Personal Branding

At the very first Podcamp Boston, CC Chapman and Mitch Joel did a great presentation on Personal Branding that altered the way I approached my web projects.  Instead of always staying in the background, I learned how important it was to own your blog and podcast, add your personality into the mix, and give your projects a human face and voice.  This is still excellent advice, for businesses or individuals.  Without a sense of personality, of humanity to our writing and work, we lose the most compelling aspect of it, and what people want the most- connections and affinity with others. (I’ll save the diatribe on Maslow’s Heirarchy of human needs for another post.)

There’s a small downside to personal branding, though.  When some web personalities become really successful, like Robert Scoble and Guy Kawasaki, they become not just a personal brand but a brand unto themselves.  They become a product.  And people expect different things out of products than they do people.

Products are supposed to be available on demand, whenever we want them.  For example, I am in the process of replacing the “twitter van”- my old Toyota Sienna minivan with over 197,000 miles on it, with something new.  The old girl is just sad looking at this point, and my husband has declared enough is enough, so I am updating my “personal brand” with a new car.  We’ve been shopping for cars for some time, but I was disappointed to find out the brand and model we wanted were sold out of 2009’s so I have to wait for a 2010.  Dealers were surprisingly blasé about selling me a car.  I would have expected them to be a bit more enthusiastic about the prospect, but only one dealership did any sort of work to really see when the models would be available, see what they could order, and give me a great deal.  When I took this offer to another dealership closer to my home to see if hey would match it, they seemed incredulous that any of this was possible.  Yet, here I sit, with the VIN number of the car in hand, awaiting its delivery in the next few days.  The bottom line in terms of branding is that I expected with this brand that the Company as a whole should be happy that I want a car from them, that they should have them ready for me unless I want something really unusual, just as if I were buying a bottle of ketchup.   And as a brand, I expect they should be willing to do at least a little to make sure I don’t go off and decide to get the large purchase elsewhere.

But when people become brands, they can never be exactly like a car or a bottle of ketchup.  They can produce great books, like Trust Agents or Six Pixels of Separation, (both written by friends of mine), that act as products or souvenirs of the people and their ideas.  But the people themselves don’t scale the same way.  They still have lives and families and friends; they need to sleep and eat and have private time.  But some of this gets murky once personal branding and actually branding start to merge.

Think about this in terms of celebrity.  I think it really started with the Beatles.  The band became more than just records and music.  They became icons, they became lunchboxes and action figures and now even video games, many years after their initial fame for just being musicians and song writers.  Now you see the merchandising of fame and celebrity being as important as what ever someone did to become famous in the first place, but what gets lost in the hype are the people themselves.  A quick trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will bring this all into relief, as you see how many people get chewed up by the fame machine, and see the few that have managed to survive it.

We don’t always consider how weird and difficult a childhood someone like Michael Jackson or Lindsay Lohan have had.  We don’t think or look at them empathetically, as people.  We look at them as side shows, as entertainment, and when they seem to crack up, we say “Well, they asked for it, what did they expect?”  On some level, they just did what they did best, acting or signing or writing or whatever.  The rest became the business of being a celebrity, which has its privileges and up sides, but has just as many down sides as people take random pot shots at you, or think you have some magic you can lend them, or give them a big break so they can be just like you, or whatever.

Celebrity, the height of personal branding, breeds a certain amount of expectation and neediness in others.  We expect our celebrities to be the bottle of ketchup we can get a fix of whenever we need.  We expect them to keep on delighting us with every new project and we’re more than happy to express crushing disappointment when our appetites aren’t fed.  And the media, professional and amateur, seems only to happy to find something to criticise at every turn.  We think “Oh, what a big head they have now that they’re big shots.”     Or “Well, you don’t seem to remember that you used to be just like us before you got lucky.”  Or “Why should I feel sorry for them?  They have it easy.”  Or “Well, they’re snobby now- I can’t even seem to talk to them anymore- I guess we aren’t really friends.”

