately needed because of differing political views?

[Photo: iStock]

Even More Goodness! Related Posts:

• Who owns your Twitter or Facebook Connections?
• Personal Brand Equity: What’s it worth?
• Who are you? And why should I follow you?
• Saturday Morning Reads: Do Marketers Need to Become Social Psychologists?

Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. [Their] aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.

What: Poverty
When: October 15, 2008

This year’s Blog Action Day focuses on global poverty, but I am a firm believer in helping those at home first.

Poverty in the USA

From Wikipedia: …the most common measure of poverty is the “

poverty line” set by the U.S. government, which recognizes poverty as lacking those goods and services commonly taken for granted by members of mainstream society.[1] The official poverty threshold is adjusted for inflation using the consumer price index. Poverty in the United States is cyclical in nature with roughly 12% to 16% living below the federal poverty line at any given point in time, and roughly 40% falling below the poverty line at some time within a 10 year time span.[2] Most, 58.5%, of all Americans will spend at least one year beneath the poverty line at some point between ages 25 and 75.[3]

Today, there are 304,961,313 people in the United States. That means 121,984,525.20 will at one point be living below the poverty line once in ten years (let’s assume this includes children and/or their parents). And 178,402,368 people will be poor at least once in their adult life.As marketers and bloggers, we are fortunate to have the best and latest computers, phones and gadgets, access to the Internet—and a voice. When Blog Action Day has come and gone what can we do to continue helping and making a difference?

Here are a just a few ways:

• Computers with Causes
• Teaming for Technology
• Make-A-Wish
• Komputers 4 R Kids
• Dress for Success
• The Grameen Foundation
• The National Cristina Foundation

By helping out, just a little bit, we could just make a difference in someone else’s life and maybe, just maybe, give them a voice.

For now, I only ask you to consider joining me and 2,770 other sites and 3,967,559 readers! (as of August 24, 2008). Thank you!Do you know of any other ways to help? Let’s be sure to share them.

[Hat tip: Conversation Agent. Give Valeria’s blog a visit, she has a wonderful Blog Action Day video!]

Even More Goodness! Related Posts:

• You’re so vain
• The Ruination of E-Mail Marketing
• The Four Faces of Social Media
• Is Social Media scalable?

I would suspect all marketers have it (PR folks, creative types, writers, designers…count yourselves amongst the cursed). What is it? It’s the inability to shut off analyzing advertising (print or TV), packaging, branding, news releases, campaigns, bill boards, radio spots, PSAs, articles, etc.You know what I mean, right?

No matter what we’re doing—driving, reading, watching TV, on the computer, shopping, at a game, out to dinner—it happens. We see a TV commercial or print ad (or other marketing) and we immediately start analyzing who the target audience is—in demographics—in a spilt second:

• Sex
• Age
• Race
• Income
• Education
• Location

Then, after the demographics, we analyze the creative and copy. And then we immediately make a snap judgment: Yep, they got it. Wow, they totally missed the mark.

Last week alone, Scott Monty (@scottmonty) mentioned a discrepancy on Listerine packaging on Twitter; Jane Chin (@janechin) was analyzing a Lilly ad on Plurk; and Frank Martin (@frankmartin) was dissecting commercials that suck.

It happens all the time, we can’t shut it off. Sometimes it’s just a passing flicker and sometimes what we analyze just really bugs us. And that’s the analysis that gets discussed, Tweeted, Plurked or blogged about.

We know why we do it. We are trained to do it. But, Julien Smith asked a question recently that had me pondering the real reason we analyze every piece of marketing we see or hear. He asked: “Are you a Fixer?” [hat tip: @webconomist]

What do you think? Why do we constantly analyze? Is it because we think we can fix it? Is it experience? Or is it arrogance?

[Photo: Carrick]

Even More Goodness! Related Posts:

• Marketers, It’s Time To Rethink Target Market Segmentation
• Saturday Morning Reads: Celebrating Mom-Centric Marketing
• Your “Industry Experience Only” Requirement Is Hurting Customers, Employees and Shareholders
• Saturday Morning Reads: What’s the Return on Investment (ROI) of Content Marketing?

I went to my first UnConference last week (Social Media Camp NYC). Before April, I didn’t even know what an UnConference was and I suspect a lot other corporate marketers don’t either.

With my ‘Social Media Cap’ on my initial reactions were:

• This is great! A democratic approach to topic suggestions and conversations (Hooray!)
• Interesting! Lots of other smart social media folks here. (“I know him/her from Twitter!”)
• Freedom! I love being able to leave—and go to another session—if I don’t like the topic. (Although it felt a little rude the first time, the second time was much easier.)
• Love the community aspect! (It’s great to learn from others.)
• It’s free! (Awesome, my social media budget is zero.)

• What the hell? (Where is the structure and organization?)
• How do I know the presenter is experienced enough to be speaking on said topic? (“Who is this person speaking about fake personas?!”)
• Three tracks and all have great topics, what’s a marketer to do? (Admittedly, I have marketing ADD, but I couldn’t very well jump around all day…what would that accomplish?)
• This just feels wrong. How about they talk and then I ask questions. (After all, that’s what I am used to.)
• It’s free. (Hmmm, does that equate to cheap, non-professional and unknown speakers?)

I am not alone.

For now, I am walking the line between what’s new and what’s comfortable. Two great camps. One great location. Both caps are happy!

What do you think? As Social Media and Camps become more common and embraced, will corporate marketers throw off their caps and grab sleeping bags instead?

[Photo: iStock]

Even More Goodness! Related Posts:

• I want more crayons!
• Saturday Morning Reads: MADD Reading
• Is Personal Social Media Experience A Negative For Job Seekers?
• For Hire! Searching for My Next Career Opportunity

Yesterday at Social Media Camp NYC there was an interesting session on ‘Persona Blogging.’ In fairness to the speaker, I didn’t sit in on the whole thing but the portion I was there for was quite interesting.

1. A 28-year old female from NYC, will NEVER understand the life (i.e. persona) of a 40-year old woman with a full-time job and two kids. No matter how much they hang out on iVillage, watch Lifetime movies, or read blogs written by moms; it’s just not going to happen because they aren’t living it.
2. Social media no longer relies on demographics alone. Social media focuses on behavior (wants, needs, etc.) too. So back to my example above, how would a 28-year old female from NYC understand or emulate the behavior of a 40-year old with a full-time job and two kids? They can’t…they can only pretend. And pretending doesn’t last because eventually the fake persona will slip up and say something that is uncharacteristic of the real persona.
3. People are generally smart. They might buy into a fake persona for a bit, especially if that fake persona is entertaining. But it won’t last and eventually the fake persona will be found out. Then the company that hired the fake persona will need to do damage control and the person/agency that set up the fake persona will lack credibility—for a long time. The Internet is a small and permanent place.

I don’t see any ethical angles to justify the fake persona. If you are a B2C or B2B company, why not just hire real people who are completely loyal to your brand? Why not try WOM? There are a lot of other ways to genuinely promote your brand. And, you know what they say… “garbage in, garbage out.”

What do you think? Will persona blogging work as a promotion tactic? Or should we take a stand to wipe this tactic off the promotions list?[image: iStock]

Even More Goodness! Related Posts:

• You’re so vain
• Got a Blog? Help others in need: Blog Action Day 2008
• Saturday Morning Reads: MADD Reading
• Is Personal Social Media Experience A Negative For Job Seekers?