I like to think of myself as a giving person. I consistently promote other people and their work and enjoy doing so, but at some point, you will need help. Actually, I know you’ll REQUIRE help because we all need support in order to progress in our careers. This support could come in the form of a mentor, who has “been there, done that,” and can help you learn from their mistakes and successes. You may need support from your teachers, parents, friends, coworkers, the media, bloggers or whomever else one day. Asking for favors is a necessary evil and part of life.

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You won’t be comfortable asking for favors if you’ve never helped anyone else in the past. See, if you take care of your community, asking for help is a breeze. If you’ve give enough value to people in the past, the second you start asking for a favor, they will finish your sentence! Ignoring peoples requests will work directly against you in the future, when you need their support.

One of my visions is to have a “personal branding class” in every college and university in the world. It is my hope that my book will become the text book. I look at college students right now and feel sorry for many of them, who haven’t gained knowledge in branding. They are all at a severe disadvantage in a market where over 760,000 jobs have been lost and the job growth rate for 09′ graduates is only at 1.3%. Aside from the economy (I don’t want to play it to death), students have to understand that if they don’t uncover their unique attributes, they won’t stand out in a world of clutter, which means they won’t get a high paying job or one that aligns with their passions.

Today, I spoke with the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, to start to socialize many of the ideas in my new book.

Tonight’s presentation recap – 10 min / 1 hr

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Slideshare presentation

A call to arms

If you aren’t a marketing major, then be a marketing minor please. You really need to learn about marketing because it’s all around you. For a college student not to have a LinkedIn profile, not to Google their name ever or set privacy setting for their Facebook account is something to be concerned over. I’ve presented to many colleges and I see the same issues over and over again.

A new standard should be required in education, where students learn about personal branding freshman year, so they have enough time to build a brand, so they:

• 1) don’t have to apply to jobs when they graduate
• 2) can start a business based around their brand
• 3) have more experience.

Look to the internet as your savior

It appears that most college students don’t understand the reach of the internet. Also, it’s important to point out that telling students to go to networking events and to seek assistance from career counselors and teachers is not enough. You need to reach across boundaries, in a world where everyone is on the same plane, and you can almost touch hiring managers at companies you want to work for. Don’t send out a 10,000 resume blast because that is just like the 10,000 emails reporters get everyday and they are discounted as spam. The real way to succeed in college is to understand how the internet can be used to get a job or start a business, and then act.

Enter web 2.0/me 2.0. There is a massive opportunity for college students to secure jobs as early as freshman year! As you know from reading my blog, most college students can’t define web 2.0, blogging, Twitter, etc. If you want to be one of the college students that puts these tools into action, you will see extraordinary results. I want you to all be “Me 2.0,” so you can control your own online kingdom and command your career.

From promotion to protection

For about a year and a half, my messaging has been around promoting your personal brand. In the past few months, I’ve been more concerned over our reputations, so I’m now bucketing my messaging around “promotion” and “protection.” The reality is that you need to protect your name because someone either steals it from you (registers it) or people start talking about you and own your Google results. The promotion piece is more apparent and noticeable, yet equally important.

Final thoughts

Just by seeing where college students are right now is a clear indication that I’m heading in the right direction and that my book has the ability to completely reshape our education system, into one where students have the tools and confidence required to be successful. I’m here for all of you, as we conquer the world together.

If you’ve read my blog for at least a month, you’ll know that I despise resumes. They are important and the standard documents for recruitment, but they don’t do anyone justice. Colleges need to stop passing out standard templates because, let’s face it, students are more interested in partying than developing a resume to get a job. Even if their intent is great, the aftermath is thousands upon thousands of students with the same looking resume and similar experience. Well today it’s time to break resumes down and tell you how to use them for differentiation.