All of this is ridiculous, of course.  All that’s happened is that a greater number of people constantly want the personal attention and adoration of the person whose “made it”, and that the person can’t scale like their product can.  All this drama is happening on the side of the audience, not from the person on the pedestal, and the person can’t do much other than watch it happen, because the cat is out of the bag, and there’s little hope of getting it back in.

I don’t think there’s any easy answers here.  I think part of it is for all of us to realize that personal branding is a great thing, but once you reach the product stage, there are hidden traps along with the benefits.  And I think this is meant as a wake up call for all of us who have friends with strong personal brands, to remember that our friends still need the same love and support and attention they always got from us, even if it doesn’t always come back reciprocally- they are trying to scale, but they’re finding themselves trying to be people in a product loving world.  And that seems like a busy but pretty lonely place to be.

Tags: CC Chapman, lindsay lohan, maslow's heirarchy, michael jackson, Mitch Joel, personal branding, rock and roll hall of fame, seth godin, six pixels of separation, trust agents

Credentials & How to Beat The System

I saw a mention of the Tweet My Jobs jobs posting service, so I went by to take a look. I looked for local jobs involving social media and marketing, and found that the job requirements for these positions were all over the map, but most of the them still required a college degree, and some preferred higher education still.

What’s interesting to me is that I know a lot of people in the digital media sphere who are immensely talented and experienced, but many of whom do not yet hold a degree. There’s a lot of debate, especially with the cost of completing college these days about the value of a degree, and if it outweighs the opportunity costs of getting to work sooner than later. I also have a child who is starting high school this year, so saving for college and starting that whole college prep stuff is very real to me right now.

(I should disclose now that I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and have a JD from the Dickinson School of Law at Penn State, so I am clearly biased towards the power of a formal education.)

We all hear about how important college is, yet some schools have a completion rate around 50%- only half the freshman class makes it all the way to graduation. So starting college and finishing are by no means a guaranteed thing.

It seems to me that in times of economic stress, when the job market is tight, having a degree becomes an advantage that helps sorts you out for a closer look compared to every other CV in the pile. Many jobs require it as a credential, regardless of major. The question still looms why a college degree is important- is it a necessary requirement, or a trivial filter to sort candidates? Many people will tell you it matters a lot in getting your first job, but if you are out of work or looking to switch fields, the importance of a degree comes into the fore again- it’s a credential you need to move forward.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics backs this up- the current unemployment rate for people without a highschool diploma is 15.4% and those with no college 9.4%.  If you have some college or an associates degree, the rate drops to 7.9% and down to 4.7% if you have a bachelor’s degree or higher.  That means that currently, the recessin, the tough times, are disproportionally affecting those with less formal education.  And this is true regardless of race.

Beating the System

Now all of this talk about education and credentials is to tell you that they act like long term insurance against tough times.  These “merit badges” seem to insulate the owners from rough seas- it’s not perfect, but it helps, statistically, anyway.  But none of this replaces the fact that a degree doesn’t have to be a requirement for anyone.  The lack of one shouldn’t be an excuse for not achieving everything you want.  The lack of one may require you to Gatejump- to not take no for an answer, to convince people you are better than people with degrees, because of your passion and experience.

CC Chapman wrote a great post today about the importance of developing a gatejumping mindset for his kids. Having a sense of going and getting what you want, or convincing someone that you are qualified for an opportunity is important.  I had to convince CC that I was the perfect person at one point, to do an interview, over someone with a bigger audience, because of what I could bring to the table.  As it turned out, he gave me a shot, and I had a fantastic opportunity to speak with Marcus Buckingham, someone I long admired, about his book, The Truth About You, which helps young adults find their strengths and capitalize on them.

There are lots of opportunities out there, but you have to go and grab them, or make them yourself.  Dale Brown, who helped found the self-help movement for people with learning disabilities, uses a technique she calls “interviewing for information”- where she encourages people to go on job interviews just to find out more about the company, where you might be able to fit in- because frequently, by just getting a chance to meet someone, you can find out you might be the perfect person they were looking for, even if all your credentials didn’t seem to match up perfectly.

