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Slide 1: Blog Your Brand 10 Steps to Building Your Brand by Blogging Trisha Okubo Disruptive Innovator, eBay tokubo@ebay.com

Slide 2: Hi, I’m Trisha Okubo. By day, I’m a Disruptive Innovator at eBay, where my work focuses on social commerce. (If anyone wants to chat about social networking and eCommerce, let’s dish after this session!)

Slide 3: By night, I’m the founder and editor of a Top 3 Fashion Blog: Omiru: Style for All

Slide 4: I started Omiru in March of 2005, armed with: a desire to learn, a passion for fashion, and persistence.

Slide 5: And since Omiru’s founding,

Slide 6: What to Wear for Girls Night Out at the Club How to Wear Fishnet Stockings without Looking Trashy How to Fit Jeans into Knee-High Boots How to Fly in Style How to Wear a Short Sleeved Blazer Professional Style 101 5 Questions with Constance White, eBay Style Director Street Style: Boston Ready Made Outfit: Trenchcoats for Every Occasion Men's Trend Alert: Summer Plaids Fashion over Fifty: Five Style Tips What to Wear to a Casual No-Tie Wedding Q&A: What’s the Ideal Shirt Length for a Man? Q&A: What to Wear to the Company Holiday Party How to Stop Static From Ruining Your Outfit … We’ve written well over a thousand posts,

Slide 7: “ What should I wear and where can I find clothes for a summer, European Honeymoon?” Helped hundreds of readers who write in with style questions,

Slide 8: “I just found out I’m pregnant, and I’m excited about buying clothes to fit my growing belly. Can you give me some inspiration?” - Vickie “Target has a fabulous line of clothing from designer Liz Lange. In fact, I’m jealous - I wish they made some of her designs for us non-pregnant women!” - Kate and built a loyal community of readers who trade fashion tips.

Slide 9: I’ve done style expert videos for Yahoo! Health/Capessa and SheZoom, Talking about things like…

Slide 10: (Great for Petites!) Fashion for Figure Flattery

Slide 11: How to Accessorize

Slide 12: What to Wear to Work

Slide 13: Through Omiru, I’ve also been recognized by mainstream media.

Slide 16: (who gave us our Top 3 Fashion Blog distinction)

Slide 17: We’ve also done radio segments for a prominent radio station in Richmond, VA. Random!

Slide 18: Now, three years after founding Omiru, I’m a sought-after style expert, specializing in real style for real people.

Slide 19: Today, using Omiru as a case study, I’m going to share with you: 10 Steps to Building Your Brand through Blogging

Slide 20: I’m going to share the story of Omiru: from picking a topic, to creating and enhancing content, to relationship building and distribution, and finally to fostering community.

Slide 21: But first, I’d like to address the somewhat negative connotation surrounding personal branding (aka self promotion).

Slide 22: Self promotion gets a bad reputation because it’s often practiced at the expense of others.

Slide 23: We call someone “self promotional” when their message helps them— but doesn’t help others.

Slide 24: But self promotion doesn’t have to be bad.

Slide 25: In fact, it can be used for Good.

Slide 26: And you can use self promotion for Good when you provide value to your audience.

Slide 27: So let’s do just that. Provide value and spread the word. How do you do this?

Slide 28: No. 1 Pick a Topic that’s Uniquely You

Slide 29: Back in the day, Microsoft asked: Where do you want to go today?

Slide 30: If you’re blogging to build your reputation, the first step is to focus in on an area of expertise.

Slide 31: { Experience } Now Think about where you’ve been in life. (aka your experience)

Slide 32: { Future } Now Think about where you want to go in life. (aka your future)

Slide 33: Think about your passion.

Slide 34: For me, it made sense to focus on fashion.

Slide 35: I’ve always harbored a love of style,

Slide 36: I went to fashion school in the evenings during college,

Slide 37: And I’ve done a lot of fashion consulting. (so if you want some style tips, find me after the session)

Slide 38: But fashion as a topic was way too broad.

Slide 39: How broad— or how narrow to go?

Slide 40: This is the Goldilocks Question.