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Your personal branding toolkit

1) Business cards
2) Portfolios
3) Resumes
4) Cover letters

10 tips for effective resumes

1) Design your brand. Instead of using a standard template, use a branded template. A brand you template! If you have Microsoft Word or another word processing program, then you might notice shapes and colors at the top. If you don’t already have a website, blog, business card, etc, then you need to think about what colors you want to use, as well as what type of job you’re applying for. In the picture below, a woman is applying to be a “Cosmetic Nurse Specialist.” At the top of her resume, she has a picture of someone putting cosmetics on a patient. The rest of the resume has shades of pink. The resume comes off as “soft” and “gentle,” with the colors, picture and shapes used. To me this is effective.

Brand yourself with a resume

2) Don’t use your picture. I agree with my friend Chris Russell that pictures can’t be on resumes (even though I’d love to put mine on it). A personal photo is a distraction. Recruiters give you about 30 seconds to impress them with your experience and you don’t want 10 of those seconds to be eyes on your picture do you! Don’t come off as someone who is trying to get a job because of your looks. Companies are scared to deal with your picture because of discrimination laws and lawsuits.

3) Links rock. I haven’t seen many resumes with links EVEN from people that have blogs, social network profiles and other websites. It blows my mind! Why not have a link to your site. If the recruiter likes your resume or has further interest in your credentials, a link acts as a supplemental piece of marketing that will help you sell yourself without saying one word.

4) Experience trumps education. Don’t believe for a second that your degree and “deans list” on your resume is going to get you a job. Recruiters are starting to discount GPA for resumes! Listen, a resume is all about showing recruiters that you have had proven success, eliminating risk on the companies part. In life, experience is everything and if you don’t have it, you will leave to lean towards your education. Make a point to put your work experience in the top part of your resume because that’s what employers really care about.

5) Show some class. The quality of paper you use shows how serious you are about the position and can be used as a differentiator. Purchase quality paper and print your resume using it because more applicants use standard printer paper.

6) Create the multimedia you. How much information can you really get from a stupid resume? Not much. I’ve written about video resumes a lot and believe in them, as long as you are passionate, energetic and have some showmanship. If you plan on videoing yourself sleeping or eating chocolate than you might want to reconsider.

7) Get Linked-In. This is another topic I’ve touched on without a dedicated post. LinkedIn is a resume, cover letter and reference list all in one, which makes it exceptional. It is a virtual resume, with the same fields as a typical resume. It is a cover letter because you have space to explain where you’re at in your career, what you want to be and summarize your qualifications. It is a reference list because it’s searchable by recruiters and you can endorse others (managers, peers, etc).

8 ) Grow it. A resume is useless if it shows the brand you from 1938. You need to constantly update it as you grow, finish projects, switch organizations, etc. Always keep it up-to-date so it represents the “present brand you.” Feel free to grow your resume online as well, by creating a webpage dedicated to it or blending it onto a blog. I’ve seen people add social media elements(Facebook, Digg, Flickr, etc) to resumes such as Christopher Penn and Bryan Person, who have sharing features. Think about it this way; if someone finds your resume and has heard of an opening at a different company, they might share it using a social media tool!

9) Summarize it. If I were recruiting someone for a position I wouldn’t care about a resume. I’d ask for your blog, but for everyone else, I think a summary of your credentials is very very important. At the top of your resume, I’d like to see 3-4 sentences that showcases all your top achievements and your career objectives.

10) Customization. Aside from customizing your resume to fit your brand, you need to tailor it to the position your gunning for. The resume below is for a Oracle Certified Professional. Think about it, if you are branded as this type of expert, won’t it be clear to recruiters immediately once they see this resume? Aside from this, you should use keywords and experiences that match the position you are trying to fill.

Resume tailoring 101

A lot has happened since the last time I posted a “Schawbel Report” on the state of personal branding worldwide. The March edition shed some light into the spread of personal branding from the US to Australia to India. There is a lot of information here, but it’s all very important to your personal brand and that of your company.

