A few weeks ago my friend Liz Henry posed a question on twitter questioning the trend of "personal branding." I responded with my opinion and later a link to a blog post Geoff Livingston filed ages ago; Liz included both in her blog post on the topic.

I finally had a chance to read her post and reader's comments and they prodded me to share more of my thinking on the topic than 140 characters provides.

By and large, I don't believe in personal branding. And I think that professionals who believe in personal branding are a detriment to the companies and brands with which they partner or service.

Allow me to explain.

If a business person, free agent, or corporate employee is branding themselves, that means they're competing with your Brand. Think about how much time is required to market something. If that person is working for you, they could have spent that time working on your business. How many opportunities for your business did they miss as they shilled themselves?

Liz's post examined the question for mom bloggers. I'd argue that a blog isn't always a personal brand. A blog is a product and potentially a revenue stream, just like other media companies such as the NY Times or AOL. Marketing a blog isn't personal branding. The blog may be personal in nature and content, but it's not necessarily a personal brand. It's just a brand. And a product that you make. And yes, you should market it.

The person behind the blog, the writer or reporter, is not the product. And if you spend your time building up that person as the product, you're putting your Brand and business at risk. Remember what happened to Wendy's marketing when Dave died? KFC and the Colonel? Have you noticed that Johnson baby products fall under a different "brand name" than other J&J products like Tylenol or Neutrogena? A benefit to that strategy is that the revered Baby brand remains isolated and therefore (hopefully) untainted, should anything happen to the company's other products.

A blogger can be a personality. And yes, you can pair and market a personality with a brand - to support the brand, to help shape the brand voice. Think William Shatner for Priceline. Suzanne Sommers for Thighmaster. Martha Stewart for Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart cookbooks, or Martha Stewart bedding. Gary Vaynerchuk for Wine Library.

The exception to the rule, are the handful of household names (often entertainers) who rise above their product to become a personal brand. This elite group includes names such as: Madonna, Cher, Oprah, and Britney. However, even these people started selling a product, creating a personality and then transcended to become the product.

My advice? Make something. Sell that. But never sell yourself.

I drafted this post in February, meaning to come back and make it more robust, but let's face it, I've been swamped.
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A few things that have caught my eye recently:

Task Ave: This app adds location element to your to do list. So if you need to pick up dry cleaning, the app will push out a reminder when you're nearby.

UnSocial: Connect via your LinkedIn profile, tag yourself, and this app will connect you to business people in your proximity that you'd like to meet.

Intersect: I love storytelling, so this is right up my alley. You enter a location and can post a pic from their and/or tell a story related to that exact location in the world.

Looking Ahead: User Shared Content

My latest thinking on social is related to the evolution of how we're using it. A few years ago, social media was what some now call "static social". It was text based, updating blogs and wiki's and posting in forums.

Then we moved into the UGC phase, where people discovered the ease of creating and publishing their own content. Regular people and their cats became internet sensations. We loved it.

Today and moving forward, I think social is going to be about USC, or User Shared Content. More and more people are exposed to mass and niche sources for news and entertainment. People are spending so much time socializing and discovering news/information on the web, they don't have time to "create content" anymore and honestly, most would rather read or look at someone else's.

Instead, they can share it. And they can entertain friends and family and their new global social graph, by sharing links/pix/vids with a wider group of friends than ever before, who can like it and comment on it and share it some more.

USC a great opportunity for creatives and ad agencies, whom have the ability and resources to make some kickass content that is irresistibly shareable.

A letter to CMO's, Brand Managers and in-house Marketers

Hi there:

More and more I hear from brands who've been disappointed by the work (or lack thereof) of a social media specialist. Some of these complaints are about well-known names in social media and practitioners backed by credible organizations like WOMMA, PRSA, and the AMA. With so-called "earned media" there are always going to be successes and failures, there are no guarantees here, but there are ways for brands to better vet who they work with in this field.

A Social Media search checklist:

1. Define your needs. Do you need a high-level strategist, creative, an educator on the tools, or a day-to-day team in the trenches with you? If you don't know what you need, survey your team or discuss your business goals during the RFP/vetting process and ask for input on a recommended scope of work.
2. Ask trusted sources for recommended SM specialists.
3. Find an example of a successful social media campaign that wowed you. Research who executed that and how. Share that example with your candidates so they better understand your idea of success.
   
4. Research the SM agency or individual. Check out their pages/accounts/blogs. Find out who they are. Look into their experience in the field.
5. Ask for case studies. While social media is still young, a lot of great work/campaigns have been done. Ask them what they've done. The proof is in the pudding. Even if they are providing high level strategy, I firmly believe they should have current work under their belt. How can you make a solid recommendation on approach, if you're not actively out there, working and accountable for the success of your ideas?
6. Ask direct questions about their work/role in their case studies. What was this person's contribution to the work? Who else contributed and how?
7. Ask for client references. Connect with their clients and seek feedback on the project or campaign.
   