Slide 41: You don’t want a topic that’s too broad… (e.g. technology companies)

Slide 42: Or too narrow… (e.g. technology companies in Mountain View that heart dogs at work)

Slide 43: You want a topic that’s Just Right. (e.g. technology companies that are likely to ride out the bust)

Slide 44: If you’re building reputation, the ideal topic is broad enough to be interesting

Slide 45: But also focused enough so that you’re the Best at Something.

Slide 46: Maybe it’s being the keeper of the Cutest Pet Photos Online.

Slide 47: Maybe it’s being the most distinguished chocolate connoisseur.

Slide 48: Maybe it’s being the sharpest LOST commentator.

Slide 49: Whatever your topic is, you should aim to…

Slide 50: No. 2 Stand for Something Real

Slide 51: A blog is easy to start, but it’s hard to maintain.

Slide 52: Somewhere between 60 and 80 percent of blogs are abandoned within one month.

Slide 53: Why is blogging so hard?

Slide 54: In between all of your other commitments,

Slide 55: Job

Slide 56: Family

Slide 57: Friends

Slide 58: …and Life

Slide 59: You’re going to have to find the time and energy to maintain the blog.

Slide 60: Plus, you’re going to have to find new stuff to write about every day.

Slide 61: Long story short— If you don’t love it, don’t blog about it.

Slide 62: { Sidebar }

Slide 63: Where possible and where appropriate, create a new category.

Slide 64: But isn’t it hard to create a new category?

Slide 65: Sure it is.

Slide 66: If it weren’t hard, everyone would be doing it.

Slide 67: 1 (But on the flip side, it’s easier to stand out if you’re in a category of one.)

Slide 68: Tim Ferriss did this brilliantly.

Slide 69: He wasn’t quite in the career category…

Slide 70: Or in the work-life category.

Slide 71: So he created a whole new category: Lifestyle Design.

Slide 72: Not only was this a more accurate description, But it also made him a creator

Slide 73: Instead of an imitator.

Slide 74: But back to the main point of standing for something real.

Slide 75: There are tons of blogs out there, with tons of voices.

Slide 76: So do your research to explore the other blogs in your space.

Slide 77: And then focus your topic so that you’re the: best (or the only) blog in your area.

Slide 78: At this point, you should be able to distill your blog topic into a single short sentence.

Slide 79: An elevator pitch, if you will.

Slide 80: As for Omiru, I needed to narrow down the fashion topic.

Slide 81: $ At the time, I was a recent college grad, and I didn’t have a whole lot of cash.

Slide 82: And regardless, I didn’t want to spend my entire paycheck on fashion.

Slide 83: My other fashion challenge?

Slide 84: I’m short! (I really wanted to be 5’9”)

Slide 85: And to add insult to injury, I have no waist.

Slide 86: But my financial situation and my figure flattery issues gave me my blog topic.

Slide 87: Real Style for Real People Great fashion for everybody, regardless of financial situation, or personal architecture.

Slide 88: Once you have your topic, it’s time to start writing great content.

Slide 89: How do you do this?

Slide 90: No. 3 Be Newsworthy

Slide 91: I currently work at in ecommerce, but my background is in media.

Slide 92: Traditional media has its challenges ahead,

Slide 93: But it knows something really important.

Slide 94: They know what will get your attention and what won’t make you turn your head.

Slide 95: In other words, what’s newsworthy and what’s not.

Slide 96: What makes something newsworthy?

Slide 97: #1: Timing

Slide 98: People don’t want old news. They want new news! (probably why its called “news”)

Slide 99: They want the latest update in a story, a meme that’s particularly on-trend.

Slide 100: Rogan Gregory for Target (May 18)

Slide 101: #2: Significance

Slide 102: How many people does the story affect?

Slide 103: Tons of people?

Slide 104: Or just a few?

Slide 105: Fashion for short ppl SS (there’s no shortage of guys who need to dress to go out)

Slide 106: #3: Proximity

Slide 107: The closer people are to a story, the more interesting it is.

Slide 108: San Francisco Fashion >> Boston Fashion

Slide 109: But it’s not all about geography.

Slide 110: It’s about how much you can relate to the story.

