Personal Branding Blog – Dan Schawbel

This year, I wrote an article called “5 Steps to Becoming the Gatekeeper of Your Personal Brand,” and today I’m telling you that you need to follow those steps immediately. In 2009, there will be new gatekeepers or those that own a niche on the web. Trying to own your own mainstream media news website is quite a lofty and ambitious goal, especially when you’re competing with titans such as the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Web 2.0 has allowed anyone to produce a media website, collect advertising revenues and build a strong readership based, which tends to be more loyal (RSS) than traditional readership.

It’s niche player time

In 2009, online viewers will be very spread out among a lot of niche sites that cater to special interest groups. Some call this the long tail theory, and I think it’s only natural that people cling to their interests and sort out what blogs provide the most value (entertainment or informational). We’ve already seen the rise of some gatekeepers, but they aren’t so much niche players anymore, as their industries have grown.

Here are some common examples:

I would consider each of these individuals career commanders and experts in personal branding. The best test for personal branding greatness is being top-of-mind. When I think of a certain topic, they came to mind. Let’s see which of them monitor their personal brand online by setting a Google alert to their name and responding to this post.

• Social media: Chris Brogan, Jeremiah Owyang, Rohit Bhargava
• Marketing: Seth Godin
• Personal Finance: J.D. Roth, Ramit Sethi
• Entrepreneurship: Guy Kawasaki, Pamela Slim
• Technology: Robert Scoble
• Celebrities: Perez Hilton
• Careers: Penelope Trunk, Lindsey Pollak, Alexandra Levit
• Recruiting: Joel Cheesman, Chris Russell

Why gatekeepers succeed and you don’t

The more content these individuals create over a period of time, the more they will rank higher in Google and attract a larger audience. The value of their blog properties has increased over the years because they’ve taken a leadership position and have written about ideas that have spread through the internet (aka more links). Google values websites that have been around for a while more than fresh sites.

This means they have control over their subject areas and in order to be half as successful as they are with their blogs, you need to earn their respect (get a link from them from time to time). Otherwise, it will be extremely hard for you to succeed at their level because they own their domain. Since social media is much like high school, if you aren’t in the “cool crowd,” you won’t get as many links and it will be much harder for you to escalate to the top.

You can be a gatekeeper in 2009

In 2009, if you are new to the web, you have the ability to stand out and shine. If you are already a blogger, you may have to shift your strategy slightly. There are literally infinite niche’s out there that haven’t been claimed. One great way to do this is to conduct searches on Google for groups of keywords. Also, by following the hot trends, you might identify a great niche for yourself. Either way, you need to find a non-saturated area of the internet if you want to be found. First movers are always rewarded!