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Archive for May, 2008
How to Maintain and Exploit your Personal Brand
May 30th
Welcome back readers!
Today I will be wrapping up my series on Personal Branding. If you haven’t read the previous posts in the series, I highly recommend going back and reading them to catch up as you will find them very interesting and informative. Now that the plug for the previous posts is out of the way, its time to talk about how to maintain and exploit your personal brand.
Now that we have discussed how to create a personal brand and why you should have one, its time to talk about how to properly maintain a personal brand and use it to your benefit. Maintaining a personal brand doesn’t require much work unless you start to get a bad reputation with the name. It is always easier to maintain a good reputation with your personal brand than it is to fix a bad one.
Maintaining your personal brand can be as easy as the occasional non-offensive podcast, blog post or comment. While you don’t need to post something everyday, it does help to do something positive and productive with your personal brand on a regular basis. Not only will more content drive some things into a better search engine ranking, but it will keep your name out there so that people don’t think you have abandoned your projects and forget about you. The better job you can do at keeping your name on the lips of those that care about your content, the more successful you will become.
While regular content is important to maintaining your personal brand, the substance of that content can also be extremely important as well. Posting mindless drivel will do nothing to help your personal brand. Posting offensive content will also serve to lower the value of your personal brand. You can’t please everybody with what you say, but being vulgar and saying things that are out of line will not help your cause. Even if you are defending yourself, keep in mind that you never know where it will land in the search rankings and what you say will have either a positive or negative effect on your personal brand. It is best to take the high road rather than stoop to the level of the well known internet troll.
Now that you have an idea of how to establish and maintain your personal brand, you need an idea of how to exploit your personal brand. The wider the audience you are able to achieve with a positive personal brand, the more opportunities you will have. Since you don’t usually know who all is watching, listening or reading your content, it is best to assume that every person who consumes your content has something to offer. The happier you keep the consumers of your content, the more willing they will be to approach you about participating in a project they are involved in. Of course they don’t necessarily have to pitch their idea to you, but if you have a strong enough personal brand, your name will likely proceed you and could be what gets you that next job or promotion.
A personal brand can be a great tool to get you ahead in many areas of your life. If you maintain it properly and know how to use it to your advantage, it can open up limitless opportunities to you and even the people around you.
While the personal branding posts are by no means comprehensive, they are a solid foundation for anybody to get started on creating a personal brand and maintaining it. If at any point I believe that I have more to add, I will not hesitate to post it. Also, if you have any good personal branding related links, I would be glad to pass them along to the readers, so feel free to email them to me at pcnerd37@globalgeeknews.com
I don’t expect I will do week long blog series like this very often as Global Geek News is about current tech news and I would like to focus on that a majority of the time. Check back Monday for more great posts and don’t forget to give the Global Geek News podcast a listen!
-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray
How to Create a Personal Brand
May 29th
Welcome back readers!
Yesterday I covered the topic of why you should have a personal brand, and now that you know you need a personal brand, I will discuss how to create one.
There are three main things to remember when creating a personal brand: Is it unique, easy to remember, and does it say something about you?
Lets start of with finding a unique name. While it was easier to create a unique name in the earlier days of the internet when there were fewer people and identities on the web, that doesn’t mean its impossible to create a unique name without having to resort to a huge string of meaningless numbers at the end if the name. Creating a name by which you are known, or personal brand will typically require some creativity. You need to pick a name that if you Google it, is not clearly used by somebody else. It is also very important to create something fairly short that is not complicated so that people can easily remember it.
Making a name that people can recall at any time is a very important part of having a personal brand. This is why a long string of numbers after a name that is likely not unique is a bad idea. People will have a hard time remembering a long string of numbers compared to a catchy name. In the years that I have had the name pcnerd37, I have found that in general conversation on forums and in chatrooms, people generally leave off the numbers when they address me. They will also do the same with you if you choose a name with numbers. If you must have something with a number in it, make sure that if people leave off the number, you can still be easily identified through the various search engines.
Lastly, it is a good idea to have the name say something about you as an individual. While using some random name may be cool in some social circles, having a name that says something about you without people knowing who you are can be crucial to growing an audience online. When I came up with the name pcnerd, it is something that is very descriptive of who I am. When people throw my name around in general conversation, they may not be familiar with my work, but they can get a general idea of who I am from just knowing my name. Finding a name that is descriptive of your personality can often give the name an unique quality while allowing people to have a sense of who you are without knowing anything about you, which can get your foot in the door in many situations.
These are just some general guidelines for creating a personal brand that is unique to you, but it is certainly not a comprehensive guide. There are some things that go without saying when creating a personal brand such as do not use offensive language or symbolism, especially if you are looking for a wide audience. Keep in mind that people of all ages and positions could be looking up your name and you don’t want to turn them off to you because of your personal brand as it could cost you many great opportunities in life.
Don’t forget to come back tomorrow when I talk about how to exploit and maintain your personal brand. Don’t forget to leave comments on the posts as they can be beneficial to everybody when discussing a topic such as this.
-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray
Why should you have a Personal Brand?
May 28th
Welcome back readers!