Slide 111: For me, petite fashion is more interesting than regular fashion.

Slide 112: #4: Prominence

Slide 113: When possible, and where appropriate, write about well known personalities.

Slide 114: It’s more interesting for readers to hear about the fashion from

Slide 117: Than it is to hear about what I wore to work yesterday.

Slide 118: #5: Human Interest

Slide 119: Here, the key is to appeal to emotion.

Slide 120: Think of things that are off the beaten path, personal stories, and profiles.

Slide 121: Omiru Example: We published photos of a reader’s casual wedding (v. trendy now).

Slide 122: Timing, Significance, Proximity, Prominence, and Human Interest are the standard criteria for newsworthiness.

Slide 123: But since you guys are so awesome, you get an extra one.

Slide 124: (#6:) News You Can Use

Slide 125: This is where most of Omiru’s stories fall.

Slide 126: + We share How to Mix and Match Patterns,

Slide 127: What to Wear to an Engagement Pool Party,

Slide 128: Everyday Casual Chic for Men

Slide 129: But there are tons of other newsworthy media sources out there, both mainstream media and blogs.

Slide 130: Newsworthiness is part of the price of entrance to building a personal brand via blogging.

Slide 131: It’s necessary, but not sufficient.

Slide 132: You need to be more than newsworthy. You need to…

Slide 133: No. 4 Be Awesome!

Slide 134: But how do you be Awesome?

Slide 135: Photo Credit: CBS After all, we can’t all be Barney.

Slide 136: Ask yourself: What Would Aretha Do? (WWAD)

Slide 137: Give your audience R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

Slide 138: Respect their intelligence by discussing what’s important to them.

Slide 139: Respect their time by being concise.

Slide 140: Respect their views by engaging them in dialogue.

Slide 141: Respect them by going above and beyond the call of duty.

Slide 142: A few simple ways we try to be Awesome at Omiru:

Slide 143: Giveaways

Slide 144: Only Relevant Ads

Slide 145: Readers Help Drive the Editorial Calendar

Slide 146: In order to find the awesome things that work, you’ll also find a lot of things that don’t work…

Slide 147: What to do?

Slide 148: No. 5 Create a Stoplist

Slide 149: It’s no secret that we live in a time starved society.

Slide 150: We all have stuff to do.

Slide 151: Jobs to go to.

Slide 152: Friends and Family to see.

Slide 153: No matter how passionate you are, you only have a limited amount of time.

Slide 154: So what do you do?

Slide 155: Prioritize the stuff you’re doing, and create a stoplist.

Slide 156: The stoplist is just what it sounds like. A list of things you stop doing.

Slide 157: (Not stuff you’re doing less. It’s stuff that you cut out completely.)

Slide 158: Stop doing the things that suck your time away from meaningful, effective things.

Slide 159: Easier said than done.

Slide 160: But you can do it.

Slide 161: 1. 2. Write down all the things you’re doing for your blog 3. on a piece of paper. …

Slide 162: + ID the things that are actively helping you,

Slide 163: _ And the things that aren’t.

Slide 164: _ And then stop doing the things that aren’t helping you.

Slide 165: For Omiru, one of those things was actually Social Bookmarking buttons.

Slide 166: Bloggers (and other publishers) often add buttons for social bookmarking sites like:

Slide 167: They provide an easy way for readers to bookmark/share your posts— so your content spreads more easily online.

Slide 168: I added these buttons to posts, but Omiru readers didn’t use them.

Slide 169: This doesn’t mean that social bookmarking doesn’t work.

Slide 170: But it depends on your audience.

Slide 171: (And if your audience doesn’t like it, don’t force it.)

Slide 172: Once you’ve created your stoplist (and stopped doing things that don’t matter), it’s time to look outside your blog to…

Slide 173: No. 6 Build Real Relationships

Slide 174: As bloggers, we don’t exist in a vacuum.

Slide 175: We can be competitive and closed off, or we can choose to be open and friendly.

Slide 176: I’d advocate for open and friendly :)

Slide 177: If you did your homework and chose a topic that’s focused (and one that you’re uniquely suited to write about)

Slide 178: Chances are, you and your fellow bloggers are writing about different enough things.

