The fuzzy line between personal and corporate branding

Shel Israel has a post up where he talks about the effects a personal brand has on corporations and how they are still felt after the individual has left (while the individual maintains their personal reputation and brand irrespective of the organisation).

He uses the king of web personal branding Robert Scoble (arguably the best at leveraging his personal brand on the web for his professional needs) as an example.

It's a win-win situation for both parties if done right.

More useful tips on getting noticed

Jeremiah Owyang has some tips on getting noticed, whether you're a company or an individual.

While some of the points are geared towards start ups and are typically more easily applied in technology hubs (e.g. Silicon Valley), he does provide some good general advice.

The comments in his post also contain additional useful bits and pieces.

Identity brand theft

I read a story this week regarding a different type of identity theft. It is not the type you commonly hear about where the result is a direct financial loss of some sort. It has to do with reputation damage. In other words, damage to your personal brand.

I won't go into too much detail about the story because you can read about it yourself by clicking the link above. The obvious issues are around how you recover from something like that. When someone does a search, they end up thinking you are a movie star...and not the type that most people want to be known for.

The lady in the story has taken legal action, but it does not mean she can easily clean up her personal online identity brand. It'll take time to fix that. It's unlikely that the search engines will bother listening to her and have the entries removed from the index unless ordered to do so by the courts. In fact, that may be the only way to get around the issue within any reasonable amount of time. Otherwise, it's a matter of trying to put up entries online to outrank the existing, offending links...and those types of links are difficult to outrank because they are constantly linked to by other sites, thus keeping them high up on the search rankings.

The short story is, barring any legal directives from the courts, she's going to have to either hire an SEO expert (unless she happens to be one herself) or procure the services of a company such as Reputation Defender (I've heard mixed reports about services like this, and very frequently they are on the negative side). So in addition to the personal cost to her good name and reputation, she's now got legal fees and clean up fees.

It's a bit of a mess. This is a prime example of why we need to monitor and protect our personal brand, especially in the online world.

When is a strong personal brand not the best idea?

Perhaps when you are a high profile executive (or more specifically the CEO) of a large conglomerate as this article from the Wall Street Journal points out.

Even though it is arguing against having a strong personal brand as a CEO, it correctly points out that it has worked well for Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey and Sir Richard Branson.

Perhaps in certain cases, it may not be ideal to have a CEO "outbrand" the company. The most obvious consequence is that it may cause internal company politics that the organisation could do without. Then again, almost all startups and small companies trade on the brand name of their CEO or founders. Why? Because it's the best way to get press.

So the summary is, brand yourself well unless you are the CEO of a large company AND your executive team are a bunch of sensitive, jealous, prima donnas...in which case, shouldn't you as a CEO be doing something about "re-deploying" them anyway?

That said, how many of us are CEOs of large corporate monoliths? Enough said.

Time to start blogging

If you're still hesitant about whether to start that blog to help your name brand, there's been some recent discussion about one's blog being your resume (started by this post that got onto Techmeme). This original post from Adam Darowski served as the original inspiration. Have a read of the posts and the subsequent discussion threads for various opinions and form your own.

Getting a job aside, blogging is also the best way to show the world who you are. You don't need to blog about work. Just blog about something you're passionate about. Why? Because you won't run out of things to say...and you may even sound like you know what you're talking about.

So what are you waiting for? Start one now. Blogger or Wordpress are good starting points.

Personal branding has legs

For those still wondering if there's any point to this whole personal branding thing, check this article out.

If people can build their consulting business around such a concept, it's got legs. Unfortunately, it's not immediately obvious to most that we're brands in our own right. The sooner we wake up to this fact, the better we're going to do for ourselves.

Tips to help your blog-brand

I don't claim to have all the answers...that's why I still read as much as I can. So when I find something useful, it's only fair that I should share it around.

One of the blogs I subscribe to is "Creating Passionate Readers". Today's post by Kathy Sierra contains a set of simple, easy to read slides that summarise the types of things you should be thinking about if you want to get your blog-brand to the masses...and as a result add value to your "name brand". While it won't give you all the answers (any deep understanding of a topic usually requires work on your part - fact of life), it's a good start to get the brain ticking over...and hopefully keep the points in your subconscious for future reference.

Moving countries

For those that are unaware, I'm in the process of moving from Sydney to London as we speak so forgive the lack of posts. I'll try to find time to get some stuff posted, but please bear with me until I settle down in my new surroundings.

Do you need a logo?

A part of branding involves creating an image. In the business world, a company's logo represents what they're about. This includes the colour scheme they use for the logo. The logo is their identity.

For the average person who's trying to brand their name, this is not as important. You don't really need a logo. Your presence online is your brand. You don't need to promote brand awareness through marketing that's centered around your logo because your personal brand is not about what people see visually. It's about what people know about you. Your reputation. What you're all about. Your values. Your expertise. Your passion. None of these things require a fancy logo. You ARE the logo.

That being said, it doesn't mean you can't have some fun with it and design yourself a logo. If you're creative, it's a good thing to have a logo for no other reason than to show your skills. Maybe you want to show a different aspect of your personality. Maybe you want to add some individuality to your website or blog. Or maybe you just want to demonstrate that you understand everyone is a brand in their own right and this is a symbol of that understanding. Whatever your motivation, don't take it too seriously. Have some fun with it. And if you want to add some personality to that logo and can't figure out what colours to use, have a look here for some inspiration to understand what the colours you choose might be saying about your brand.

Survey says Gen Y are a bunch of narcissists

It's not such a surprise to see what the survey says about Generation Y. It echoes what I have said in the past. They do not need to be told that they need to be branding their name. They already do it through all their incessant blogging and social networking online - it's second nature. The difference is this:

• Pre Generation Y need to be told that they need to brand their name. Once educated on this fact, they tend to be more careful about what they put out there because they're much more conscious about their privacy and anonymity. They're also more careful not to put the wrong type of information out there. This can result in not building a strong enough brand, but it's still better than what a lot of Generation Y are doing.
  
• Generation Y grew up (and are still growing up as we speak) wanting to be celebrities. They want to be the next Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera or Beyonce Knowles. The problem is many of them also want to be the next Paris Hilton and those that don't still see that she's famous for being Paris and nothing else. Why is this an issue? Apart from all the questionable behaviour she indulges herself in (if you're wondering what I'm talking about, do a search on any search engine and I'm sure you'll figure out what I mean), she seems to think any publicity is good publicity. With Paris, it's almost always negative. A lot of Gen Y don't care...they just like the fact she's famous. Her fame sends out the message that you can be famous even if you have no talent, aren't very smart and spend all your time partying without having to work a single day in your life. She's famous for being...well, famous. The message this gives is that you just need to get your name (or image) out there and be known for just being known. It doesn't matter what you're known for. In real life, this is a REALLY bad idea. Miss Nevada losing her title at the end of 2006 as a result of photos posted of her at a party is one such example of what can happen if you're not careful.
  

We all need to know how to brand our name. On top of this, Gen Y also need to learn how NOT to brand their name.