Economy’s impact on your brand

• 81,755 layoff in June, up 47% compared with June 2007
• 475,948 layoff from January till June
• Gas prices continue to rise to $5 per gallon (projected to be $7 by 2010)
• In a survey of 539 U.S. workers, 44% of respondents said higher gas prices have affected their commutes.
• Commuting changes people are making as a result of higher gas prices include: looking for a new job closer to home (30%), working from office locations closer to home (29%), working fewer days of the week (26%), asking for increased compensation (25%), taking public transportation more frequently (23%), and walking or biking to work (18%).

Education is evolving – there is hope!

The State of Connecticut is piloting new technology co-developed by IBM, startup firm SkillProof, and Pace University to analyze thousands of job postings on corporate Web sites. The insight is helping state colleges and universities develop curriculum that better meets the skill needs of employers. The four job sets identified so far include actuaries, accountants and auditors, financial analysts, and financial brokers. There is an emerging high demand for IT professionals with business analysis skills.

The University of Minnesota polled it’s students recently about the internet. 94 percent used the Internet, 82 percent go online at home and 77 percent had a profile on a social networking site. When asked what they learn from using social networking sites, the students listed technology skills as the top lesson, followed by creativity, being open to new or diverse views and communication skills.

Georgetown University has created an online community specifically for alumni. The Web site includes an alumni directory, class notes and the Career Network, a searchable network comprised of over 1,800 alumni worldwide to share career advice and expertise, according to the Hoyas Online web site. The University of Massachusetts has set up it’s own community as well for alumni.

Recruitment gets a social media twist

77% of recruiters used specialist or niche job boards, while 38% had also moved to social networking sites and 5% had even set up a virtual office in Second Life office. Recent UK research found 62% of employers looked at social networking sites to check job applicants, and 1/4 admitted not hiring someone because of what they had posted online.

The virtual global office

• Best Buy has a social network called Blueshirtnation.com, which has attracted 20,000 users. The overall turnover rate at the company is 60%, while turnover of people using the site is just 8%-12%.

• IBM Corp. marketing manager Shari Chiara gets updates on what her colleagues are doing via a networking site called Beehive, where she posts her own photos and news.

• At Procter & Gamble Co., where employees link with one another on PeopleConnect, a vibrant online community has generated 385 blogs on topics from “greening” the Boston office to corporate humor.

• Starting this week at Nortel Networks Corp., a global group is using technology that offers a rich virtual world of 3-D settings in which colleagues can meet. Photo IDs pop up next to their avatars when someone moves close enough to talk.

State of the conversation

3.5 billion WOM (word of mouth) conversations occur daily in the US. Offline WOM accounts for 92% of these (75% face to face; 17% by phone), and email, IM/text messaging and chatrooms/blogs account for a combined 7%.

Companies are being called out on how they treat employees. Employees have two new places to talk about their experiences at work. Criticat and Glassdoor are trying to reveal the truth being working at companies, but how accurate are they?

Reputation management 2.0 and beyond

• Identity theft: A study by Survey Sampling International (SSI) found that more than 50% of Britons, Germans, French and Spanish were worried about identity theft and misuse of personal data.
• Mobile broadcasting: Now any second of the day (24/7 ladies and gentleman) your brand can move from reality to the internet, to 100,000 different websites, all for everyone to see. Services like Qik, Flixwagon, Kyte and UStream will prove useful for those brave enough to be fully transparent.
• Who is watching you?: Mashable’s Steven Hodson wrote a great post about how national security agencies are working with telecoms like AT&T to monitor all Internet traffic.
• Spam: In the past 12 months, more than 4/5 of social networking site users said they received unwanted (or spam) “friend” invitations, messages or postings on their social or professional network account.
• Social network regulations: 9/10 people think there should be tighter regulation of information on social networking websites, according to new research.
• Fraudsters: According to Symantec’s latest Internet Security Threat Report, for the second half of 2007, there were 87,963 “phishing hosts”.

Brand U 3D

Google has just launched Lively, a new social network built around the concept of each user creating an avatar and a personal virtual room that can be embedded anywhere on the Web. In my opinion, this service is much stronger than Second Life because it is accessible through your browser, instead of an application. This means, at least in terms of the workplace, you might be able to use it at work and it poses a great opportunity for companies. It is BRAND U, but in 3d, and in a virtual environment.

