In the past, I have seen people bristle at the notion of “personal brand.”

You know, and I know, people who have gotten high off their own Google Analytics and displayed an inflated sense of their own self-importance.

So what?

Really, so what?

That’s no reason to sublimate the ego in social media.

It is, despite what people say, all about you.

Why? I don’t care about every little detail of your life, and I don’t expect you to care about mine (even if I post it on Twitter and Facebook- and believe, that is far from everything).

What I do care about is what you have to add. Don’t forgo ego because people (and I’m not picking on Amber Naslund even if her excellent post for aspiring writers set me off) tell you to. That shouldn’t be enough reason anyway, right?

So, here are my reasons for making it all about You:

• You may or may not be an expert on some things, but you are definitely the foremost expert on You. Only you have had your experiences and opinions. Share them.
• Objectivity is great but news I can read anywhere. Don’t distill, add You. I know when I blog,
• Don’t worry if people don’t care about the “You” bits. More people care than you think- plus, you can always write it all out then pare back before you publish.
• Don’t worry bout becoming a “social media (jerk).” Actually, do worry- if you are worrying about it, then you probably are in less danger of becoming one.
• Corporate bloggers? Corporate-speak is necessary at times, but the most successful blogs inject the individual bloggers’ personalities. Is there a risk of the person eclipsing the brand? Two things: that’s where ego checks and common sense are actually required, and anyone- even the CEO- can be replaced as blogger without killing the brand.

People with healthy egos probably don’t need this advice. Maybe those are the people we need to worry about becoming obnoxious egotistical jerks.

Either way, I’ll end off with this great song “Watching the Planets” from one of my favorite bands, The Flaming Lips. The video is about as NSFW as it gets (lots of people running- and pedaling- around nekkid), by the way, but that’s how Wayne Coyne & Co. roll:

(Actually, I chickened out because my kid sometimes come to this blog, God knows why: if you want to see the video, it’s actually quite good, and it’s here:

http://www.buzzgrinder.com/2009/flaming-lips-watching-the-planets-nsfw/

The New York Times‘ David Pogue posts Twitter Tips for Beginners: A great common-sense starter guide for the bewildered Twitter newcomer. What’s hilarious is that Poguue was berated by some Twitter users for “acting like a newbie.” Off with their heads! That’s no way to be social.

Are Social Media Veteran (not “Experts!!!”) Being Impatient? Is it ok to link to my boss’ blog post? Yes! Todd Defren reflects the impatience of a lot of us that there is still a need for “Social Media 101” courses. Of course there is- I too, however, would just like the whole world to get up to speed already

The Daily Influence Personalized Social Media Page: A dashboard with pre-loaded RSS feeds for social media wannabes. Do we need this? Isn’t this easy to do? the cynic in me says it is a good idea to serve the lazy and less competent, even if the result is kind of ugly lookin’.

Dan “Fake Steve Jobs” Lyons goes off on CNBC for poor Apple coverage- on CNBC: The topic? Coverage of Steve Jobs’ health issues and misinformation from Apple leading up to the recent announcement of the company chief’s medical leave. This is the best media tirade since Jon Stewart told CNN they were bad for America. Of course, Lyons is right. Apple PR, in my book an oxymoron (“relations?” really?), could be its undoing someday.

ALSO: Dan Lyons follows up with his column in Newsweek.

Seth Godin goes back to basics with How to Write a Personal Email: A hate linking to someone everybody links to, but a must-read is a must-read. Let us never forget that we all need to be reminded of the basics regularly. And read between the lines – “don’t spam” – I have applied this post to PR usage. If you think you could be doing it wrong, you probably are.

Goodbye Pownce, We Hardly Knew Ye – Remember when people were begging and scrambling for beta invitations to Pownce? As a hardcore Twitter user, I did appreciate the differences that the Pownce service presented: threaded conversation, the ability to share small files. But the core application was still quick, short communications- and Pownce never seemed like a complementary service, but more a would-be competitor that didn’t make it in the end. Pownce is being shut down as the people behind it move on to work for acquirer Six Apart.

“PR is Dead” – Yeah, yeah, whatever… – Blogger Dennis Howlett wrote the latest in a long series of “I hate PR” notes. A couple of observations:

1- These notes are not new to social media – they are as old as, well, the bad PR pitch (remember Buzzkiller?)

2- Dennis has a curmudgeonly style (I was fortunate enough to experience that in person this summer) that probably makes some people think his post is nastier than it was. Not only does he not say “PR is dead,” he actually says “I’ve come to the end of putting up with what most PR offers” (italics mine). Furthermore, he is not refusing pitches, he is actually very specific about how to pitch him. Use Twitter, out in the open. In fact, his Twitter bio is all any PR person needs to make sure they target pitches before sending: “Full time blogger on innovation for professional accountants.” That’s pretty specific, isn’t it? As a public relations pro, I have no problems with these rants- they make us better, and the best ones actually tell us how to be better.

Hyperlocal Social Media Update: Blogging for Mayor – With a contentious mayoral race heating up in Newton, Massachusetts (where I live), rather than waiting for candidates to set up blogs, the local newspaper set one up for the candidates. “Newton’s Next Mayor” is already up with contributions from two candidates, and invitations out to others as they announce their candidacies. One candidate has refused to participate- a symptom of the old and new divide. I m curious to see what effect the candidates’ participation has on the race.

