Jun 26, 2008 | blog
If you’ve been blogging or interacting on social media sites for some time, you’ll know the real reason many people are interesting in social networking. It’s the people of course! The power of social media is in it’s ability to shrink borders, provide publishing & broadcasting platforms, and do so in ways that make it very easy for people to use them.
That’s what I find most interesting about social media, being able to see people meet, plan new things, and build new things. Sure I like to be part of it too, but my goal is to bring people together so they can find the resources, ideas, inspiration or whatever it is that they need. I like seeing people make that next leap, that next step.
Watching it happen with people all over the world is a great thing, but it’s just as fascinating to see it happening on the local level as well. It’s one of the most important aspects of the social web, and one that I believe that is taking parts of it mainstream. I always hesitate to mention “mainstream”, but I see more and more people experimenting, or starting to use some social features on product sites.
It’s great to see that happen, because as our modern neighborhoods have kind of closed in on themselves, becoming safer, more secure, the physical interaction has waned. So it’s great to see people coming back around and getting more interactive online. In doing so, it seems that they really start getting interested in socializing in person as well. So I think it really generates a lot of community building offline as well as online.
Photo credit: roel1943
Jun 17, 2008 | blog
An interesting component of your online brand is most certainly audience. Without it, there is little point in doing much of anything online other than email, research, and storing information. Audience is what makes the web 2.0 world turn, as we’re all dependent upon the interactivity that audience brings.
Without people to follow, read, and comment on what each of us creates, we would have no measuring stick to compare ourselves to. We would not have a way to gauge improvement in knowledge or abilities. We’d be unable to find out what help others need, or how to learn something new from readers. Audience is a crucial piece to the social web.
As individuals, we shouldn’t be hesitant to grow audience in building our brand, or writing a blog. It’s not an egotistical to want to reach more people, its right in line with human nature to connect with people and socialize. Maintaining your audience is the other half of the equation – the one that give direct feedback of whether or not you’re adding value for them. It’s important to understand the expectations you set for your audience so you can continue to meet those expectations.
For organizations it’s easier in a way since they have long had marketing strategies that target certain demographics (specific audiences) for their product or service. They have been growing and maintaining their target markets for decades in some cases. There is one difference with online audience for organizations though: interactivity. This is not something that is found offline – you don’t see comments on magazine ads for your favorite soda or show company. You will online though, and that is the big challenge for the enterprise as they move into the social media space.
Bringing people to your social web is an important part of the social aspect. It allows for feedback, interaction and growth for all involved. Are you actively growing your audience?
What tips & techniques do you use or suggest for others to help grow their audience? How do you approach readers, followers, and friends on your social web?
Look for my article ‘Audience’ in the upcoming August 2008 issue of Personal Branding Magazine in which I talk about why growing and maintaining audience is important to personal brand.
Photo credit: GlowPlug
Jun 4, 2008 | blog
Wow, what a wild ride the last few months have been. I’ve been planning to refine the direction of my blog and revamp the appearance for some time and it’s finally completed!
Well, it’s almost completed – I’ve got a replacement for the About page almost ready to publish, and I’ve got one last page that I’ll add a little later. Seems I just can’t get it to come out quite right in the past week while working on other things – so I’ll get to that real soon.
Direction
The great part is that I’m refining my direction. Since I’ve come out of corporate, with a strong background in information technology, I’m going to focus on helping those organizations with social media. I’ve changed the description of the blog to "social web & the enterprise". I believe that to better describe the direction that I’m going.
Friends
First, I really respect a number of bloggers for their work & influence on me. So, instead of the old blogroll, or a list of links, I created a new Friends page. This page is people I have come to know, respect, learn from, work with, and I wanted to do more than just link to them. You’ll find a description of each blog and a thumbnail of their landing page.
Resume
Also page that can now be found in the top navigation area is the Resume page. I’ve had a variant of this Social Media Resume up for about 9 months, but never advertised it on the blog. I’ve revamped a number of pieces of the page as it used to be a completely custom HTML page forced into a WordPress theme template. Now it fully fits the theme, with a special resume.php template that allows different sidebars and such. Much better. I’ve pulled the video that I had on it, but will replace it with another one to fit the direction of the blog shortly.
Advertisement
You’ll also notice that all advertising save two things have been removed from the blog. While I make enough to pay for hosting, I believe that the ads detracted from what I’m here to accomplish, so they’re gone. The two items I mentioned that remain are badges for Personal Branding Magazine, and for Avatar Consultants. Their of personal interest to me, I’m involved in writing for one, and the other is my consulting firm.