Organizations are adopting personal branding

A great example comes from the accountancy firm BDO Stoy Hayward. To gain a competitive edge in the marketplace, a manager took a course and started training staff. She offered personal sessions lasting around an hour and a half to senior members of staff. The sessions were so popular that workers returned to their departments enthusing about the training, and less senior staff demanded their own workshops, attending in groups of 25 at a time.

55% of consumers want ongoing conversations with brands. 89% of consumers would feel more loyal to the brand if they are asked to be in focus groups.

Gen-Y makes decisions

• In the workplace: Nearly 73% of Gen-Yers surveyed said they are concerned about being able to balance a career with personal obligations. 51% of Millennials surveyed believe professionals entering the workforce should have to spend only one to two years proving themselves in entry-level positions.

• As entrepreneurs. Half of all new college graduates now believe that self-employment is more secure than a full-time job. Today, 80% of the colleges and universities in the U.S. now offer courses on entrepreneurship; 60% of Gen Y business owners consider themselves to be serial entrepreneurs, according to Inc. magazine. Tellingly, 18 to 24-year-olds are starting companies at a faster rate than 35 to 44-year-olds. And 70% of today’s high schoolers intend to start their own companies, according to a Gallup poll.

Blogs blogs blogs

• Average blogger age: A BIGresearch study found that the average age of adult bloggers is actually 37.6. 55% of millennials (ages 13 to 24) surveyed read a blog.
• Newspapers and blogs: A full 95% of the top 100 US newspapers now offer reporter blogs (up from 80% in 2006), while 58% of the top 100 magazines provide this service.
• Blogs for editorial staffs: A limited-scale Prospero Technologies study from late 2007 found that 78% of US businesses that use social media applications included blogs for their editorial staffs.
• Blogs to measure sentiment: A survey of US journalists by PR Week, PR Newswire and Millward Brown, 57.7% of respondents said they used blogs to measure sentiment, and 51% used them to gauge how their competitors were covering stories.

Technorati blog trends

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The future

I’m still holding onto my future prediction that instead of a resume, video resume, cover letter, portfolio, paper business card, and references document, your personal eBrand will exist as a single URL. You won’t be able to toss 10 different URL’s to hiring managers because they don’t have time to make sense of them. In your world of personal branding, you see all of these websites and blogs as assets, and I couldn’t agree more. In the future, you will need to compile, centralize and store these elements into a master website (yourname.com). The future is all about consolidation of social networks and seamless integration across websites. Also, there will be heavy emphasis on mobile computing, where someone will be able to conduct a background check on you from anywhere. One URL will tell your complete story.

Now is not the time

When I speak about this future prediction, I’m thinking a minimum of 10 years in the future because HR databases are still present and social media (despite our bubble) is still in infancy, just like personal branding. Whether it’s a corporate or job board database, they collect similar information from you, such as work experience, education, etc. Basically, this is the information that is included within a resume. Over time, social media will force these companies to undergo a metamorphasis. First, they will open up their boards. Second, they will capture different content, such as video resumes and finally, they will realize that with a single URL, one can experience an entire candidate.

For one, there is not enough comfort around a single URL representing an individual or applicant. Also, believe it or not, only a small percentage of the population has registered theirname.com (domain name). Where this gets tricky is that everyone in the world would have to have their domain name, yet people share the same name.

I get a lot of emails asking me about how to choose the proper domain name, despite some being taken. Try using either your middle name, middle initial, nickname or pick a concept and then tie your name to it in the title (in the description as well).

The new HR database (In the year 2020)

How to prepare for the future

• 1) Purchase yourname.com
• 2) Start a blog, either on yourname.com or yourtopic.com
• 3) Register your blog on Technorati.com
• 4) Write byline articles for online websites and guest posts for blogs
• 5) Become a personal PR person and pitch your story to media
• 6) Use Twitter and email to build deeper relationships
• 7) Create a website summary of your personal eBrand, which includes all of the above
• 8 ) Use that URL on all your promotional material moving forward

The future is never certain, but by preparing today you will be best equipped for confronting the future.