8. Agree upon quantifiable program goals.
   
9. State clear timing expectations.
   
10. Be nimble. If an agreed upon approach isn't working, challenge your SM partner to develop a new approach. One of the best things about SM is that it IS a changing landscape and you can switch gears and try new things without a huge spend set in stone.
    

Good luck out there.

Just back from Blogher '10. Here are my observations:

1. The team at Blogher does an excellent job pulling off a tricky event. Part professional conference, part reunion, part trade show, part retreat, this event is onion-like in layers. It's not easy to produce something that is so many things to so many people. Kudos to the team for tackling this challenge.
2. I will always love Blogher, if just for the fact this is my Ms. Magazine. I'm young enough to have benefited from the doors opened by the women's movement decades ago, and I'm old enough to have seen the glass ceiling firsthand. Blogher is powerful evidence that Madison Avenue and the C-suite now understand the buying power and purchasing decisions of the WOMAN of the house. That's huge. Blogher is evidence that woman have a seat at the proverbial table, rather than serving it. The awe of having "arrived" always hits me at Blogher.
3. The community checked itself before it wrecked itself. Last year was gross. Egregiously gross. And some of the blame goes to brands for acting like desperate boyfriends and getting into bed with anyone who had a URL and some the blame lays with community members who fell victim to the gold rush and embraced swag like guest stars on "Hoarders." Hey, it happens. But you know what Blogher's? You nipped that in the bud. Post-conference, you policed yourselves by talking about it on your blogs, acknowledging it and being accountable. This year was a completely different show. Well done.
   
4. More than any other year (I attended my first Blogher event in 2005), you felt like a community this year. Last year I felt this, and it was exciting but still new. It was like Freshman coming back to college after Christmas break. This year, it was like college sophomores coming back for Fall semester. You knew each other better - online and IRL, and there was a comfortable and familiar feeling as you ran into each other, hung out and caught up.
5. PR people. Good lord. I haven't seen that many PR people in one place since CES. Maybe b/c it was in NYC and so many agencies are there, or maybe it's because Blogher now has a seat at the proverbial table, but PR people were everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I looooooved seeing so many old friends, it just surprised me.
   

Now, here's where I think Blogher can improve:

1. Session programming needs some work. I attend this show as a blogger, albeit a lazy one, since I rarely dust off this antique (or the 3 other robust blogs I authored under nom de plumes from 1998-2006). I found very few sessions that interested me. Maybe they were poorly titled, I don't know.
2. Sessions need moderation. While I recognize the "community" and "sharing" aspect of Blogher, some rules need apply to panels. For example, this is not an opportunity for the audience to do improv/stand up, nor is it group therapy. I'm sure 5 of you will argue the latter (e.g. -"But we're bloggers, blogging is my therapy!") - go ahead and take it to my comments. This is a panel. The people on the panel have been chosen because a) they have stories to tell b) they have more experience than you c) you can learn from them d) they are accomplished e) people want to hear them speak and f) they are more important than you. Therefore, when you get the mic, please ask a question. I'm not here to hear your backstory and I don't need you to provide me with your backstory for the question...Just. Ask. Your. Question. Really. And Moderators, you should be on this. You should be setting the ground rules prior to Q&A and gently reminding audience members when they start to riff. Blogher organizers may disagree with me, but without good moderation, the audience is cheated from maximum interaction and learning.
   
3. Improve the sponsor experience. Since I knew so many people working booths, I heard lots of feedback. The Blogher team has a ripe opportunity to improve the sponsor experience and like every other company providing a service, they need to listen to their funders/investors/customers/partners and improve service. Blogher charges big money to sponsors for this conference - and rightly so. It's a valuable community to support, and Blogher does a great job integrating sponsors cross channel both virtually and on-site. However, there needs to be some attention to detail in regard to sponsors, after all, they're helping to fund this conference and the community. Why not offer them some good-old fashioned hospitality? Why not provide a few meal tickets to sponsors with booths? How about a small behind-the-scenes sponsor area for them to regroup, get coffee, tea or water? That suite or area could have a flat screen running a live tweet stream of all of the tagged #blogher and #blogher10 tweets so they can see the social interaction and social impact of the event in real time. And how about a bag for the sponsors - even if it isn't the coveted attendee bag (although 1-per booth would be nice) - Blogher could offer their own swag to sponsors (great opportunity for you to market yourselves to your valued partners!).
4. Sponsors: Be cool. This is a consumer event, even though it feels like a trade show. Educating me on your product or service is cool, I get it, that's why you're here. Overwhelming me when I stop in your booth with a camera crew and amped up host with a microphone to capture my reaction, not providing me with a release to sign nor asking to tape me, is bush league. C'mon son.
   

Net net, I'm thankful that Blogher hosts this event each year, it's no small feat and is a great service to the community. This year, it re-energized my interest in blogging, gave me face time with people I enjoy who live far away, and exposed me to some fascinating new people I will keep up with virtually.

