1. The document discusses the importance of personal branding and participating in online conversations in today's "reputation economy". 2. It argues that personal branding is about fueling conversations by sharing what you know and are passionate about, which builds your reputation and network through word-of-mouth and search engines. 3. Several examples are given of different "types" of geeks and how they have built their brands by actively engaging online and leaving traces of their passions and contributions.

1. A Plead for Geekness Personal Branding in the Reputation Economy Fontys Tilburg, 26 november 2009 Fontys Tilburg, 26 november 2009 Tom De Bruyne – managing director

5. The internet is a conversation network

6. Victim of the conversation Fueling the conversation Participating in the conversation Ignoring or ignored by the conversation

7. Victim of the conversation A little fairytale about a drunk minister

10. Nathalie Lubbe Bakker writes article

11. Belgian Newspaper picks up the story via a few blogposts that pointed at this story

12. De Crem warns against this dangerous blogosphere trend

14. Blogosphere and Twitter.com conversations explode

15. Dutch shockblog Geenstijl discovers the story and decides to make De Crem’s life a little bit miserable

17. De Crem apologiges in public

19. Fueling the conversation A (very) little fairytale about a popstar and two smart Belgian students

24. Participating in the conversation A fairytale about geeks

25. BART DE WAELE – AN ENTREPRENEURIAL GEEK

26. SHARING

27. NETWORK EFFECTS NR 1 MEDIA RESOURCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA PARTICIPATION IN SEVERAL STARTUPS OFTEN SOUGHT SPEAKER EXCELLENT REPUTATION FOR NETLASH IMPRESSIVE NUMBER OF TOUCHPOINTS MASSIVE GOOGLE JUICE …

29. MAXIME VERHAGEN– A POLITICAL GEEK

32. ROBERT SCOBLE – A CORPORATE GEEK

33. DAVID ARMANO– A FREELANCE GEEK

35. LINKBAIT MASTER

36. KEVIN WERBACH – BUSINESS SCHOOL GEEK

39. Geeks have one thing in common: They are passionate about what they do

40. IGNORING / IGNORED BY THE CONVERSATION A FAIRYTALE ABOUT A NEW CEO

41. <No picture found> ERIC BRAND– CEO SKYNET

43. Victim of the conversation Fueling the conversation Participating in the conversation Ignoring or ignored by the conversation

44. THE MORAL OF THESE FAIRYTALES

45. The internet is a conversation ecosystem in which “stuff that matters” floats around

46. Personal branding is all about reaping network effects through sharing… which is counterintuitive to what business people usually think

47. From “knowledge is power” to “ sharing knowledge is power ”

48. In a hyper transparent world, you are what you contributed … and Google filters it for everyone

49. In a hyper transparent world, you are what others tell about you, … and Google filters it for everyone

50. Being remarkable = being worth talking about . That’s the marketing challenge for the networked generation

51. It’s not about having a LinkedIN profile, it’s about leaving traces of your professional passion in the public space

52. PERSONAL BRANDING IS A KEY ASSET FOR ANY STARTER IN THE MARKET (?)