The corporate view of personal branding is very different than from an individuals point of view, which I’ve previously discussed. Companies need to understand the importance of personal branding within the corporate culture. If only the executives have a grasp on the corporate message, then the company will fail. I believe that you have to market more to your employees than to customers because employees are the ones who are facing customers. The more they understand your purpose, values and can replay your message, the more effective you will be at customer acquisition and loyalty. I discussed this and more concepts with Noel Capon recently.

Personal Brand Statement: Professor Capon is the world leader in key/strategic and global account management.

Bio: Professor Capon is the R.C. Kopf Professor of International Marketing and former Chair of the Marketing Division at Columbia Business School in New York, where he has been on the faculty since 1979. Professor Capon is widely published. His articles have appeared in many reviewed journals and trade magazines. He has also written many books on marketing and sales management. He is the author of Marketing Mavens.

Why does every employee need to have basic marketing skills, not just the marketing department? How does a company create a company-wide-marketing culture?

Big-end marketing involves everyone in an organization. No one gets a paycheck unless the customer is happy, therefore customers are the lifeblood of the organization. That being said, they are the concern of everyone. It’s not easy to create a company-wide marketing culture but it has to come from the top of the organization (executives). If you get that message throughout the organization, it goes a long way. You need to put in place a mechanism and processes to ensure everyone gets it. For example, with Bloomberg; whenever they sell a terminal, there is a financial impact on everyone because they all get commission.

What do you mean by making consumers “core assets”? What role does the end user play in the marketing of a product or service these days and do you feel that social media has impacted that relationship?

The only way a company gets cash is through revenues from products or services from customers. It needs cash to pay people, therefore customers are critical. If you look at a corporate balance sheet, you will notice that “customers” don’t appear at all. If you take a traditional way of looking at assets, they don’t show up. We need to move away from that strict financial view because customers are the source of cashflow, which means that they should be treated as assets.

Communication is now much greater both between companies and customers and between customers themselves. Traditionally the company has a message and they send it to a customer (web 1.0). Now with interactive media, there are more customers talking back to companies (web 2.0). That feedback enables them to modify their products and services and attracting and retaining customers. Customers are playing a role in the innovation process. The value that people get from customers is very important. Social media increases closeness between customers and companies. We always know that word-of-mouth is an important aspect of the mix. The media explosion today has made this much greater, so companies are trying to figure out how to use these different devices (facebook, etc). They are looking to get information back from the market. Today, companies don’t have full control over what their customers say.

What are your five imperatives for companies, as discussed in your book?

There are strong cases about marketing just being communications. I view marketing as much bigger than that.

• Pick markets that matter – figure out what markets are attractive to your company, giving the competencies you have.
• Any market has a number of segments – It’s a matter of creativity and analytics to figure out what those are.
• In the segments that you choose, you need to figure out how to deliver value and create competitive advantage.
• Making sure that the organization can deliver on the promises that you just defined. The marketing department is the architect and the rest of the organization acts as the builder.
• You need to measure what matters because you are making an investment and you need to see if you are achieving the results you are looking to achieve.

There are two perspectives on personal branding and today I want to highlight the corporate view. The non-bias way to do that is to let someone else introduce it and Rand Fishkin is the chosen one. Rand is the CEO & Founder of SEOmoz.org and is a well-known SEO speaker and expert. He recently released a podcast with his 50-foot view of personal branding, relative to corporate branding and share’s some interesting insights that many of you might not be aware of or overlook. Enjoy the below podcast!

Company vs individual – differences in marketplace impact

• Company: The company influences an audience who speaks to the marketplace and in turn purchases from the company.
• Individual: The individual influences an audience, who speaks to the marketplace. The marketplace goes back to the individual and asks for a product or company endorsement.

Personal branding pros vs cons

Pros

• Easy to identify
• More trustworthy
• Able to transition
• Transitive branding

Cons

• Might leave
• Not scalable
• Vulnerable to negative association

Before you create a personal brand….