Being successful at anything requires finding ways around hurdles and barriers.  It means being able to build an effective case as to why you are perfect for a job.  It means not just taking No for an answer, but being willing to ask them why they said no, so you can do a better job next time, and know more about your strengths and weaknesses.  Being more aggressive without being abrasive isn’t always easy.  It’s all in the approach, in making a case, in convincing someone that you are worthy of a shot, of taking a risk, because you took one first by doing something out of the ordinary to try to get an opportunity to strut your stuff.

I’m currently involved in digital media- producing podcasts for clients, speaking and consulting.  Running your own business is tough, and as my husband says, frequently, I am a cruddy boss and need to manage my employee (me) better.  But running your own show requires that you be creative and strategic in what you say yes to and what you decline.  It requires that you stretch, from time to time, and take on something that’s going to be hard, rather than constantly going for the low-hanging fruit.  It means being willing to make mistakes, to fail, but to learn and fail better next time.  Each time, you learn more about yourself, more ways to try to be better, and eventually, wins start to outweigh losses, and you get on the path where you need to be.

All of this starts by not letting your credentials, or lack of them, pigeon hole you or define you.  Because I have a law degree, does that mean I have to be a lawyer?  No, but that degree and what I learned there does help keep me out of trouble frequently in business.  But it also means I have to convince people that I know what I’m doing on this new path, because I don’t always make sense to them, because I have taken untraditional paths.

And for those of you hung up on credentials, wouldn’t you rather have someone enthusiastic and passionate on your team?  Someone who knows they can do the job you require and then some, regardless of their resume?

In the end, nothing will even win as well as learning how to circumvent barriers, jump that gates, and get to what you want.  This means convincing people that you have the fire and passion to do the job, and do it well, and better than every other person out there.  And it means knowing that you are the best fit, and not being afraid of the No.  If the no comes, well, it’s really their loss for not seeing your fire to do the best job.  But more opportunities will come your way, and maybe even because you were willing to stretch and try to fit yourself in a spot where you didn’t necessarily qualify.

Don’t let words on a piece of paper, a job application, or anything keep you from your dreams,  Construct your own path there, and remember that any disappointment along the way just gives you a chance to do better in the future.

Tags: Beating the system, CC Chapman, credentials, gatejumping

Why Podcamp?

Podcamp, from its very inception, has been more than mere how-to’s about recording audio or video and posting it online.  It’s been about finding your voice, expressing your creativity, finding a niche and a community, and personal development, clothed in this thing called Podcamp.

While Podcamp started as a local attempt to have a podcasting conference not located on the West Coast, it almost immediately developed into a conference about how people were using digital tools to create community,for any purpose, ranging from business to non-profits, to a passion for knitting, and beyond.  While it’s still called Podcamp, it’s been about so much more from its birth.

At Podcamp Philly, I’ve tried to get this across by adding “Search Camp” to Podcamp- local experts in search engine optimization and more help people understand how to make their digital media projects more easily indexed and hopefully more successful as a result.  After all, if you understand in one half of the conference  how to make digital media, you also need to know how to help people find it and how to understand the analytics to be able to measure how well you are doing.  We’re doing this again at Temple University October 3 & 4th this year, and the folks who run our local Social Media Club are adding Social Media Camp sessions as well.

The name of the conference itself is becoming less important.  What happens there remains as important as ever.  This past weekend at Podcamp Boston, we had almost 75% of the attendees attending their first Podcamp.  The discussions ranged from What’s next in new media, to having people like CC Chapman and Ron Ploof discuss what’s on their plate, to sessions about the Kindle, and Women in New Media.

Podcamp is More About Finding Your Voice

Sometimes, the most important thing about Podcamp is finding people who are open, honest and helpful.  It’s having discussions that aren’t always comfortable, but do get you thinking and give you a to do list a mile long.  The discussion we had about women in digital media had a lot of people expressing their views, in an open, non-judgmental way, pushing each other to see their side, and challenge their beliefs.

