Nina Burokas on Better Living Through Brand

It don't mean a thing...

…if you ain’t got the swing. The swing, in the case of personal branding, is not "spin" – as the current Business Week Creating Brand You article suggests – but authenticity. As Valeria Maltoni notes in her Baron Hilton vs. Paris Hilton post, building brand value is not about selling the sizzle, it’s about delivering on the brand promise.

Perhaps the Gen X writer was more interested in cultivating her "skeptical, doubting" brand than providing insight. My pick of her "Make 'Em Take Notice" recommendations: mimic a popular brand. Good advice if you aspire to be a #2.

Runner up for bad advice/attitude (though credit for being on-brand): Trump's comment that most people don't have 'it' [what it takes to be a brand]. The reality is that we all have the potential to be unique and compelling brands.

My counter: forget the superficiality and manipulation and show some emotion. For perspective on jazz, business and life, check out Brand Autopsy’s (John Moore) Jazzy Business Quotes | 4 and Presentation Zen's Jazz & the Art of Connecting (Garr Reynolds).

Image credit: Your Guide to Jazz Guitar

Stickiness, Personal Branding & PR

In her Getting to the Moon with Personal Branding post for Fast Company, Wendy Marx connects the dots between Chip & Dan Heath's "stickiness" concept and personal branding. Stickiness = personal branding is a  simplification (perhaps she was suggesting a link to  "self-promotion", one of the tags?). However, once you've determined the essential details (who, what, for whom and why you), the Heath's SUCCESs formula - simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional and story - is the essence of crafting a compelling value proposition. Related links: NPR's The Secret Behind Why Ideas Stick (podcast) and the Made to Stick blog.

Picking Up the W Thread

I thought it was strangely quiet on the topic...apparently a few F/U posts hadn't indexed when I went to post. Pick up the main W thread at Successful Blog - or create your own spin-off on the conversation.

("I Google Myself" paraphernalia at t-shirthumor.com & CafePress.com)

The "W List" - Shouldn't You Be On It?

So read the email from fellow blogger and brand strategist Krishna De, a shout-out to add my perspective (and blog) to the "W List".

One step back: Valeria Maltoni of Conversation Agent started the conversation with her post on the Top 20 women bloggers in the PR and marketing profession and suggested the creation of a "W List" as a means of discovering great blogs authored by women. Krishna at BizGrowth News added a global perspective in her W List aka Women Who Blog post. Tiffany Monhollon at Little Red Suit took it the next step forward with her The W List Goes Viral - Help Promote Women Who Blog.

My additions to the list:
Business Communicators of Second Life by Linda Zimmer
Deborah Schultz
Jennie S. Bev Post by Jennie Bev
Social Media Group by Maggie K. Fox

The W List – Women Who Blog (As of 8/9/07)

45 Things by Anita Bruzzese
advergirl Leigh Householder
Back in Skinny Jeans by Stephanie Quilao
Better Living Through Brand by Nina Burokas
Biz Growth News by Krishna De
BlogWrite for CEOs Debbie Weil
Brand Sizzle Anne Simons
Branding & Marketing Chris Brown
Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk
Business Communicators of Second Life by Linda Zimmer
CK’s Blog CK (Christina Kerley)
Communication Overtones Kami Huyse
Conscious Business by Anne Libby
Conversation Agent Valeria Maltoni
Corporate PR Elizabeth Albrycht
Customers Rock! Becky Carroll
Deborah Schultz by Deborah Schultz
Diva Marketing Blog Toby Bloomberg
Email Marketing Best Practices Tamara Gielen
Escape from Cubicle Nation by Pamela Slim
eSoup by Sharon Sarmiento
Flooring The Consumer CB Whittemore
Forrester’s Marketing Blog Shar, Charlene, Chloe, Christine Elana, Laura and Lisa
Get Fresh Minds by Katie Konrath
Get Shouty by Katie Chatfield
Hey Marci by Marci Alboher
Inspired Business Growth by Wendy Piersall
J.T. O’Donnell Career Insights by J.T. O’Donnell
Jennie S. Bev Post by Jennie Bev
Kinetic Ideas Wendy Maynard
Learned on Women by Andrea Learned
Little Red Suit by Tiffany Monhollon
Liz Strauss at Successful Blog by Liz Strauss
Lorelle on WordPress by Lorelle VanFossen
Manage to Change by Ann Michael
Management Craft by Lisa Haneberg
Marketing Roadmaps Susan Getgood
Moda di Magno by Lori Magno
Modite by Rebecca Thorman
Narrative Assets by Karen Hegman
Presto Vivace Blog Alice Marshall
Productivity Goal by Carolyn Manning
Social Media Group by Maggie K. Fox
Spare Change Nedra Kline Weinreich
Tech Kitten by Trisha Miller
That’s What She Said by Julie Elgar
The Blog Angel aka Claire Raikes
The Brand Dame by Lyn Chamberlin
The Copywriting Maven Roberta Rosenberg
The Engaging Brand by Anna Farmery
The Origin of Brands Laura Ries
The Podcast Sisters by Krishna De, Anna Farmery and Heather Gorringe
Water Cooler Wisdom by Alexandra Levit
Wealth Strategy Secrets by Money Gym author and Founder Nicola Cairncross
What’s Next Blog B L Ochman
Wiggly Wigglers authored by fellow Podcast Sister Heather Gorringe
Ypulse by Anastasia Goodstein

