Dougie Under Glass, originally uploaded by Ryan Brenizer.

The New Transparency. Does Google know your name? Are you transparent? The perspective of this blog is not focused on telling you to become transparent, but to heighten your awareness that actively participating online makes you naked, exposed, and searchable. Let’s start by defining the subject of this blog:

o Transparency is defined as the state or quality of being transparent.
o Transparent is defined as characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices. (One of the definitions)

I am sure you are being told you need to be transparent. Have you heard the quote, “Clear is the new black.”? I hope not because I thought I created it, but you understand my point. Transparency is less of a decision and more a by-product of being online and being active in social networks and in the blogosphere.

The Birth of the Online Personal Brand
Social networks in the beginning were simply way to communicate with friends and share content and have evolved into a platform to brand products and people. Being online has become a full-time job, listed below are some of the task:

o Securing eBrand Assets: Domain Names and Social Network URLs.
o Avatar Managements: Uploading consistent avatars across all your social networks.
o Online Reputation Management: Monitoring your online presence.
o And the list goes on . . .

My Rant about: Private v. public

Is there a public versus private Internet? I was a part of a discussion last week at dinner with Oz Sultan and some other friends and this term was tossed around. Needless to say there isn’t a private Internet, everything goes into the public domain. As a personal brand your life is lived in stream. There is no compartmentalizing who you are, you can’t live one way online and another offline. Your digital footprint is in Google and can be traced. In fact if you don’t have a presence online you are not relevant and employers and other decision makers probably aren’t interested in getting to know you. YOU don’t exist.

A person doesn’t need to ever talk with (email, DM, IM, or face-to-face) you to understand how your think, what you like, or what things are important to you. Listed below are some of the ways people can read who you are.
o Tweets
o Facebook Messages
o Friends/Contacts/Connections
o Tag Cloud
o Comments
o Blog Post
o Photos

My Random Thoughts on Transparency:
o Don’t be a Social Media Bully: Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t say in person.
o Be Constant: Constancy is one of the hallmarks of a successful brand be the same online and offline.
o Character is Important: Be true to yourself. Reputation is managed but character is lived.

How transparent are you?

Today AIG decided to give their executives $165M in bonuses of the $170B given to them in the bailout. I am sorry America, Wall Street is not coming to save us. It’s time to GRUSTLE.GRUSTLE is the combination of a daily Grind (job) and a Hustle (your passion). Most people are caught between the two and are looking for a way out, but there is only a way IN: put IN work and INvest in your dreams. In my book ‘The Brand YU Life’ the first degree (or principle) is ‘Identify Your Passion’ which is the cornerstone of Grustlin’.

Definitions

Grind: A grind is a job; employment; typically your primary source of income. 

Hustle: A hustle is your passion, what you would love to do full-time and what gives you the most satisfaction. It is what you typically do after you work your daily grind.Leave a comment and let me know what your GRUSTLE is!! 

Interesting talk by Evan Williams of Twitter at the TED Conference where he talks about the unexpected uses of Twitter. The success of Twitter has been chronicled as it has hit the mainstream media. At this point in my life I couldn’t imagine going through the day without my laptop or blackberry to check the pulse of the world through the eyes of the Twitter community.What grabbed me the most about his talk was the fact that Twitter started off as a side project. The first word that comes to mind after watching the video is the word GRUSTLE.

GRUSTLE is the combination of a daily Grind (job) and a Hustle (your passion) and most people are caught between the two. Most peoples side project is their passion, which I believe fuels their success.

The average person is one side project away from their greatness. What side project are you working on?

Mind Share- by Hajj E. Flemings, originally uploaded by Hajj Flemings.

Market share versus mind share is a question for the ages. Is market share for personal brands important? Can personal brands grow market share? How do you determine if your personal brand is stronger than someone elses? For most people it would be hard to calculate market share and would be meaningless if identified?

Market Share

Market share is the percentage or proportion of the total available market or market segment that is being serviced by a company or by a brand.

o Coke has 43.1% of $65.9 billion soft drink beverage industry.

This makes it very easy to define how much of the soft drink beverage industry that Coke-Cola owns.

Mind Share

Mind Share is owning a slice of mental real estate in the mind of your customers or potential customers. Personal branding has a lot to do with creating a top of the mind experience and making your name synonymous with the industry or space that you want to occupy.