“Twitter Surges” – a Security Problem? – Of all the fascinating live Twittering of the tragic events in Mumbai over the last couple of weeks, the issue Shel Holtz addresses in his blog really captured my interest. Will the fear that live online Twitter (text) and Qik (video) updates be a nuisance- or worse- to authorities in a war situation? If these tools grow into true mass adoption (how far off are we, really?), will people/countries/armies just have to account for the fact that it is harder to move in secret? Fascinating…

Heh – “Mapple” – I haven’t watched “The Simpsons” much since the first four or five seasons, but I stumbled upon the latest episode that started with a hilarious spoof of Apple and Steve Jobs. Some people thought it was late- I still thought it was spot on, and anyone who knows me knows I can’t resist a well-done mocking of the Apple cult (will I now be chased down the street by an angry, earbud-wielding mob?). Here are two clips from that program (and by the way– I love that Hulu.com clips are on YouTube- these are official, right?):

Technorati Tags: simpson, apple, mapple, twitter, pownce, mumbai, dennis+howlett, public+relations, social+media, politics, newton

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em – and make ’em laugh until they buy your stuff. More entertainment companies should follow this “treat your customers with respect and trust your product” direction. The Monty Python Troupe have put a number of popular television and movie clips up on YouTube and winkingly acknowledged the “Theft” represented by unauthorized uploads. Of course you would expect these gentlemen to have a sense of humor (sorry, humour), but it’s still a lesson in “free.”

I’ll be a full-time believer in this endeavor when they add “Scott of the Antarctic.” giant penguins with tentacles!

(Perhaps this video will get pulled in favor of a high-quality “official” one- please?)

TypePad’s “Journalist Bailout Program” – A hat-tip to Chip Griffin of Media Bullseye for this one. TypePad is offering laid-off journalists (and working ones fearful of a “re-organization”) free “pro” accounts, along with enrollment in their advertising program and blog promotion. Is this a crass exploitation of an industry of workers feeling a lot of pain right now? You bet! In fact, there is some reported skepticism about the offer. But they are offering a service, keeping writers’ work in the public eye. It can’t hurt, and it’s a nice gesture.

Hiring in a 2.0 World – I think – I hope – we’ll be hearing more stories like David Murray’s (as related by David Meerman Scott). He needed a job, and found one by using Twitter to search for relevant messages and people. In the meatspace world, we call that “networking.” Well done! Of course, “Hiring in a 2.0 World” is nothing new, as Aaron Strout will tell you. Oh- and I should mention that part of the process by which I found my current job at SHIFT Communications was Twitter. Like I said- networking.

On that note, people have been kicking up dust about “personal brand” lately (see Steve Woodruff at MarketingProfs and Geoff Livingston for two of the better examples). Geoff’s posts in particular seem to take aim at people who use their personal brand for business. Personal brands may or may not help companies close business, but I would point out that it often opens doors. I’m less interested in personal brands that are the faces of business- that’s is a cultivation that must be deliberate and careful. I am interested in personal brand as just that– personal. It helps us get jobs, our employers can latch their reputations onto ours- and therein lies great responsibility to behave ourselves- but it belongs to us. Like with any social media project, define what brand will do for you, and lay out your content in pursuit of those goals.

Ghost-Blogging- didn’t we settle that issue? Simon Wakeman brings up the issue thoughtfully on his blog, raising the *gasp!* possibility that ghost-writing is going to happen, and perhaps, if done right, it’s not so irredeemably evil. That, of course, is a big “if,” but my observation: the arguments against ghost-blogging tend to focus on ghost-blogging itself as the sin, but it’s not. The lack of transparency is. If you can have people ghost-blog and somehow pull it off, I’d like to see it; perhaps admit it’s ghost-written, dare people to care, provide good content and engage openly in conversations. Just a thought.

Technorati Tags: monty+python, social+media, public+relations, typepad

For PodCamp Boston 3, I was fortunate to be invited to sit on a panel with crayon‘s Greg Verdino, Morpheus Media’s Adam Broitman (pictured below, with me, as a make-good for leaving him out of my “Bald Marketing Bloggers” post), and ooVoo’s Philip Robertson, titled “Smart Social Media Marketing. While the four of us did the bulk of the talking, the subject matter was driven by the audience.

Len Edgerly was kind enough to Live-Stream the session on Qik.com. He had to do it in two parts, which can be found:

Part 1:

Part 2.

In fact, the audience was so integral that I developed what will now be known as the “Cass pass” – calling on John Cass, who had his arm raised, when Greg asked me a question I needed to chew on before answering. That gave us all a good 5-7 minutes (I kid, John!).

For my part, I tried to hold up the PR end, coming from so-called traditional PR but having social media as part of the mix, and the conversation got me thinking about how do social media marketing agencies, and PR agencies that have social media skills along with the traditional chops, co-exist? (Part of my answer is that my employer, SHIFT Communications, works with C.C. Chapman and the Advance Guard work together on a client- and PodCamp sponsor- mDialog)

Other bits raised: Who is responsible for social media conversations (perhaps that depends on the organizations’ goals)? Who is doing social media right (I favored some smaller software builders and their quick-response habits on Twitters as great examples for all companies)? How can companies make their news stream interactive– or social (yes, we talked about the Social Media Press Release)? How do we best serve “lazy bloggers (I brought up the old “rip and read news” as an analogy)?

We didn’t solve the problems of the world, but showed a lot of people (there were about 140 ion the room) are thinking hard about these issues. Please have a look a the videos and give out your thoughts.

And also, see Greg Verdino’s own wrapup of the session.

And: my colleague Sandy Kalik has a live-blogging play-by-play here.

UPDATE: thanks to Kosso and Phreadz for making it possible to embed Len Edgerly’s qik videos.

Technorati Tags: pcb3, podcampboston, podcamp, socialmedia, marketing, pr, gregverdino, adambroitman, philiprobertson, oovoo, crayon, morpheusmedia