Chris Penn had a great blog post about this today, regarding arguing your limitations.  I wrote a blog post back in 2006 about the Fear of Success that’s relevant to this discussion as well.  I think many times, we’re held back by our fear of taking chances, of what other people might think, of trying and what failure might feel like.  But if you decide that failure isn’t so bad, and you can learn a thing or two from whatever mistakes you might make, you don;t have to risk being perfect all the time.  You lose that sense of fear and doubt and just start swinging for the fences.

This change in mindset is vitally important for everyone to have.  I’ve been talking about how fame itself is not always the Nirvana everyone expects it to be- it doesn’t solve your problems, but adds pressures of its own.  But that doesn’t mean fame or popularity is bad- you just have to be prepared for it.  I honestly feel I can do anything, but I just have to be ready for the consequences of my actions, which include criticism, and I consider that a good thing.

It makes me sad when people feel powerless in their lives.  You always have choices.  Sometimes they are good or bad; sometimes they are limited by things like money on hand, but you have to look at every barrier in your path to success as nothing more than a hurdle you need to pass through.  It’s not a brick wall, just an obstacle that you need to figure out how to get around.

People seem to have a hard time with the concept that there are few, if any, rules in this new digital media space.    No one has a magic formula for you to follow, but many people can help guide your path, because each path is as unique as you are.  And it does take work and dedication to find your voice and your niche, but when you do, it’s the best feeling in the world.
Podcamp itself started as an experiment, a laboratory of people and passions, and to date, its been wildly successful.  By standing up and offering to help at the first Podcamp, I got to know people who are now some of my closest friends ever, people who I admire and who challenge me to take risks, to try, and to do every day.  They will tell me when I’m crazy, and help nurture ideas and watch them come to life. They are my friends, my mentors, my colleagues, and my extended family.

Podcamp, in all of its forms, continues to be a lab where you can make anything your heart desires or dreams of, and where you can find others who will help you make that dream a reality.
But it requires extending yourself, dreaming out loud, sharing, trying, risking and going beyond your comfort zone.

Letting go of the fear is really hard, but the rewards, the freedom, the sense of possibility, is worth every risk you take and more.

And as I said almost three years ago now:

We are all in charge of our own personal destiny. We have to be able to recognize opportunity when it comes knocking, and not be afraid to take a risk or say Yes, when No seems so much safer and more conservative and more “Sensible”. We have to be willing to take in other perspectives, but be willing to have the confidence in our own ideas and vision, and be willing to drag those dreams out into the sunlight as well.

What do you think?

Finding your voice, your superpowers, what makes you special is key to finding your place, your niche, and what makes you special.  And I could not be more proud to meet the fellow travelers on this path through a little conference with the subtle misnomer of Podcamp.

Tags: CC Chapman, pcb4, podcamp, podcamp boston, podcamp philly, ron ploof

Vernacular

This is something I think about often- on the web, we have our own vernacular- a local language, a lingo- words that have different shades of meaning than they do to the rest of the world.  Yet the way we use language and talk about things matters, and it can clarify or cloudy what people are talking about.

The classic example is the word, friend.  Online, this can be someone you’ve never met, or someone you’ve known and have been inseparable from since childhood.  We tend to use the word friend rather than acquaintence or neighborly polite interest in each other, yet in the “real” face to face world, if someone says “Oh, we’re great friends”- this implies a level of closeness and relationship that is far more extensive than most online friendships.  This difference can cause lots of confusion, because real world friendships imply that there’s a certain amount of going out of the way for each other that occurs, and it’s not always clear if that quid pro quo exists, and to what degree, with online only friends.

Now I have had plenty of great experiences where online friends have become real world friends- (Chris Pinchen a.k.a @cataspanglish and @citilab is just one example), so there’s cross-over, but we haven’t yet developed words that differentiate this relationship in a way that others can appreciate if they’re not part of the online group.  My husband used to regularly ask “How are the people in the Box today?” referring to my online associates.  Now that he knows them in real life, there’s a different sense both of what I do, who the people are, and what our friendship is.  He’s constantly amazed by my ability to locate friends I do know in cities we visit, and the fun things that evolve from local recommendations, chats, dinners, etc.  These online friendships expand with face to face meetings, and then bleed out into the reality of life as well.