• Goals of building a personal brand: attention
• Investment costs and clear strategy
• Resources

Analysis

There are many more pros to personal branding, but from the organizational level, they want to build corporate spokespeople that understand the corporate messaging, so they can attract others to the company. As you develop your brand and become more visible, other companies will want to hire you, which is a threat for a company that doesn’t have a strong employer brand. I think personal brands are scalable with evangelists, but not with person-to-person contact. I think companies can be just as trustworthy as people, depending on the reputation they’ve built up over time in the publics eye.

I disagree that a personal brand is easy to identify because it takes some people 20 years to discover it. After 16 jobs, they finally realize they want to be a Doctor, instead of a cubicle warrior, etc. A company brand is equal to the personal brands attached to it, therefore I believe they are both equally hard to identify. Personal brands are not shielded from bad publicity through a corporate entity, and any employee will take the heat of a company anyways. Attention is not the only goal of personal branding and of course you need resources to be able to generate enough awareness over a period of time.

Rand doesn’t take into account that everyone has a personal brand and that it’s not up to companies as much anymore, which ones are displayed to the public.  Social media has become an outlet that even a janitor in a company can use to express their opinions.  No disclaimer on a blog is going to stop the association you have with your company either.  Otherwise, I think Rand’s perspective is noteworthy and that you can learn a lot from that podcast if you’re looking to represent your company in the media.

As a blog owner, podcaster, magazine publisher and soon to be book author, I’ve learned a lot about media creation, distribution, marketing and branding. Today I would like to discuss differences, benefits and how to build and market each type. I firmly believe that various media supports each other and that with the proper combination, you can be successful in reaching your audience and making a positive impact. I will compare each to a type of television: basic, cable and ppv.

Blogging (basic television): Having a blog is starting to become a mandatory career/personal brand deliverable. By blogging you are giving away free content, in return for possible advertising revenue streams and the many soft benefits, such as consulting opportunities, press coverage, relationships that lead to jobs and friends that last forever. A blog is dynamic and allows you to rank higher in search engines because of the refresh rate when you post, along with keywords and links. Blogs attract so many links because there is so much content being produced and if it’s quality and the personal brand writing it has credibility, they will want to link it as a resource to their readers. Blogs can be free or paid depending on what you are using them for. They can be personal, professional or both and either way, if you establish one, then it is part of your eBrand. I started blogging on October 4th of 2006 and just found my first blog today “Drive to Succeed.” On March 14th, I leveraged that content and started this blog.

• Cost: Free with WordPress.com or Blogspot, but paid with Typepad or hosting WordPress.org
• Marketing: A blog doesn’t market itself unless you are best friends with Robert Scoble and he links to you. You need to network with blogs in your field, swap links, guest post, write for traditional media, pitch stories to journalists, and comment on other blogs.
• Delivery: A blog delivers itself after you do a post. It automatically winds up in Google and people can view it on your blog. There are no delivery costs or logistics really.

Podcasting (basic television): If you don’t have a video camera, digital camera or web camera by now, you are at a tremendous loss. Podcast advertising is increasing at a faster rate than blogging. The podcast medium is more powerful than any other type because it shows a persons entire personal brand, including their personality and appearance. No picture or written article can capture a person quite like video can. I use podcasts on this blog, as well as Personal Branding TV to show the world that I practice what I preach and to get more personal and emotional with my audience.

• Cost: There is no cost with uploading and sharing video, but there is an upfront cost for participation/ a barrier to entry. A camera can cost you as low at $60 and as high as a few thousand dollars. It’s not always about quality these days, but more about the message. Editing software can run between $30 and a few thousand as well and there are other tools advanced podcasters use like amplifiers and microphones.
• Marketing: To market a podcast, you can syndicate it through your blog, host it on video sharing websites such as YouTube and social networks, such as Facebook.
• Delivery: Social networks and blogs are the predominant forces when it comes to delivering podcast content.