Today is part 3 of my series on personal branding. As the title suggests, today we will be discussing why you should have a personal brand. There are countless reasons for why you should have a personal brand, but I will only cover the two I find to be the most important.
While personal branding is important for everybody in our current age of technology, I find it especially crucial for content creators. Whether you are a blogger, vlogger, podcaster or just somebody who likes to comment on those things, it is important to establish an identity that is unique to you. If you are hoping to reach as many people as possible with what you have to say, you need to make sure that people remember who you are and don’t get you confused with somebody else who has a similar name.
By having a unique personal brand, it is easier for people to find you as a content creator as well as recommend them to your friends. This is key for any content creator. Whether you are looking to make sure your small group of followers can follow your various online activities to trying to find advertising for your content, the ability for people to identify you is crucial. Not only do people need to Identify you, they need to identify WITH you!
Having a personal brand where people can follow you will allow people to get to know who you really are and your personal style. By identifying yourself with your personal brand and expressing yourself through it, you are more likely to attain a group of like minded followers. This is the key to growth for any content creator, find people of like minds that can identify you and identify with you.
Personal branding isn’t just important to content creators, but to everybody! With employers using Google and other online services more and more to investigate future employees, it is extremely important to have a unique personal brand. If you are like me and don’t show up until the third of forth page in a vanity search, this could be a very bad thing when looking for a job. By not showing up for several pages, it is possible if not likely that an employer could mistake you for somebody above you in search results. Depending on the people above you with your name, this could make for a very positive or very negative image of what they believe to be you. Since you need all the help you can get in a job search, having a personal brand to identify you out of all of the other people in the world with your name can be very beneficial assuming you don’t have a negative personal brand.
Having a personal brand can give anybody many opportunities if they know how to take advantage of it. Tomorrow I will talk about “How to Create a Personal Brand.” Make sure to check back tomorrow and Friday for the conclusion of my series on Personal Branding. If I get many questions on the topic, I could extend it into next week but I do have other topics I would like to hit next week so it depends entirely on the comments and emails I receive.
-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray
Do you have a Personal Brand?
May 27th
Welcome back readers!
Today we will continue our look at personal branding and answer the question, ‘Do you have a personal brand?’
As a brief summary of yesterday’s post, a personal brand is a unique name that sets you apart from everybody else even though they may have the same given name as you.
Now that the summary is out of the way, lets talk about todays topic regarding personal branding. How common is your name? Do you have a ‘John Smith’ kind of popular name, or is your name a bit more unique like a Gary Vaynerchuk? If you have a popular name, chances are you wont have any hope of creating a personal brand out of your own name. If you have a more unique name like Gary Vaynerchuk, you have a better chance of being able to turn your given name into a personal brand.
The next important question is how do people that have likely never met you know you? What I mean by this, is do you have a nickname that either you gave yourself or that others have given you that is unique to you? If your answer to this is yes, you might have a personal brand. Is the name that you have something that people who have never met you in real life an identify with your or can Google you by and find you without having their results diluted with many other people? If so, you have a personal brand.
I will use myself as an example. As many of you know, my name is Jeremy Bray. Despite the many things I do online, if you Google my name, you likely wont find me very easily. The last time I did a vanity search, I didn’t show up for the first 3 or 4 pages. The reason for this is that there appears to be an Australian cricket player with a higher name value than myself because of his celebrity. When I did a Google search on my main internet name, pcnerd37, I got thousands of results which were unique to me. Since I have been using the name pcnerd37 for many years, the name has become unique to me and can be found all over the internet. Pcnerd37 is my personal brand, a name by which anybody could find me and could identify any of my creations with. This unique name not only inspires giggles at conferences, but it is also my most powerful marketing asset. Having something that can uniquely identify me is a very powerful tool when I want to market a project.
Do you have a name like myself that can be Googled and easily found? If so, you have a personal brand, a powerful marketing tool that if used effectively, can propel you to great popularity and many opportunities both on and off the internet.
Come back tomorrow when I will address the next question in my series on personal branding, ‘Why should you have a personal brand?’
Jeremy “pcnerd37” Bray
What is a Personal Brand?
May 26th
Greetings readers!
As those of you who listen to the Global Geek News podcast know, on last weeks episode with special guest Alana Taylor, toward the end of the show, we got into a discussion on names and personal branding. Other than what I said on the podcast, I didn’t give much thought to the topic of personal branding until the next afternoon on my way home from work.
It got me thinking about what personal branding is, what is my personal brand, and what is a personal brand good for. After giving the topic a lot of thought, I had two ideas. I can either dedicate a special segment on the next podcast to the concept of personal branding, or write a several part blog on the topic of personal branding. Since you are reading this, you know which idea I chose.
I decided I will start out with today’s post answering the question, “What is personal branding?” Much like a common brand that everybody has heard of such as Walmart, Dell, McDonalds and countless others, a personal brand is something unique that identifies you and something you create with your unique self. You may not be the only person in the world with you name, but that doesnt mean you have to be just another ‘John Smith’ that nobody knows from all the other ‘John Smiths’. Depending on how unique your name is, you may or may not have an easy time creating a person brand around the name that you were given as a child. The internet allows you to take what is you and wrap it in another name to identify yourself to the rest of the world.
