For the last two years I have had the honor of speaking at the #140 Character Conference held in Des Moines, Iowa. It’s a tremendous, national series of events that originated with Jeff Pulver ( @JeffPulver ) as a call-to-action for the Twitter and social media community as a whole. With great PR and some passionate participants, the event has turned into one of the most prolific social media events in the nation (maybe the world).
So, on April 23rd, a couple hundred of our close Des Moines social media friends as well as some connected through the wonders of technology, gathered to explore “The State Of Now” at the 2012 140 Character Conference Des Moines!
As a marketing and branding professional, I love to create passion with my words, but I was in for a treat on this day. We had speakers make connections professionally and personally throughout the whole day. As I watched the event roll via Ustream, I was thrilled and honored to be included in this event. For some, it was educational. For some it was entertaining. For most, it was a day of passionate sharing that they’ll never forget.
Some of my favorite speakers include (click to see their video on YouStream):
Ben Smith, Speaking on the Social connection and the tremendous experienced he’s had in his “New Home.” (MAKES ME PROUD TO LIVE HERE)( Find him on Twitter @BenASmith )
And for those that know me and know about TRUE Branding: Here, in a neat 10-minute nutshell is how TRUE Branding can change your life and your business for ever!
If you’d like to read more about TRUE Branding, click the link here –> TRUE BRANDING!
Thanks so much to Deb During ( @DebWorks ) for allowing me to experience the event. I look forward to future ones!
If I’m your brand advocate, we, in some significant way, have made a connection. Your unique message has fought through the din of chaos and clutter and found it’s way into my heart, my mind and even my soul. It’s now a part of me. So engage it with care.
I’ve had the honor of hearing and seeing some very good keynote speakers throughout my career. Some have left me with tears in my eyes or a fire in my heart while others… have… well… just left me.
On the positive, I’ve seen tremendous motivational speakers like Hajj Flemings (@HajjFlemings on Twitter) and Angel Maiers (@AngelaMaiers on Twitter), innovative business marketing and branding speakers like Michael Wagner (@BigWags on Twitter) and Liz Strauss (@lizstrauss on Twitter).
Every time, I make it a point to get a few minutes, face-to-face with the speakers to make an introduction – often times just so they can put a name to the face “@TheBrandChef.“ And every time I approach these speakers, they are engaging, honest and forthright when it comes to offering advice or simply talking about the day’s event.
That’s TRUE brand engagement.
That’s how to build a connection to brand advocates and help build a sustainable brand in the minds of your advocates! WHY? My personal take-away? As your advocate, I feel like I am a bigger part of the event and with the conversation and even a signed book (or whatever swag) I feel I’ve made a connection that meant something to both of us.
So what’s with the Brand Posers?
Yeah, I know, kind of negative, but I have to call ‘em for what they are. I’m talking about the people that stand up and preach brand and personal connections and engagement, but carry themselves in a way that is quite the opposite. They POSE. And they suck.
I take branding personally. I am, after all, The Brand Chef. So when I am inspired by a speaker from my industry (or out of for that matter), I have the passion to pursue engagement and connection at ANY level possible. When this happens, it’s electric. Not just for me, but for my work, my career and my own brand advocates. And I’d hope that for the speaker, the brand I have subscribed to, feels a bit of that spark as well.
So, on the negative, when the correlation of brand “performance” to brand engagement is SO far off, it makes me… well, write posts like this. Because, if I hadn’t had a disappointing experience with a “Brand Poser,” I wouldn’t be relegated to vent. I wouldn’t be forced to wave my blogging fists in the air. I wouldn’t have felt dismissed, disappointed and trivialized.
Being TRULY ENGAGING takes more than a handshake and a kiss in the air by my cheek.
For every clammy palm you have to press and for every Polaroid you have to fake, there is going to be 1000 more that you’ll miss. And THOSE are the misses that matter. The misses with the people that count, the misses with the people who care, the CONNECTIONS with your brand advocates is what will get you where you want to go. So at least make an effort.
Your accolades, your book and the Armani suit have NOTHING to do with your brand.
So as your brand advocate, I offer this miniscule seed of advice, “Pay attention to those that you look down upon, because they, like you, are climbing the same hill… And years from now, they just might know how to spit further than you.”
I read his book, Uncertainty, Turning Fear and Doubt Into Fuel for Brilliance. And for those that know me, I NEEDED it. I can’t say it changed my life. I’ve personally understood what he wrote in the book for 20 years, but it revealed a path on which I could take the first step. Read it today, I highly encourage it…
So, this morning, as I traveled on that path with meetings for a new venture, creating an outline for new campaigns, dreaming of the future and my plans for personal growth and “World Domination,” I looked through my email and was shown just another hint of the brilliance that Jonathan Fields was willing to share with us. It was a notification from Slideshare that Jonathan had posted a new slide deck.