For Example
o Tiger Woods = Golf
o Seth Godin = Marketing
o Anderson Cooper = News

Capturing Mind Share

How does a personal brand capture mind share? That is a great question and I am glad that you asked. Mind share is captured through conversational capital. There are many touch points of a brand that create brand impressions that simulates awareness.

Brand Impressions

o Social Network (SN) Connections: Adding Friends, Connections,
Contacts.
o Twitter Conversation: Humanize your brand and connect.
o Post Video Content
o RSS Subscription
o Email Distribution
o Blogs: Blogging, commenting on others blogs, number site of visits
o Sales: Products/services that connect people to your thoughts.
o Downloads/Views: Podcast (Video/Audio) and video content
o Face-to-Face Interaction: Speaking engagements, networking events, meetings, and presentations.
o Write a book: Traditional book, eBook, and/or audio book
o Web 2.0 Cards: Social media cards by www.BrandCardz.com, my personal favorite.

Results of Capturing Mind Share

Mind share is not about numbers, one can easily artificially inflate the number of social network connections, downloads, or view.

o Fame
o Notoriety
o Trust/Creditability
o Brand Awareness
o Inflated Ego
o Opportunity
o Influence
o Followers
o Stalkers

Converting Mind Share into Personal Brand Value

One of the challenges of personal branding is to convert mind share into value or basically creating a business model to monetize your new found brand awareness. Let me know your thoughts on you how you convert your personal brand into value!!!!

Marcie Brogan, a veteran of the Detroit advertising market, shares her experiences on how hard it’s been to divorce her “personal brand” from the company she loves and co-founded, Brogan Partners.

www.Brogan.com

hustle, originally uploaded by lomoD.xx.

I am sorry America, Wall Street is not coming to save us. It’s time to GRUSTLE.

GRUSTLE is the combination of a daily Grind (job) and a Hustle (your passion). Most people are caught between the two and are looking for a way out, but there is only a way IN: put IN work and INvest in your dreams. In my book ‘The Brand YU Life’ the first degree (or principle) is ‘Identify Your Passion’ which is the cornerstone of Grustlin’.

Definitions

Grind: A grind is a job; employment; typically your primary source of income.

Hustle: A hustle is your passion, what you would love to do full-time and what gives you the most satisfaction. It is what you typically do after you work your daily grind.

In your mind you know you can make money with your hustle, but you question whether you can make a living. This blog post was inspired by Gary Vaynerchuk’s Hustle 2.0 blog post. He basically stated that you can do them both the grind and the hustle. Most people who read my blog have a job and a passion and I am here to challenge you. You have the same 24-hours that Gary V has, he has just found a way to get more value out of his time.

I am in the same boat as you I work a full-time job and work my passion after hours staying up to at least 1AM or 2AM on most nights then having to be at work early the next day, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t sleep a lot I take naps in between waking up and living my dream. The development of my personal brand has allowed me to focus on what I love to do and do it well.

What has always made America great is the spirit of creativity and entrepreneurship that has always rested on the great minds, leaders, and thinkers of our time. It’s time to get your GRUSTLE on.

Grustlin’ Since 1971. Hajj E. Flemings

Today, we live in a world that is skin deep. Magazine covers, movies, and product commercials are littered with models, celebrities, movie stars and the moving target of what society says is in and is beautiful. Packaging is an important part of personal branding and must be addressed. People are visual and make decisions based upon images, first impressions, and yes your avatar. It is cliché, but true, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

One of the most critical elements of your personal brand is your avatar or as I call it your global ID. It is typically the first visual online impression that people will have with your personal brand.

What is an Avatar?

It is the online visual representation of your personal brand.

Managing your Avatar

o Standardization: Avatar should be branded consistently all of your social networks.

o Professional Looking Image: A professional photo shoot is not required, but a clear crisp headshot is idea.

o Social Network Specs: Follow the specs of the social network your uploading your avatar into.

Benefits of a Great Avatar

o Communicates Trust: Your image can communicate trust and impact perception (enhances or diminishes)

o Branding Consistency: Visual impressions of your personal brand is consistent across the web increasing brand recognition.

o Connectivity: Digital relationships should help build off-line relationships.

o Brand Humanization: It humanizes your brand and helps people connect with you as a person.