Promoted Tweets

Everyone's talking about Twitter's new revenue model called Promoted Tweets. What is it? In plain english, Promoted Tweets are just paid search. A brand buys some keywords from twitter, when the user searches for said keyword in twitter's search function, the paid search Brand tweets will rise to the top of the search queue and populate first, over the community's conversation that may incorporate the same keywords.

Someone like Justin Bieber probably won't need Promoted Tweets. However, this could have been very handy for Motrin, back in the day when the Motrin Moms debacle erupted. Or for Southwest Air when Kevin Smith shook up the tweetstream with his outrage. In instances like that, when thousands of people are chiming in and creating a tweetstorm, Promoted Tweets would help a Brand elevate their POV to high ground rather than drown in the tweet tsunami.

Am I wowed by Promoted Tweets? Not so much. Not yet, anyway. I've got my eye on the next gen of Promoted Tweets, that's gonna be the game changer.

The next gen of this model will change how tweets appear in your personal tweet stream. I have a feeling that's going to rock a lot of boats, which is why that's the next gen feature. Twitter is going to have to do a lot of testing before they roll that out. It sounds pretty invasive and in fact, may be outright disruptive.

According to the NY Times, "In the next phase of Twitter’s revenue plan, it will show promoted posts in a user’s Twitter stream, even if a user did not perform a search and does not follow the advertiser...For example, if someone has been following people who write about travel, they could see a promoted post from Virgin America on holiday fare discounts."

That's going to be tricky for Twitter to implement. Twitter users tend to be finicky curators of their "streams." A lot of people I know approach their tweet stream like a Bonsai project, ever so carefully pruning and cultivating to ensure they don't have spammers in there or people who are "too noisy" or too focused on a specific topic they aren't interested in or if they're like me, cultivating a stream that is the almost-perfect balance of lifestreamers who happen to work in fields related to mine or live in the Philly-area. Tweet streams are serious business for much of this dedicated community, so effecting the individual's curation of it may be a landmine for twitter.

That said, as an advertiser, if I could join a conversation about a topic related to my field or product and share information related to it, that does sound mighty appealing. For me, it's really going to boil down to the integration of the second generation of this product. Am I butting into someone's stream, or am I a blade of grass gently shooting up alongside the stream? Can't wait for the little blue bird to let us know.

ShePosts.com: Part Gawker, Part Mashable and all Mommy Blogosphere.

Today, at noon EST, ShePosts.com will launch. This online news destination will comprehensively cover "what’s happening in the Mommy Blogging world – from paid PR campaigns to drama with the New York Times. We’re embedded in the mom blogosphere and will share the scoop on the latest posts and events shaping the community. "

Founder Esther Crawford says that the site will include:

• Comprehensive coverage of major brand-blogger relationships
• Maintain a list of all current brand ambassador programs
• Create a ‘brand event’ list which shows who has attended private events hosted by major brands
• A complete calendar and map of related conferences, workshops and Twitter parties
• Coverage and follow-up of all popular conferences such as Blissdom, Mom 2.0 and BlogHer
  

Other things to note:

• On average, we’ll have 4-6 posts a day tracking the latest news + gossip covering the Mom Blogger community
• We’ll feature interviews with well-known mommy bloggers and providing their take on current events as well as hot-button issues such as monetization, privacy concerns, brand evangelism, and the future of the mommy blogging space. And we won’t be lobbing softballs in our interviews.

Last night, Esther was kind enough to answer a few light-hearted questions for me about the site.

What do you want ShePosts.com to be when it grows up?
As ShePosts grows up it'll include a lot more people - there are already a few well-known and loved women from the mom blogging community who are going to be joining the ranks as contributors in the coming weeks.

A lot of sites answer the easy questions like "What happened?", but ShePosts is also going to be a place to find out why it happened.

It'll be journalistic, but with a splash of gossip and irreverent snark thrown in because c'mon - this is the internet and we're living in the age of The Gosselins.

You’ve told us a little bit about what ShePosts.com is. Can you tell us what it isn’t?
ShePosts is not another community site singing "kum ba yah". Disagreements and drama are part of business, as is demonstrated on industry sites like TechCrunch and Mashable each day.

And let's be clear - mom blogging has become a business, which happens to be incredibly lucrative for a select few.

Think about this: major brands routinely fly out a dozen or more mom bloggers to get wined & dined in exchange for a few tweets and links.

While we'll be the first to congratulate folks who get it right, we're not afraid to get our hands dirty while reporting the news - which means calling companies or individuals out when they're involved in shady business.

At the end of the day we believe that accountability & recognition raises the bar, which is good for everyone.

If ShePosts were a cookie (no, silly, not the website tracking kind. The eating kind!), what kind of cookie would it be?
We aim to make ShePosts like Girl Scout thin mints, which are so addictive that you can't help going back for more.

If ShePosts were a Pandora station, what would play?
It'd play strong women who are deep yet know how to rock it. In other words, we'd have Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" on repeat.