Big deal, right? I get that notification as people I follow in SlideShare post new decks and videos daily. But this one stood out. It simply showed Jonathan Field’s portrait and the title “Annual Report 2011: Serve | Aspire | Transcend”
I had to click.
What I saw was inspiring. What I read was engaging. What I felt was motivated to make 2012 the start of MY future to Serve, Aspire and Transcend. I had my start with his book, but Jonathan’s slide deck (a look back for him), which I humbly share here, has become the blueprint for TheBrandChef (Andrew B. Clark) and how I choose to move through my life moving forward.
OOOOOOH are things heating up the TheBrandChef’s kitchen this morning? Thanks Jonathan Fields (@jonathanfields) for the permission to dream and act on my dreams.
I have to give it up to those that have jumped into the Google + social media platform with such gusto. People I admire GREATLY like Robert Scoble, Steve Woodruff and Chris Brogan were some of the first people I added to circles and I see them streaming their content religiously through G+. I’ve seen some local adaptation for Google +, but a much more limited display. Why?
I wonder if missing my friends’ posts and content is just because of the volume of content that is generated by those like Scoble and Brogan or if there has been some kind of fissure in the connection between Google+ and the platforms my “Local Circles” produce content on. I have been dedicated to platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for a number of years now, simply because I started and built those networks up from my own social media infancy to a rewarding presence over the past 5 years. But like many I have talked to, I find that Google + is just more noise in the landscape that we’re all trying to understand.
A good local social media friend of mine, Laura Gaulke (@allauremkt on Twitter), posted on the Des Moines Business Mixer, a super aricle link from Mari Smith. Where even Mari questions the validity and application of another social media platform to compete with the likes of Facebook and Twitter. It’s evident, that like many of us, Mari is still waiting for the BIG TA-DA moment from G+ to make the complete switch over:
For now, I highly doubt we’re going to see any kind of mass exodus of Facebook users to Google+. For many people, it can feel like a foreign land and foreign language to have to learn a whole new social network. Many users on Facebook are still getting to grips with the (constantly changing) features on the platform. Besides, if the average user on Facebook uses the site to connect with family around the world and to play games, they will stay there so long as they can still reach their loved ones and play their games.
Google certainly has the power to create a behemoth of a social media network, but my questions is, “Should they?”
I’ve simply resisted adaptation for G+ to my social media strategy for a couple of reasons.
I just don’t have the time to manage another outpost for myself or my clients, and
I’m not seeing G+ as friendly when it comes to integrating my other social media tools
Until I can alleviate that pain, the utility and convenience of Google + remains a distant tangible. I will stay tuned, stay connected, monitor growth and play on the beachfront; but I probably won’t be diving in the deep end until I know HOW DEEP IT ACTUALLY IS.
So what do YOU think? Has Google+ added to your social media strategy or is it just more noise in the mix. I want to get this discussion started. Post below and share with your circles …(ha ha)…
So this post is a sort of an extension to my last post about “Flipping” your Blog.
From what I can tell, video,as with web development and content management systems, has hit a consumer marketing pace that is going to change the way we (you and I and the whole marketing communications world) will communicate in the VERY near future. While writing and posting blogs and articles will be of continued value for content and SEO, I think the video enterprise of social media is going to make short work of the roadblocks facing the “non-writers” out there.
Also think of the affect video communications has on:
Instant gratification
Personal relationships
Eye contact when speaking
Professional credibility
Brand engagement
On the other hand, production, encoding, storage space and other factors will still come into play when using video over the written word.
So, what do we do? Continue to write post after post about our key subject or flip a camera on and tag the heck out of a few videos for virtually the same results.
What say you?
So on that point, I’d like to offer today’s Get-Going Groove of the Day below. I look forward to hearing (or seeing more) from you all!
Keep Cooking (great, visual engagement)!
The Brand Chef
Andrew B. Clark
I wonder if missing my friends’ posts and content is just because of the volume of content that is generated by those like Scoble and Brogan or if there has been some kind of fissure in the connection between Google+ and the platforms my “Local Circles” produce content on. I have been dedicated to platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for a number of years now, simply because I started and built those networks up from my own social media infancy to a rewarding presence over the past 5 years. But like many I have talked to, I find that Google + is just more noise in the landscape that we’re all trying to understand.