We also have other words we use- Trust, Whuffie, authority, strengths, influence, and even search- mean different things in an online context than in life.  Asking” When does authority become authoritarian?” means something totally different said in a history class rather than talking about the influence or ranking a blog may have on Technorati.

Our language when discussing social media and social networks have off-line analogies, and we have to remember that sometimes we need to decode our jargon for people new to the space.  It’s hard to try to teach people about the nuances of this space, when often they need more experience participating to really understand the culture.  It’s like going to Spain, and having to learn both Spanish and Catalan in order to be understood by everyone.  It takes more than high school level spanish to really express yourself beyond a child’s level of language, to be able to get the shades of your meaning across.

I think it’s easy to dismiss the new comers to the space who misread what it is said, making rampaging  bull in the chinashop mistakes and offend the early adopters in the process.  It’s like a clumsy kid who doesn’t read the social situation well and ticks off the cool kids freshman year.  Their reputation may get cemented early, and changing that perception requires a fair amount of luck and social guidance by others who get it.  Opportunities for social redemption are equally hard online, and it requires people both realizing that they have made a faux pas along with an interest in correcting it.

We’ve all made mistakes and accidentally spammed friends, hit reply all, forgotten to use BCC, etc.  Apologies and making this behavior as rare as possible maintains relationships and trust; continued incidents start to try the patience of our friends.   But I think we all have to take the opportunity to try to  help a newcomer, to make them feel a bit comfortable, and maybe reach out in a friendly way to try to help them understand.  An ounce of education may help prevent the noixious behavior we dislike online and on social networks, rather than immeidately shunning everyone who sends us a spam twitter follow DM.  I’ve certainly been reactionary there, and I know I can do better to reach out to people and be more helpful.  The trick is trying to do it without seeming paternal or imperious, but merely friendly.

In the eagerness to participate in all of these new channels of communication, I see newcomers coming on too strong, or are too eager, like a new puppy, to feel liked and included.  They want to be instantly accepted and respected, without realizing that social networking is a long term, not a short term, strategy. (Read Hugh McLeod’s new book to get more information on this, or the numerous excellent posts by C.C. Chapman on the subject.)  But as much as the experienced people don’t always feel it’s their responsibility to clue in the newbies, what if we all took one moment and tried to do just that?

As a parent, I often find I have to explicitly teach my kids things that I think are obvious.  I need to share my experience with them, so they start to understand and learn both how to fit in and meet the expectations of those around us.  None of us were born with a perfect sense of humor, knowing how to read, and able to write like Hemingway. It’s only through patience and mentoring by our family, our teachers and friends that we become who we are in the end, and maybe decoding some jargon, and helping some others along should be part of our mission.

I’m going to try to be more randomly helpful, at least once a day- how about you?

Tags: authority, cataspanglish, CC Chapman, chris pinchen, friends, gaping void, helpful, hugh mclead, language, newbie, social media, social networks, vernacular

The End of a Network – Is it the End of the Idea?

Podango looks like it is in trouble and may not be long for this world. I’ve been part of the Podango family while part of the Mommycast and Friends network, and I have always been a big fan of Doug Smith and Lee Gibbons. Both Doug and Lee have been great supporters of Podcamp and podcasting in general, and they are simply fine and kind human beings. In my many conversations with both Doug and Lee, I have always found them straight forward, honest and just simply a joy to work with, and I wish them the best in their next ventures.

Does this mean Podcasting or Podcast Networks are dead?

I still don’t think so. Why? All evidence points to the contrary. What I do think is that quality shows, grouped around a single topic- online audio/visual magazines, optimized for mobile use and searchable, have a future. What you have to do, however, is make sure every show hangs together like pearls on a string- they need some inter-relation, some logic to appearing on the same channel. You need to create a wider niche.

Most networks to date take all-comers, having a broad selection of shows to choose from, and thus hoping to attract broad advertising dollars. Yet the whole point of podcasting is niche. And books like Buyology show us that the most affective advertising is that that is integral to the programming, not just what happens at the top and the bottom of the show.