Magazine (Cable Television): A lot of people stop at a blog or podcast, but I took it a step further. I believe you have to pay more for higher quality goods and Personal Branding Magazine is definitely worthwhile. Remember that a blog is typically written by a single author and that a magazine is a compilation of content from various authors. In this case, Personal Branding Magazine spans globally with about 40 writers and 25 articles in each issue. The idea behind the magazine is that it’s static content that is produced in the form of a document. In my case, it’s only electronic, but a lot of magazines make it to print. From the readers perspective, it feels different than a blog because it’s more tangible, but at the same time it can’t be tagged or sorted.

• Cost: My only cost is my time, which is worth more than money. Typically, you have to pay writers, a publishing service and a cost per issue released.
• Marketing: I use blogs, podcasts and email lists to market my magazine. It’s really hard for a lot of magazines to break through the clutter, so they have to be creative in how they catch attention. It’s a branding game and if you have the right contacts, you can succeed.
• Delivery: I use the magazine’s website to gain subscribers and I distribute through a list. I know a lot of people who have a more automated approach, which is more expensive and of course delivery through your local CVS or airport is very expensive.

Book (Pay-Per-View): So I kind of forced myself to introduce my book on this post. All I can really say is that it’s focused on personal branding (surprise surprise) and skewed to eBranding. The book will be published by Kaplan Publishing, who is a leading provider of career and training books. You might remember them for their SAT, GMAT and LSAT training courses, along with their supplemental books. The book will go on Amazon around January and in a store near you (US only) next April, ready for the next graduating class. A book is PPV because it’s a linear piece of writing that has the highest degree of editing, proofing and content. A blog is more scattered thoughts, while a magazine revolves around a theme. A book has multiple people involved and is produced almost like a movie.

• Cost: Typically you get paid an advance and then royalties on each book. Of course very few books are published and even fewer are best sellers (4%). There are a few hundred thousand books published each year. The cost is time, production, delivery and marketing. If you outsource the marketing/PR, it will cost you a lot of money, but save you time.
• Marketing: Be prepared to do 80% of the marketing from what I’ve heard authors say. Starting a blog, podcast and magazine certainly helps support the sales of the book. Building bridges in the media and with other bloggers is critical. Speaking engagements and byline articles are also important. The big tip is to form relationships before you actually need help.
• Delivery: If you work with a publisher, then your book will at least be on Amazon. Other channels are Barnes and Nobles and book resellers.

Twitter Responses

False! Personal branding is not about you, it’s about everyone else. This post is required reading for everyone who believes that myth.

Note: I tend to do podcasts when the point can better be expressed through my personality and personal connection.

Daniel Pink Introduction

This all comes together as one of six chapters in Daniel Pink’s new book “The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need.” The subtitle may be a stretch, especially because one of the themes of my book is career development (more like brand development), but his six points are extremely relevant to the new workplace. This is the first business book to explore the popular Japanese comic format, Manga. Daniel explored the fine art of manga and hired an illustrator to help him write this book. His previous book, A Whole New Mind was a bestseller and translated into 16 languages. He is also a freelance writer (Fast Company, NY Times) and public speaker. His previous job, before he became a free agent, was the chief speechwriter for Al Gore.

Chapter 3 Myth Breaker

My favorite quote in the entire book is “You’re here to serve, not to self-actualize.” When you are working with a team and serving a customer/client, it’s about them and not you. He goes on to say that the most successful people improve their own lives by improving the lives of others. By helping people solve problems, even if they didn’t know it was a problem, you are more successful. You need to bring out the best in others by making your boss look good and your teammates succeed. Dan’s book is a perfect read for professionals in my generation because it’s short, contains more pictures than writing, and has six major points we can remember. Pickup your free sample here.

Give Before You Receive

When I was growing up, my parents warned me of peers that would ask me for favors, without doing anything in return. This reciprocal nature was never present, but if it was, maybe there would have been a relationship, rather than a “one night stand.” Fact of the matter is that if you take genuine interest in another individual, by giving before you receiving, that karma and courtesy will make you very successful in the long run.

