Image by cooliceblue via Flickr
The Brand of You
in a Digital Age
Tim Brunelle
Greg Swan

Tim Brunelle
I’m the CEO of Hello Viking, as well as a
board member of the Minnesota
Interactive Marketing Association and an
adjunct faculty member of the
Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
You could ask Google, but it’s easier to
parse my story at: tbrunelle.extendr.com

Greg Swan
I’m a Digital Strategist at Weber Shandwick,
counseling clients on social marketing
strategies (proactive, inoculative, reactive).
Also a music blogger, citizen journalist and
online reputation egoist.
My online reputation? Google me.

Agenda
0. Setting expectations
1. The Brand of You: A Personal Strategy
2. Step one: Listening
3. Step two: Participate via Social Media
Blogs, Microblogs
4. Step two: Participate via Social Networks
LinkedIn, Facebook, Sharing Services,
Wikipedia

The Brand of You

Brand Yourself
The Internet changes everything
We live in a different age. Paper resumes
alone don’t cut it anymore.
The rise of Search/Recommendation has
redefined personal reputation
Not participating is not an option
So—what’s your story?
In this new age, it’s more important than
ever to define a personal brand strategy
Practice for yourself what you practice at
work

Brand Yourself: The Basics
Username
Use your real name or not?
Use sites like http://namechk.com/ and
http://usernamecheck.com/ to register
your username everywhere
Avatar
What story are you telling visually?
Are you consistent?

Why bother?

Ego-Search
Google/Bing/Yahoo!/Spezify yourself
Where are you showing up?
Where aren’t you showing up?
What stories can you surmise from this
information? What actions might you
take as a result?

What’s the story
you want to tell the world?

First, listen.
Then, participate.

Image by DerrickT via Flickr
Listening

Listening
Use free tools like Google Alerts
(google.com/alerts) for your name,
company & brand names, competitor
names, spokespeople names and key
issues for “as-it-happens” e-mail
notifications.
Utilize other tools like Lijit,
spy.appspot.com, etc. to research
Be aware of social media’s influence on
mainstream media and Search

Google is your friend
“1.26 billion search engine queries
every day, globally.”
Piper Jaffray & Co.
“Google has 72% of all U.S. searches.”
Hitwise, October 2008
“Your reputation is shaped by ten
blue links on a white background.”
Andy Beal

Social Media

Social Media

Put the “Me” in Social Media
It’s your name – own it
There’s a virtual land grab happening
Optimize – create your own ‘Google Juice’
Monitor conversations – use live focus groups
Engage directly – leverage disintermediation
Be human – demonstrably responsive
Be unexpected – established brands are
“This is a time in which a lot of bold
experimentation...via social media, is
called for.” - Pete Krainik, Founder, CMO Club

Social Media Best Practices
Be honest
Be responsive
Be respectful
Be transparent
Be even-handed
Be enthusiastic
Don’t market. Listen and converse

Publish your own content
Choose a path that works for you
Start blogging, tweeting and/or
livestreaming—but with a purpose
Provide blog-friendly information, Top 10
lists—something you excel at
Link to MSM and blog posts and share
your thoughts

Blogs
Participate
Comment on blogs (use services like
Disqus to aggregate your comments)
Get to know your key industry/issue
bloggers
Treat them like tier one contacts
BUT approach with care and tact
Leave comments, e-mail them 1:1
Develop cross-readership relationship

Mr. Fry asks an excellent question

Microblogs
It’s “of the moment.” It’s live 24/7/365
Blogging in 140 characters or less
Think published IM conversations
Like Facebook status updates
Update by Web, IM or mobile
Twitter is the big one
Google ‘bots love Twitter code (e.g. what
you tweet stays around forever)

Microblog Facts

Microblog Facts
“Everyone’s doing it...”
Ashton Kutcher (2,671,094 followers)
...including brands, your kids and HR
The next iteration of blogging & ‘casting
CNN News (2,196,855 followers)
Being adopted by numerous brands,
CEOs, CMOs (@BestBuyCMO), etc.

Microblog Facts
What’s up with the “@” sign?
Refers to a person’s “handle” or user
name on Twitter (e.g. @perfectporridge)
What the hell is a hashtag?
Hash (“#”) tag refers to the use of “#”
before a term to help users aggregate
conversations (e.g. “#mnama”)
How do I tweet something privately?
Use a “d” (for “direct”) before a user name

Microblog Best Practices
Monitor Twitter (search.twitter.com)
Leverage the tools to make life easier
TweetDeck, Tweetie, etc.
Subscribe to key advocate feeds
Identify areas of your business that are
appropriate to ‘Tweet’ about
Encourage employees to ‘Tweet’
Use Twitter for media outreach
Use it for live focus groups & research

Case Studies
At 9:12 a.m., minutes before P-I reporter
Neil Modie learned about Jennifer Dunn’s
death, and before it had hit any news site
or could be found on a Google News search,
the former Congresswoman’s death had
already been reported on Wikipedia.
Its source? A breaking news alert from
someone on Twitter.

But don’t screw up
“Worst Twitter Post Ever”

Social networks

Social networks

Social Networks
Not somewhere you go, but something
you do (hopefully) consistently
More like joining a gym or starting a diet
For people in marketing and advertising,
there are primarily two networks
LinkedIn
Facebook

LinkedIn
The ultimate business social network
This is your living, breathing resume
Register on LinkedIn with appropriate
professional history and contact information
so you’re accessible to search engines,
media and your online stakeholders
Request/Leave recommendations
Research employers, competition, prospects
Position yourself as an expert by
participating in LinkedIn Answers

Facebook
Don’t bet against the “social graph”
You can learn a lot just from public pages
Facebook offers robust privacy and group
settings. You should use them
Please remember places like your “wall” are
still virtually public
Excellent ecosystem for research (e.g.
check the “Advertising” link at bottom)

Social Network Best Practices
Identify where your audiences are
Join, listen and participate in those
communities
Don’t market at first – just be honest,
humble and responsive
Consider using social networks as
marketing and networking platforms
following research

Sharing Services
Essential qualities
Free-to-use
Often community-based
Tags
Embed codes (e.g. redistribution)
Search ‘bots tend to love them and the
referring links you build using them

Sharing Services
Images
Flickr, Photobucket
Video
YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler Revver
Presentations
Slideshare, SlideRocket
Portfolio/Aggregation
Extendr, Behance, Google Profile

Sharing Services
Best Practices
Tag your videos and photos correctly
and accurately
Use terms users will search for
Ensure all content is shared
Share/link across multiple sites

Wikipedia

Wikipedia Statistics
Grows by 30 million words per month
20 million views per day
Just the home page!
Critical SEO component (usually top 3
results in a Google search)
< 1% of all users edit content

Wikipedia Best Practices
Play by the rules
Don’t make changes
If you know of factual errors, join the
discussion and cite a third party link
showing the correct information
Monitor and subscribe to relevant
entries
Be thick skinned

Image by Rennett Stowe via Flickr
Got all that?

Recap
“The Brand of You” in two easy steps:
1. Listen. (Google is)
Research how co-workers, friends and
others utilize LI, FB and other venues and
tools—what works, what doesn’t?
Formulate a personal strategy
2. Participate
Choose/filter social media and networks
based on your strategy; be consistent;
give your efforts plenty of time before you
judge what is/isn’t working

Thank you.