Where should your Personal Branded Avatar Exist?

o Wherever you Exist: Press Kit, Blog, etc.

o Social Networks: Consistent across all of your social networks: Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, etc.

o Business Cards (Web 2.0 Cards): I am an advocate for avatars on business cards. Your business cards should extend the online and off-line relationship. I recommend www.BrandCardz.com

o Blog Post Comments: Create a profile on Gravatar and it will automatically populate your avatar into any Wordpress (other platforms are being researched) blog comment that you post. As people begin to read your well thought out comments on other blogs the recognition of your personal brand will continue to spread.

o Slideshare Resume: Create a creative version of your resume in a slide presentation formation should include your avatar.

o Mybloglog: Add the Mybloglog widget to your blog and it will allow you to see who is visually coming to your blog.

There are many schools of thought on creating an avatar such as the usage of cartoons, logos, or cool designs. I recognize there are many successful examples of cartoons (@chrispirillo) or logos (@BarackObama) so the chose is yours. I recommend that you use an image of yourself as your avatar because one of the goals is to turn digital relationships into off-line relationships and it helps the visual recognition of your personal brand.

I’m pleased to bring you the second video from the 2008 Brand Camp University Personal Branding 2.0 Conference, with Scott Monty Director of Social Media at Ford talking about Social Media & You: Tips for Success in your Career. His presentation includes his now famous quote “What happens in Vegas - Stays in Google.” He has some excellent information to share. Sit back and enjoy.

Thanks to Portage Media Solutions for producing the video.

I’m really excited to post the videos of the 2008 Brand Camp University Personal Branding 2.0 Conference for all to see. It was a collection of smart people sharing their knowledge of personal branding and social media.We’re going to release a new video each week in the order that they occurred, the first session was of me presenting ‘Developing Your Personal Brand 2.0 (YU.0).’ Next week, we’re going to release teh Scott Monty video; then Marcie Brogan, Pete Thomas, and capping it off with Charlie Wolborg and Terry Bean.

You can get them on from Brand Camp University and subscribe to the audio or video podcast in iTunes or whatever podcast client. Thanks for all that came, thanks to the speakers for sharing their knowledge, and I look forward to your feedback on what we discussed in the presentation below in the comments section.

It is 2009 and the Internet is buzzing with experts providing their predictions and trends for the year.  I wanted to provide my thoughts on personal branding to help set the tone for an exciting year.

Predictions/Trendspotting

1. Creative Economy:  Creativity will be to the information age what manufacturing was to the industrial age.  Individuals dependence on being a company man working 30-years at one company or until death do you part will cease to exist.  The integration of creativity into business ideas and career will become a necessity and not an option.  As a personal brand you will need to think creatively in developing strategic partnerships and ways to stand out.  After everybody has updated their Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter pages, established a blog, added followers, and followed all the same tips what is next?  Creativity.
2. Purpose/Mission:  People will start to seek opportunities or careers that give them greater satisfaction that they have a true passion for.  This is primarily due to the instability in the economy and the reduction of jobs that were more lucrative in good economic times.  High paying low education jobs are a thing of the past.  People will now look at opportunities that align with how they are wired and what they were designed to do.
3. ‘Personal Branding’ Term Commoditized:  The term ‘Personal Branding’ will become more commoditized and genericized.  The term has significance and value when implemented, but I believe the term itself will be overused and misused.
4. Traditional Journalist Become Commodities:  The voice and influence of bloggers and social media experts increase.  Newspapers are losing money with traditional newspaper printing and are looking for ways to compete with the new media.  Traditional journalist will have to integrate social media and effectively establish their personal brand.
5. Personal Branding Experts Commodization:  With the increase of social media gurus the line between personal branding experts and social media experts is blurring.  The personal branding industry will become oversaturated and the cream will rise to the top.  Those of us in the personal branding industry will have to work harder to cut through the noise.
6. Establish ‘Blue Movement’:  The need to develop the ‘Blue Movement is critical.   ‘American Made’ needs to be established as the new luxury product. The ‘Green Movement’ has been very successful because big business have bought into it can the same be done with the ‘Blue Movement’?
7. Twitter Relevance Increases:  Twitter will gain relevance as a search and primary news source. Business opportunities with strategist business models and usages will continue to be developed.
8. Personal Brands being Healthy:  Being healthy is just as importance as your ranking in Google.  You can have all the money and influence in the world but without good health you have nothing.  Being fit spiritually, mentally, and physically is critical. Learn to have balance and think holistically because you are the sum total of all your parts.
9. Passion Becomes King:  People doing what they love.  Passion is the fuel that drives you to do what others are not willing to do.  We all have the same 24-hours but passionate people find out how to get more out of their time and produce higher quality results.

I want to challenge and inspire you to shine in 2009.  Have an awesome year and share your predictions for 2009 in the comments section of this blog post.