Slide 179: And even if you aren’t, I still think it’s beneficial to be friendly.

Slide 180: gain You have more to than you have to lose.

Slide 181: Links from Blogrolls and Link Posts

Slide 182: Someone to bounce ideas off of.

Slide 183: Advice other from bloggers

Slide 184: I’d like to you to meet…. Introductions to people in your field.

Slide 185: f(give) = get Then again, what you get is a function of what you give.

Slide 186: So how do you build relationships? (i.e. how do you start giving?)

Slide 187: A couple of best practices:

Slide 188: Actively participate on other blogs. Especially before asking for a link or any favors. (Oh, and down with form letters.)

Slide 189: Do other bloggers favors.

Slide 190: If you know another blogger is looking to borrow a set of Pantone swatches, let her borrow your set.

Slide 191: Once you’ve built those relationships, you can share opportunities.

Slide 192: If there’s a paid gig I don’t have the time for, I’ll refer one of my blog friends.

Slide 193: And if I’m doing press interviews, where appropriate, I’ll refer reporters to them.

Slide 194: And they do the same.

Slide 195: That’s how I got the WSJ interview. Elisa Camahort (BlogHer) referred the reporter to me.

Slide 196: OMG! I did not just see that... But in order to build Real Relationships, you need to do more than email and chat with them online…

Slide 197: No. 7 Meet People in Person

Slide 198: Why is it important to meet people in person?

Slide 199: Well, who are you closer to?

Slide 200: People you hang out with online…

Slide 201: Or people you see in real life.

Slide 202: So whenever I get the chance, I meet up with my blogger friends.

Slide 203: During New York Fashion Week, we meet up…

Slide 204: Have drinks

Slide 205: What do you think about Marc’s Spring line? Dish about fashion

Slide 206: And blog together as the models come down the runway. (Look, florals are back!)

Slide 207: Shared experiences lead to closer relationships.

Slide 208: So when it comes time to refer another blogger, who am I going to call?

Slide 209: That’s right. The people I hang out with in person.

Slide 210: But by meeting people in person, you’re building relationships 1:1, which isn’t so scalable.

Slide 211: How do you scale?

Slide 212: No. 8 Make it Easy to Spread the Word

Slide 213: As a personal branding blogger, you’re always looking to grow your audience.

Slide 214: You can do this in two main ways:

Slide 215: (1) Spreading the word yourself, or

Slide 216: (2) Having your fans help you spread the word.

Slide 217: For your fans to help spread the word, you need

Slide 218: Awesomeness! Something worth sharing, (but you’re already creating awesome, newsworthy content, right?)

Slide 219: And an easy way for fans to share.

Slide 220: What are some things that make content easy to share?

Slide 221: RSS

Slide 222: RSS helps readers get your content wherever is most convenient for them.

Slide 223: And while we’re on the subject, there’s a debate between full text and partial text.

Slide 224: Full text is more satisfying for the reader,

Slide 225: But partial text encourages readers to come back to your site.

Slide 226: We chose full text so that readers can get Omiru articles however is most convenient.

Slide 227: Why? Our philosophy is that we’re looking to build an audience, not just traffic for Omiru.

Slide 228: Email Newsletter

Slide 229: Again, we like to empower readers to read Omiru however they like to.

Slide 230: Email newsletters still work well, especially among communities that aren’t big on RSS (e.g. fashion).

Slide 231: I have to admit— Omiru doesn’t have an email newsletter yet, but it’s the next thing we’re adding.

Slide 232: Hey, I love Omiru! Do you guys have an email newsletter? We get requests for email newsletters all the time. It’s the second most requested feature.

Slide 233: A couple of Email Newsletter Best Practices:

Slide 234: (1) Let people know what they’re signing up for. Show an example newsletter up front. PLE AM S

Slide 235: (2) Encourage signups by giving something away free upon signup (e.g. an informational PDF).

Slide 236: P.S. Social Bookmarking also falls underneath this category of tools to make content easy to share.

Slide 237: It didn’t really work for Omiru’s audience.

Slide 238: But the idea of social bookmarking is extremely powerful for the right audience.