That is the essence of a personal brand, a name that you create which makes you unique and gives you a distinction from everybody else in the world. This is just a short introduction to the topic of personal branding, but it can give you an idea of where this weeks blog is headed.
Now that I have defined what a personal brand is, over the next several days, I will cover the topics of do you have a personal brand, why should you have a personal brand, how do you create a personal brand and how can you exploit your personal brand?
If you enjoy anonymity on the internet, you may find this series enlightening but probably not very useful. If you are a content producer and are looking make a name for yourself in the blogosphere, viral video sites or anywhere else on the internet, this is a must read series. Tomorrow, I will address the question, ‘Do you have a personal brand?’
-Jeremy “pcnerd37” Bray
Blogging is good for you!
May 23rd
Greetings Globlal Geek News fans!
Sorry I haven’t posted a blog in a while, but they will now start appearing on a regular basis, likely daily. Anyway, on to todays topic, blogging!
I came across a story on Scientific American‘s website about how blogging is good for you and decided I should give my thoughts on the article. This story is also talked about in the lastest Global Geek News podcast with my co-host Larry and special guest Alana Taylor.
I have been blogging on various topics for a number of years and I must admit, this story came as no real surprise to me. Basically, the article states the various physiological benefits of blogging that seem to be common among most kinds of expressive writing. These benefits include improved memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery. A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not. I honestly don’t find this the least bit suprising.
While I find that not everybody shares my opinion, I usually find blogging to be very therapeutic. There are many times when I find a particular topic or situation on my mind that it helps me express my thoughts and relieve stress by blogging. I find that expressing my thoughts on a blog or service like Twitter is a good way of venting or getting feedback about various situations.
Like most all people, I find it far easier to sleep at night if my mind is not racing about something that happened that day. If I type out my thoughts as they occur to me, I find that it becomes easier to fall asleep and stay asleep at night without as many bizarre dreams (assuming I don’t eat an entire pizza right before going to bed).
I do find it interesting that this has become an area of study and a form of therapy by many hospitals and doctors. The end of the article states that many hospitals have started hosting patient blogs as a form of patient therapy and to allow them to connect with other people who have been through similar experiences.
I believe that the community created by blogs can have a great affect on the blogger and readers alike. The ability to have a medium to interact with others that can relate to the same experience you are having is an amazing value to everybody involved. It is a great thing to know that you are not alone when you have to go through situations such as cancer treatment. By bringing other people into your life through a blog, this is also a way to share ideas with other people as well as open yourself up to a new world of possibilities.
So if you don’t a blog, I recommend you start at least one as you could find great benefits in your life.
Don’t forget to check out the latest Global Geek News podcast with Alana Taylor!
Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray
Global Geek News #9
May 23rd
Here are the show notes for episode #9 of the Global Geek News Podcast with special guest Alana Taylor:
Download Link Global Geek News – Show #9
Podcast Feed: 
- Asus to embed Linux into all motherboards
- 20% of U.S. Has Never Sent E-mail
- Canadian ISP Ordered to Prove Traffic-Shaping is Needed
- Hulu Shares Usage Stats, Expands Distribution Network
- Microsoft offers cashback search
- Blogging–It’s Good for You
- Facebook giving its site a face-lift
- Twitter refuses to uphold Terms of Service
Hosts: Jeremy Bray & Larry Miller
Global Geek News #8
May 17th
Here are the shownotes for episode #8 of the Global Geek News podcast with special guests Steve Gillmor and Don Reisinger:
Global Geek News – Show #8
Podcast Feed:
- No More iPhones at Apple Store – 3G Imminent?
- Big Content fighting campus P2P by lobbying for state laws
- Facebook ordered to out kids behind principal’s fake profile
- Google Confirms Friend Connect
- First look: Microsoft enters social video with Messenger TV
- Dallas Truancy Court Tracks Lazy Kids Using GPS
- Preparing for cyber warfare: US Air Force floats botnet plan
- MIT students show power of open cell phone systems
- Reports: Carl Icahn considering attempt to oust Yahoo board
- Confirmed: Comcast Bought Plaxo, Deal Closed Today
- CBS to Buy CNET for $1.8 Billion
Hosts: Jeremy Bray & Larry Miller
Global Geek News #7
May 11th
Here are the show notes for episode #7 of the Global Geek News Podcast:
Global Geek News – Show #7
Podcast Feed:
- Yahoo-Microsoft Battle Bolsters Google
- Does Ballmer Need To Go?
- File-Sharer Convicted in Sweden’s Biggest P2P Case
- Zune 2.5 Update Brings TV Shows, More Social Networking, Improved Software Features
- CompUSA: It Lives!
- Yahoo To Flag Malware Sites In Search Results
- Activision/Blizzard leaves, still hopes to profit from ESA
- Blu-ray hits bumps in the road to HD market dominance
- NBC using YouTube clips to drive Hulu traffic
- RIAA: Piracy fight more important than net neutrality bill
- New Microsoft law enforcement tool bypasses PC security
Hosts: Jeremy Bray & Larry Miller
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