What’s next year’s ‘it’ color?

Here’s a look at some of the hot colors for Spring/Summer 2010, according to Pantone’s most recent fashion report.

Aurora
Coming on the heels of Pantone’s 2009 color of the year “mimosa yellow,” Aurora is a yellow tinted with green that gives off a burst of energy.

Tomato purée
This season’s classic red can be paired with turquoise, another Pantone hot hue, for a retro look.

Eucalyptus
For the ever-practical, Pantone says this hue is cool and classic. To pump it up a bit, throw on some bright shoes and grab a vibrant handbag.

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8 Social Media Mistakes You Must Avoid

Social media can be a fantastic way to build your personal brand. But, if handled incorrectly, social media can erode your personal branding efforts in a hurry. Here are 8 social media mistakes you must avoid.

(I was happy to contribute #6 to his list)

1. Incomplete Profiles

2. Inconsistency

3. Taking the “Social” Out of Social Media

4. Not Interlinking Your Profiles

5. Being a Robot

6.  Irrelevant, Unfocused Messaging (Thanks to @slachapelle for pointing out this social media mistake)

7. Automated Direct Message

8.  Tunnel Vision

 

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6 Tips to Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter

Today, Twitter has roughly 6 million users and is projected to grow to 18.1 million users by 2010. With all those people, the chances for networking are endless and connecting with new people can lead to career opportunities, so it is essential that your personal brand exists on the service.

By leveraging the Twitter platform to build your brand you can showcase yourself to a huge and growing audience.

1. Claim your Twitter handle

With Twitter continuing its meteoric rise in popularity, it’s no surprise that Twitter account names are starting to be treated like domain names.

2. Decide how you want to brand yourself

Before you start actively using Twitter, you need a strategy, and the first step in developing that strategy is to completely fill out your user profile.
Three techniques for branding yourself on Twitter:

1. Lead with your company

2. Mutual branding – More and more companies are realizing that their employees are on Twitter and that they can be tapped to help promote their initiatives. Some of these Twitter accounts are mutually branded, so that the avatar has the person’s picture and the corporate logo.

3. 100% personal branding

3. Become known as an expert or resource

Essentially, Twitter is a shorter and more viral form of blogging, so the same rules actually still apply, and by constantly writing or tweeting about your expertise on a specific topic, you’ll become known for it and people will gravitate to you and follow you.4. Establish a Twitter marketing planJust like with any other website or blog, just because you build it, doesn’t necessarily mean people will come.
Elements of a Twitter marketing plan:

• Email signature  can turn into a new follower.

• Personal/corporate website

• Blog homepage + posts:

• Email newsletter

• Presentations

• Business Card

• Article writing / guest blog posting

• Networking on Twitter

• Promotional products

5. Utilize third-party applications

There are literally thousands of Twitter applications out there, but only a few that can really help you build your personal brand.

• Twellow

• Tweetbeep

• Tweetmeme

• Hashdictionary

• Ping.fm

• Twitter Grader

• Tweetlater

6. Form a Twitter “Mastermind Group”
Groups of individuals who are committed to helping each other and sharing knowledge amongst themselves.

• Grouptweet

• Twitter Groups

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How To Integrate Social Technologies with Virtual Events

To be successful, virtual –and real world events must have a strategy that integrates social technologies, before, during, and after

Traditional Online Events Vendors Recognize Impacts of Social
Virtual events, where companies host attendees through a digital online experience, continue to captivate marketers.  It’s good for attendees, as they can experience a virtual online event event during an economic downturn, and continue to rely on virtual events for making decisions.   As virtual events continue to grow, expect them to tightly integrate social technologies.

Three Principles Of Modern Events
1. To be successful, virtual –and real world– event planners must abide by the following principles:
2. Events should integrate with existing communities and social networks where they exist.
3. Events should have a strategy that includes the before and after –not just during.

The audience can assert control over the event, so encourage audience participation and know when to get out of the way.
Planners must develop a Pre, During, and Post strategy that integrates social.Today, event planners only think of the fixed event that occurs in a day, they often overlook that a community talks, discusses, and chatters before, during and after an event. They should:
Have a “before’ strategy. Use social tools before an event to increase signups by first locating where their target community is, and use social tools to reach them. Encourage members to tweet and share an event before it occurs, they should create events in Facebook so it triggers updates on the newsfeed.