So for example, the interviews I do with authors of books on the LD Podcast is probably better advertising, and better long tail advertising for the author and book than an ad in a newspaper. While my purpose is not to sell the book per se, what it does is create a relationship between the author and the audience- you know what the author sounds like and thinks on many different issues, making it more likely that you will check out their book and all their subsequent material as well. When you make that human, passionate connection, it’s much more influential than just passing by a title on the shelf.

Podcasting, like some shows on NPR, appeal to niche audiences, based on narrow subject matter. The advertising should likewise be niche and relevant. It seems harder to place the right properties together- why would a large company want to deal with individual podcasters? Too difficult. However, here’s the rub- since people seek out podcasts directly, the audience has already jumped through hoops to find the show in the first place- they are much more engaged in the content than people who are leaving the TV on in the background, or never read through all the sections of a newspaper or magazine. And engaged consumers are one step closer to conversion to sales than one who has mere ambient awareness of a brand.

Podcasting, as a message delivering medium, has always made sense, just like radio makes sense. We sometimes need to process words separate from images, (like when we’re driving or at the gym) and there is a fundamental difference between show and tell. Take this along with the fact that humans process language based input at 40-50 phonemes a second, where we read and write at much slower rates, and you get the fact that we can bulk process more information by audio than by reading alone. This alone explains why audio books are so popular- it’s not that it’s the lazy man’s way to read- it’s the busy person’s way to get through a lot more material than they could otherwise.

To make money at podcasting, you either have to have enough time and money independent of advertising to gain enough audience share to make advertising a reality, or develop a way to team up with other podcasters in a niche that makes intuitive sense together- a collective of like content, like a magazine. If you are going to cross promote someone else’s work, it makes sense only if the content has overlap. And that way, advertisers don’t have to be as nervous about dealing with too many small producers to get a deal done- they just go to the source. The opt in/opt out methods adopted by the Blubrry network fundamentally accomplishes this goal already.

This is also part of the reason why the Association of Downloadable Media made some sense- we need to consider banding together to consider whether rate schedules, basic contracts and some sort of standardization so both content producers and people buying advertising have some idea of what they are getting. Right now, the lack of metrics and standardization makes media buyers nervous, as well as the casual nature of podcasting- will the show be weekly or biweekly? How many shows in a month? A year? Podcasters have to realize that if they take money, they will have to produce content on some schedule that suits the outside party, along with a guarantee of quality content. And for some people, that takes away the freedom, the rebel aspect of podcasting. But that is the price you pay for the money you receive in exchange.

This is the simple equation- podcasting = delivery system for content. Content attracts listeners and can attract advertisement, but media buyers are unwilling to deal with podcasters in the same way they deal with freelance submission of written, one-off content. (However- that is a cool idea- what if you could, as an individual producer, produce freelance podcasts for companies looking for content for their websites? That could be useful…. and some people are doing it now.)

In the end, while I am very sorry to see Podango go through this rough time, I still think Podcasting has its niche. It fills a space for information sharing on “smaller” subject matter, and gives people a chance to develop their own audience, independent of having to meet Neilsen ratings on a TV or radio network. From my point of view, I wonder how much more pure entertainment we will look for from podcasting, versus looking for information exchange. I know that the shows I subscribe to tend to be either substantive on subjects like marketing (Managing the Gray by CC Chapman, Marketing over Coffee by Chris Penn and John Wall), Podcasting (Canadian Podcast Buffet), language, grammar or learning, news, like Marketplace, and just a smattering of entertainment, along the lines of The Capitol Steps and This American Life.

I don’t assume that I am the proptypical podcast consumer, but I do know my own personal time is limited, so I tend to gravitate towards those shows that give me something I can take away from them, rather than shows that simply bide the time.  And because podcasting requires a certain amount of attention, I think as a producer, it’s important to make the content worthy of someone else’s ear and mindspace.   Podcasting will survive, but producers will have to keep in mind that attention is precious, and let your content reflect that.  Quality content will always succeed, wherever it’s found.

Tags: ADM, canadian podcast buffet, CC Chapman, chris penn, managing the gray, Marketing over coffee, mommycast 7 friends, NPR, podango, podcasting, this american life