Value Is The Key

“The most successful networkers give value before receiving it.” By emailing or interacting with someone who is more successful than yourself, the key is to have something of value to give to them. This is another reason why blogging reigns supreme. By promoting someone else’s work when they need it (Daniel Pink’s for example), the chances that they will help you in the future are much greater. I’m lucky that I can give a lot of value to others, such as this blog and Personal Branding Magazine. By building media properties, it gives you a channel to actually promote others, while at the same time promoting yourself. No one charges people to read their blogs and because of this “free economy,” people are more inclined to do business with you because they learn to trust you and see previous results and achievements.

People usually won’t help you unless you can help them. What if you have nothing to give?

Everyone has something to give, they just haven’t figured out what! You need to discover your brand and learn what your strengths are and what you can produce for others. You can’t get hired for a job, start a business or do just about anything without knowing what you can provide to others because that’s how money is made and people become customers. Before even being asked for something, take the initiative and do it for that person. Today is national “help someone else,” day which means that if you take the first step today, you will have everlasting success.

I get a lot of books by authors looking to promote on my blog. Sometimes I receive press releases, or a PR person contacts me without being authentic. When an author contacts me directly, with a personalized message, then I take more interest, especially when they send me a copy of their book (see right). I will discuss how to pitch a blogger/magazine publisher in the future, but today, it brings me great pleasure to endorse my friend’s book.

David Vinjamuri is an adjunct Professor of Marketing at NYU (New York University) and President of ThirdWay, Inc. David has over 15 years of corporate experience, half of which was at Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola in brand management and marketing. He also blogs about advertising and brands at thirdwayblog.com. Today, I’m going to speak with David about his new book, Accidental Branding: How ordinary people build extraordinary brands.

Podcast Interview

Script

I have many hats right now, as a blogger, magazine publisher, soon to be author, full-time employee and much more. How do you manage a blog, a business and a book (the 3 b’s)?

Honestly, I haven’t done a great job managing the blog in the past 6 months. I used to write 1,000 word posts 3 times a week and now it’s 1 per week. I’m on the edge of being credible in the blogosphere these days. It’s a balancing act and as an individual, you must do what makes sense for you. As a small business owner, a lot of time is spent with clients selling and it helps having a ton of meetings to spend your time on.

Reflecting back, what good personal brand choices did you make when you were younger that really paid off?

The most important decision that I made (more than 20 years ago) was that I really wanted to learn about different areas of business from some of the best people. I wanted to work with companies that were great teachers. I spent 2 years working after graduate school at Citibank, where I was put through an extensive training program. I learned the online space from Double Click, but also worked with Johnson & Johnson and Coca Cola.

How do you define an “accidental brand” and who are the examples you use in the book?

A brand that is started by an individual who is not an MBA, nor a formal marketing background. He or she must spend at least 10 years building a brand, but not intending to start a brand. They actually solve a problem that they experienced. All the examples in the book, such as Columbia Sports Wear, are all businesses that were started with a lucky accident, where the entrepreneur realizes that they can solve a problem and are uniquely positioned to do so.

In your book, you share 6 rules of the accidental brand. Rule #4 is my favorite because it’s something that I speak about all the time, not just on my blog, but to all my peers. What does it mean to be unnaturally persistent?

When you talk to these entrepreneurs that are successful, you realize that it takes a lot more work and a lot longer than you could ever imagine. 50% of small businesses fail in the first 4 years because people give up before they can succeed. It’s hard to know your in a business that will succeed or fail. You have to be willing to keep trying and have a passion for what you’re doing.

You wrote an article on branding called “what’s in a name”, which appeared in the September 2004 issue of the Journal for Non-Profit Management. Can you give me a sense of what that article was about?

People would constantly change their name or logo. I laid out the fundamentals of branding, by first understanding the offering and how it’s unique in the marketplace, relative to competitors. It’s very important how you tell your story, build your logo and name. It all comes out of the brand position.