Integrate existing social tools during an event, thereby increasing interaction. During the event, organizers should be monitoring the social web and chat rooms to see how the crowd is reacting –be ready to react in real time.

Follow up using social tools to aggregate and identify opportunities. Event planners shouldn’t quit once the event is over, the opportunity to further relationships is at hand.

In the Future, Virtual Events Must Integrate Social
• Virtual events will integrate with existing social networks. Virtual events will need to deploy in Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, and Twitter communities, allowing them to login and register with their accounts on those platforms –and then message on these platforms.

• Virtual Events won’t be a limited duration, but will become a persistent experience. Today, virtual events are often a limited duration experience

• Integrate with existing corporate communities. Expect virtual event vendors to develop partnerships with community platform vendors

Event planners will need to measure their influence on the social web. Assign team members to monitor and track occurrence

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Ten common social media mistakes

Social media networking is a marketing phenomenon too powerful to ignore. Many companies use it wisely to communicate and connect with existing and potential customers, but just as many use it incorrectly. Here are some wincingly bad social media practices:

1) Posting a page and then walking away from it. Just having a presence on social media sites won’t cut it.

2) Setting up a social media site if you’re paranoid. You must be willing to reveal — at the very least — the culture, or personality of your business from an insider’s perspective.

3) Spamming others with a constant stream of promo messages. They call it “social” media for a reason. Use it to communicate with, and listen to, others.

4) Joining a social media network if you don’t understand how it works. Get advice and hands-on help from people or agencies in the know, and commit time to learning about this medium on your own.

5) Assuming social media networking can replace traditional advertising and public relations. Your Web site, social media presence and traditional media messages — print and broadcast — should link together and carry a consistent message.

6) Having a presence on every social network platform you come across. Choose your networks carefully, based on their structure, their following and your company’s goals.

7) Expecting to realize direct sales. Trying to blatantly push your products or services through social media will alienate more potential customers than it will cultivate.

Thinking others will flock to you. Be pro-active in linking to others’ pages, friending those who want to friend you, and taking time to converse with others and comment on their posts.

9) Don’t think because it’s cost-free it isn’t expensive. Your social media marketing efforts require time and management.

10) Don’t assume it’s a “necessary evil.” Approach social media with an open mind and a generous spirit.

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Who owns it? How do you protect it?

Here is a link to a great presentation from Thursday, May 14 by the attorneys of Graydon Head – Stacy Cole, Kara Czanik, Katherine Lasher and Eric Okerson on Emerging issues in the digital world.

Covers Who owns what in the workplace, data breaches, cybersquatting, Copyrights and more.

Link to presentation >

50+ Tips to Brand Yourself Offline

A strong personal brand will distinguish you in a tough job market. Once you’ve designed your personal brand and have a personal brand name, use this handy list of suggestions to implement your standout personal branding strategy.
* Show your expertise as much as possible.
* Publicize your brand-related successes and achievements.
* Make yourself easy to contact for thoughts and questions
* Help other people in your industry such as bloggers, Twitterers, colleagues, advice seekers, etc.
* Give people a reason to talk about you in a positive way that also matches your brand.
* Follow other people in your industry and anyone else who can teach you how to spread your message.
* Keep in mind that where you interact online also conveys messages about you

Tactics
* Choose an appropriate personal avatar.
* Consider using a personal logo.
* Join brand-related communities on social media
* Be helpful by sharing links and resources that you know people will enjoy.

Blogging
* Register your own name as a domain name.
* Syndicate your blog in brand-related sites and networks.

Social media
* Be selective in choosing the right social media for you
* Use Twitter or other micro-blogging services to share and learn.
* Create a social bookmarking account specifically for articles related to your profession
* Launch a Facebook Page about your industry niche.
* Tie together everything in a dedicated FriendFeed profile

Personal brand-reinforcing content
* Produce your own podcasts (audio or video).
* Put out press releases when you have a newsworthy accomplishment to share.
* Write op-ed articles for mainstream media.
* Start a newsletter about your field of expertise.
* Conduct webinars about up and coming topics.
* Leave insightful comments on related blogs.
* Guest post on pertinent blogs.
* Post presentations you’ve given on topic, such as by publishing them on your LinkedIn profile and blog.
* Write an ebook.