Nowhere But Up
So if the picture in this post didn’t give a hint, my motto as I revise my direction and enter a new phase, is that there is nowhere to go but up. Join me as we bring the benefits of the social web to organizations of all sizes. Come along and help individuals realize the power and strength of their brand. Let’s make each day the best it can be!
I want to give a special thank you to Mykl Roventine for patience, ideas, and a great design – I wouldn’t have gotten this completed without his work. Thank you.
Got feedback? I bet! Don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts in a comment below.
Photo credit: Leo Reynolds
May 19, 2008 | blog
Chris Garrett had a great post about Gravatars last week that got me thinking. While we talk about branding, one of the easiest way to remind people of you is your image. For consumer products, it’d be called a logo. For those of us that are marketing ourselves, our image really is our logo and an important integral piece of our brand.
Clear Message
When you think about it a bit, it’s quite clear. How better to promote your brand than putting a face to it? If we associate stylized imagery with consumer products & brands, wouldn’t it be wise to do the same with your brand? Putting your image forward gives people an easier way to associate with you and the specialty or service that you offer.
When you start using your image as part of your brand, it needs to be consistently applied when possible. Most all sites of the social web have the ability to upload a profile picture. Using the same picture for all services helps promote your brand and is easier than somehow putting a link or your tagline there.
Brand Association
People will associate your picture with your comments and your words. More easily remembering what value you would bring to their efforts or solve their problem. Helping prospective clients or simply online friends remember who we are across the Internet, from one site to another helps build the consistency you want in your brand as well. The other, bigger part of consistency, of course, is your message and how you deliver it across the various tools you use of the social web.
The Real You
I think it’s very important to use a picture of you rather than a logo. Yes, you may have a nice logo designed for your website or blog, but it isn’t as true a representation of you then you are. Sure, you may have an aversion to having your picture taken, and may dislike every single one ever taken of you. However, you need to remember that other people won’t be looking for flaws in your picture, but will be looking to associate it with that great person they know in you.
So go get a professional “head shot” done, just like executives would do. Or, have a talented photographer friend help by taking a few picture so choose from. If you really hate having your picture taken, find backgrounds to shoot in front of that help you relax, or are also representative of you. While “professional” photo’s may be nice, it’s probably more important to simply make sure it’s a clear, positive reflection of you. It doesn’t have to be perfect, so don’t make it. Often, some spontaneous, candid shots work out to be very nice indeed. I’ve taken to using pictures that I capture through my webcam, and change them up when I have a notion to. Rather than some schedule or plan, it’s more often because I want a current picture of myself than any other reason.
Your Turn
I’m finding more people who once used an avatar or graphic design are switching to a personal picture on many services that I use. I welcome this greatly as it let’s me see who I’m talking to and further develops the relationship with my friends and contacts. What’s your take on personal logo’s? Have you tried a logo, or stick with your pic? What do you use & where else should we use it?
Photo credit: Sumit
Technorati Tags: Personal Brand, Personal Picture, Photo, Logo, Personal Logo, Social Media, Social, Media, Branding, Personal, Rick Mahn
May 12, 2008 | blog
This past Saturday (May 10th) I had a chance to facilitate an unconference session with Peter Fleck (@pfhyper on Twitter) at MinneBar on the University of Minnesota campus. While Peter and I hadn’t planned it out long in advance, and we had technical difficulties at the beginning, namely to overhead equipment, it went pretty well.
The part I really enjoyed was the interaction. Peter and I both wanted to start a group discussion, and that’s exactly what happened. There were a lot of great questions from both experienced and new Twitter users, and many people shared their perspectives and ideas on using Twitter. It reinforced the idea that Twitter is just at it’s earliest stages of uptake.
What I really want to do from Saturday is to thank everyone that stopped by and joined the conversation. It was great to meet so many people here in the Minneapolis Web2 scene, and I look forward to talking more with you on Twitter and elsewhere. Don’t hesitate to let me know if you have questions or ideas to talk about – you can find me on Twitter as @RickMahn.
Also, since I didn’t grab the names off the board in the room, I’d like to invite anyone who was there to share their Twitter name. Just leave them in the comments and others from the session can find them and connect with you. Any other questions or interest in social web tools that you’d be interested in talking about? It might be worth putting something together if enough people are interested.