Should you be on the list?

Living the Brand: It Takes a Village

The ability of an organization to live its brand – that is, to consistently deliver on its brand promise – is crucial to both business performance and brand value. And yet, the operating reality tends to be ignorance or disengagement rather than ownership. For example, a survey by Tom Peters Company (not statistically representative but true to my 20+ years of business experience) found that 51% of employees don’t understand the concept of a brand. Of the 25% that do understand their firm’s brand promise, only 9% actually live the brand. Recent word-of-mouth examples of disconnects between an organization’s brand promise and the brand experience include the W Hotel – Form over Function? thread on BlogHer and a Tom Peters disappointment voiced by fellow personal brand strategist Paul Copcutt. Will there be cases when a brand fails to deliver on its promise? Absolutely. Failure is inherent in the innovation/evolution process. However, a failure to learn and take appropriate action is not.

Although product knowledge and messaging are key (see Krishna De's Talent Magnet podcast for three tips on building your employer brand), I would suggest the task at hand is more fundamental. In terms of the brand engagement statistics cited, the critical action item is commitment to and alignment of values and purpose at both the individual and organizational level. For perspective, see Heartlines' initiative to move from expressed to lived values in South Africa.

William Arruda's riff on the African proverb is apt: "It takes a village to build a brand."

Network Advantage: Women

Women are naturals when it comes to building relational capital, although less effective in leveraging it. For perspective on this dynamic, check out the results of ExecuNet’s Executive Job Market Intelligence Report (executive summary free with registration; via Wendy Terwelp at Rock Your Career).

In brief, women rated their networks higher than men in categories of quality, relationship strength and reciprocity. The key factor: 2/3rds more women than men stated that they actively work on building their professional relationships. Good news? Yes, but the situation is similar to the technology adoption upside noted by Lena West in her Women & Technology Battlecry post on Lip-Sticking. In this case, only 10-15% of women rated their networks as "excellent". The majority of women (and men) rated their networks as "good". Women's highest ratings are in the "relationship strength" category, where "excellent" and "very good" total to 47%, or the same as the "good" category.

Despite a network advantage relative to men, women are still less visible in the corporate C-suite. My opinion is this is largely due to socialization (what and how we communicate as women) differences – a failure to effectively differentiate, focus and promote that translates into a lack of visibility and credibility. That is, women are often not even under consideration for key projects or promotions. Cited in a study on The Gender Equity Gap in Top Corporate Executive Positions, Towers Perrin's Manager of Executive Compensation Research and Development Pamelia Todd states: "There's a problem with women becoming highly paid. But the problem is getting the high-level job in the first place, not getting paid fairly once you get there." The study's authors, Joanne Burress & Linda Zucca, concur: "the significant differences between male and female executives (after controlling for job title, company size, and industry membership) are human capital differences such as age and years of service in their job positions rather than compensation."

Self-Branding & Promotion...the conversation continues

It's impossible to adequately address two complex subjects -  branding and promotion - in the space of an hour and 15 minutes, so the conversation continues online...[BTW, is anyone doing a "What I learned at BlogHer07 wiki?].

I answered the outstanding question regarding a “step-by-step” guide to self-branding in the comments to  Barbara Rozgonyi's transcript of our Self-Branding & Promotion session [her Wired PR Works July archive provides excellent coverage of a number of the sessions]. If you didn't get one of Steph's handouts, it's posted on NextSTEPH (for you twitterers, she was  looking at the BLogHer07 photostream on Flickr when I pulled the link). 

For bloggers putting together an engagement (aka promotion) action plan, Elise Bauer's series of posts leading up to BlogHer06 is essential reading (via BlogHer Community Manager and mommy blogger Denise):

How to Build Blog Traffic - Intro
2-4: Content
3-4: Community
4-4: How to Build Blog Traffic

Additional presentations and perspective on the topic, including a compilation of Elise and Vanesssa Fox's BlogHer07 Technical Tools to Build Traffic session, is at Elise's BlogHer portal.

On brand? Blog on!