Read all 50 tips >

You Don’t Control the Conversation Anymore!

One of the major dynamic shifts in marketing in the past several years has been the migration of our role as conversation starters – an active role – to conversation facilitators, a more observational and influential role.

10-15 years ago, we were all charged with integrating our marketing efforts by crafting and streamlining our messaging, ensuring that all of our channels were using the same language, creating “key messages” in bullet point form for the media, and mastering “official positioning” for everything from our product’s benefits to our company’s role in the community.

Not anymore.

These kinds of manufactured conversations simply don’t have staying power and credibility in today’s transparent world. The remarkable nature of the internet and social media have broken the conversation wide open, and put the audience in the drivers’ seat. Today’s consumers, companies, and readers aren’t buying the canned corporate statement anymore.

So what can you do? Listen to the conversation and participate in it. Hear what people are saying about you, and respond. Craft your “official” positioning by making it your policy to:

- Allow your best assets – your team members, at all levels – to speak about what they know. Quit stifling their insights in favor of “approved” media spokespeople. It’s more genuine this way.
- Respond to the dialogue that’s happening around you and about you. And that means the criticism, too.
- Pay attention to how your idea of your brand is matching up with how others are talking about you. If they’re vastly different, it’s time to reevaluate.

Today, we’re all charged with letting go a little bit and realizing that we’re not the ones dictating the conversation anymore. The social media reality means that conversation and dialogue is now:

• Transparent
• Open to everyone
• Collective – the power of many
• Brutally honest
• Fast as lightning.

Our role as marketing people is to help create an oustanding, remarkable, and great product/service/idea. Then we participate in the conversation rather than merely trying to control it, and see what a difference it makes. Not convinced social media will affect the way you do business?

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The Quicksand of Social Media Buzzwords

You’re trying to discuss and describe the movement that is social media. Imagine you’re not allowed to say any of the following:

• You need to join the conversation
• It’s about relationships (or people)
• It’s not about the tools
• You need to be listening
• Transparency
• Authenticity

Can you come up with illustrative ways to describe it’s value without resorting to the lingo and buzzwords we’ve already beat to death?

One of the powerful elements of social media has been that it strips away many of the artificial trappings that have weighed down marketing and communications for decades.

We got mired in our lingo quicksand in that traditional, push communications world. We got lost talking about brand attributes and key messages and talking points and brand promises and all those terms, and we forgot what they meant. We lived and died by our contrived, scripted fallbacks, and often propped up buzzwords in place of real strategy and action.

Are we in danger of doing it again?

It’s more than just being an echo chamber. It’s getting lazy about how we describe and discuss what it is we’re trying to do here. When we stop looking for new ways to illustrate the importance of social communication, when we’re not committed enough to find new stories to tell or ways to describe the validity of bridging customers to companies, we’ve already lost.

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HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook

With over 200 million active users, Facebook has become a personal, product and corporate branding hub. Every brand that exists on Facebook has the same core features and benefits, such as the ability to create a page, share resources, add multimedia and much more. You have a unique opportunity to leverage this platform for career success or as a playground for you and your closest friends.

The social graph is filled with CEOs, celebrities, entrepreneurs and people just like you who can be reached through Facebook’s messaging system without any boundaries or restrictions. Facebook is also a talent search engine and part of the college admission and corporate recruiting criteria. You will be searched on Facebook by potential dates, managers, and teachers, so use common sense in determining how you want to represent yourself. You are what you publish and first impressions are everything.

A guide to building your personal brand on Facebook
1. Know your audience
2. Decide on your branding strategy
3. Set your privacy settings
4. Fill out your profile completely
5. Import contacts and grow your network
6. Update your status
7. Start a group or a page
8. Join or start an event in your area
9. Link out to your Facebook profile
10. Feed your social networks

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