Inventing an Online Persona: How to balance authenticity

and your online brandBerlin, Germany | 18 May 2011

The plural of anecdote is not data.

Everyone struggles with this.

Even Barack Obama can’t entirely define himself.

www.FightTheSmears.com

Why brand? What’s the goal?

#1: Do what you love.

So what do you love?Who do you want to be?

Which of these four are you?

Gary

::

Com

merc

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Charl

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: Fa

me?

Sara

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: Po

litic

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Julia

::

Care

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It’s Your DNA

10 Rules for Online Personal BrandingPlus: Some random thoughts and questions.

Rule #1:: Be Yourself

Who are you now?

Who does Google think you are?

What’s your privacy threshold?

Rule #2:: (But Be Authentic)

Cluetrain Manifesto (1999) #1: “Markets are

conversations”

Don’t pretend.

Be consistent.

Rule #3:: Be Engaged

Use everything.

Don’t worry about the tools. Be agnostic.

Talk back.

Write anywhere.

Be easy to reach.

Rule #4:: (But Be Wary)

Miranda rules apply.

The internet lives forever.

Clean up where you can.

Rule #5:: Be the Expert

Don’t be a commodity.

Why you? What’s your lede?

Pick your niche.

Play as if you’re a big dog.

You don’t need any mainstream attention.

Rule #6:: (But Be Insurgent)

Build before you need it.

Build as if you’ll win.

Be aggressive.

Frontrunners lose. Incumbents blow transitions. Don’t be one.

Rule #7:: Be Definable

Or others will do it for you.

Metanarratives kill.

Be consistent—online and offline.

“About the time that you are writing a line you have written so often that you want to throw up, that is the time the American people will hear it.”

—Richard Nixon

Rule #8:: (But Pace Yourself)

12 hours, 12 minutes responding to email

4 hours, 24 minutes sleeping

3 hours, 1 minute taking meetings

2 hours, 29 minutes commuting

1 hour, 14 minutes connecting to fans via Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Pownce, YouTube, Viddler, and winelibrarytv.com forums

25 minutes reading blogs

24 minutes eating

22 minutes producing vlog

Source: Wired.com

Rule #9:: Be Human

Cluetrain #3: “Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.”

Cluetrain #4: “Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived.”

Rule #10 :: (But Be Patient & Have Fun)

Garrettgraff.com

ggraff@washingtonian.com

@vermontgmg

+ 1 (202) 862-3503