Slide 239: Speaking of sharing content off of your site, part of a sound blog strategy is to….

Slide 240: No. 9 Create Community Wherever You Go

Slide 241: Some bloggers are tweaked that community is happening around their content on other sites.

Slide 242: But IMHO, that’s an old-school way of thinking.

Slide 243: Sure, you don’t want your content stolen.

Slide 244: Or reposted without attribution.

Slide 245: But if conversation is happening around your attributed content on another site, It’s better than no conversation (or less) happening at all.

Slide 246: Think about it this way. Where’s your potential audience?

Slide 247: They’re a lot of different places.

Slide 248: They’re on your site.

Slide 249: But they’re also on similar sites.

Slide 250: And related sites.

Slide 251: And really, all over the Internet.

Slide 252: So, why force them to come to you?

Slide 253: Why not help them out? By going to where they are.

Slide 254: How might you do this?

Slide 255: (1) Guest write for other sites

Slide 256: I do this on BlogHer, where I serve as a Fashion & Shopping Contributing Editor

Slide 257: (And in fact, some of Omiru’s writers are guest blogging to create more awareness for their own sites.)

Slide 258: (2) Build Your Social Network Presence

Slide 259: Create a profile on the appropriate major social networks.

Slide 260: On Facebook, you can import your blog posts via Facebook Notes.

Slide 261: And while you can’t edit your posts,

Slide 262: You can share them easily with friends.

Slide 263: And even tag people in your posts. (Don’t spam!)

Slide 264: As for your profile page, populate it with extra content that’s not on your site.

Slide 265: After all, if there were no goodies there, why would someone come visit your page?

Slide 266: It’s even more important for a personal branding blogger to add this extra content.

Slide 267: It gives you the opportunity to talk about yourself— and why you’re passionate about your topic.

Slide 268: It’s an opportunity to share stories.

Slide 269: Like your quest to find the Perfect Pair of Jeans.

Slide 270: Or the crazy backstage interview you had at Fashion Week where you witnessed a model meltdown.

Slide 271: But traditional social networks aren’t the only places to build your presence.

Slide 272: (3) Participate on other Social Sites

Slide 273: A couple that I use personally are FriendFeed and Polyvore. (who, incidentally, share a workspace in Mountain View)

Slide 274: On FriendFeed, you can automatically import your blog posts to be shared with your friends.

Slide 275: And the beauty of it is that conversations can happen around this content.

Slide 276: Added bonus? They’re pretty high-quality conversations (at least right now).

Slide 277: Plus, you can gain new readers…. not only friends, but friends of friends, and friends of those friends..

Slide 278: Polyvore is another cool site that I use to build community around Omiru.

Slide 279: It’s a web application that allows you to mashup images from around the web.

Slide 280: I use it for creating outfits, mixing and matching clothes from different online stores.

Slide 281: It’s great—I get feedback on the outfits I create.

Slide 282: And I can dish about fashion with the community, sharing fashion advice and outfit ideas.

Slide 283: You might be thinking, these tips are all well and good (common sense, even) but will they work for me right now?

Slide 284: Chances are, yes. But you have to…

Slide 285: No. 10 Be Patient

Slide 286: Overnight successes are very rare,

Slide 287: And overnight success stories are often not overnight at all.

Slide 288: I’ve been working on Omiru for three years.

Slide 289: And for Omiru, community is still a work in progress.

Slide 290: We have a community of regulars who are really passionate about affordable, feel-great fashion.

Slide 291: Readers help each other out: they dish about fashion dilemmas, they share style tips, and they talk about their experiences.

Slide 292: How did this happen?

Slide 293: Shared Passion

Slide 294: This goes way back to the beginning: Choosing a blog topic. If you’re passionate about something, it shows.

Slide 295: And other people, especially those who share your views, are drawn to it.

Slide 296: And passion breeds interaction—and community.

Slide 297: My main point about community?

Slide 298: Community isn’t something you do. It’s something that happens.

Slide 299: There’s no secret recipe for community.

Slide 300: And you don’t go out and “build” a community like you build a product.

Slide 301: It just doesn’t work like that.

Slide 302: What you can do, though, is to lay the found