So, today I decided to expound on the social media world’s fascination with BACON.

Yep, Bacon! It’s the American blogger’s food-porn aphrodisiac. If it came between naked pictures of Kaley Cuoco (Penny on “Big Bang Theory”) and bacon, I truly worry that the bacon would get more views. Maybe Kaley’s photos would have a lower bounce rate, but that’s a whole different blog (and innuendo)…

Anyway! I honestly can’t go a single day without seeing a tweet or a post or a photo (notice the bacon bra?) of something to do with bacon. It’s everywhere!

So, why bacon? Why? WHY!?!

1. Bacon Emotes True Passion - Starting out with the obvious, bacon is… FREAKIN’ bacon!

You can whisper “I have bacon” in a crowded room and it’s pretty certain that you get a glorious, harmonizing response of “yummmmmmm…” similar to those Tibetan Deep Throat Chants.  (video)

that aside, the draw to bacon is so powerful, some retailers and hotels have been branded JUST by the bacon they serve!  I’ve read of entire restaurant menus dedicated to bacon, but to have an endorsement like this,

“if Bacon had a God he would live at The Roger Smith Hotel!” – Chris Brogan

makes an impact for bacon’s case that knocks you off your feet.

2. Bacon Has Spanning Relevance - While I really don’t need to go into the origins of bacon, I would assume that it took some grunting relative of ours about 10 seconds to figure out the salting and curing of the fatty back parts of pigs turned a generally disgusting part of the animal into one of the most succulent slices of meat human kind would ever stumble upon. It can be fried, diced, baked, grilled and even made into ice cream. So how can bacon NOT be relevant to every social and economical demographic under the sun?

3. Bacon Is Ultimately Unique – It has a taste like no other meat product.  It’s kind of a cross between glazed ham and beef jerky.  The sheer individuality of bacon makes it the most utilitarian meat source on the planet. And just try to search for “Bacon Recipes.” You’ll be reading (and drooling) for days…

4. And Bacon Is Soooo Engaging – How can one food, one simple, solitary slice of meat become the biggest meme of the 21st century?  How can bacon, a fat, salty slice of cholesterol become more consistently popular than Justin Bieber or Britney Spears put together?

Let’s just put it this way, have you ever been unhappy eating bacon?

UH OH…  look what I just did…

Can you hear it?  Sizzling like fat on a 400˚ griddle…  my branding brain did it again.

Even when it comes to writing a silly post about the popularity of bacon, I pull in the TRUE Branding formula.  It’s inevitable. When it comes to branding, like bacon, there has to be truth, relevance, uniqueness and engagement.

I haven’t asked pork producers but this could all be a big conspiracy to sell more pork product, but I’m sure they’re not complaining.

How would YOU like your brand to have the fan base bacon has? Imagine having your brand, your product, your name associated with everything personally rewarding and ultimately sinfully satisfying as bacon.

Try it.

Keep Cooking (until it’s crisp and satisfying.)
Andrew B. Clark
The Brand Chef

And with a hat tip to my blogging buddy @AdMavericks (Josh Fleming) I give you another tribute to BACON!

Doctors market themselves with very little push back. Accountants and credit counselors market themselves (especially these days). So why, if lawyers market themselves, do they come off as ambulance chasers or some kind of smarmy worms in Brooks Brothers’ suits?

Shai Littlejohn, from The National Law Journal outlines a simple solution,

“…Although you may be able to do anything with a law degree, a law degree and solid experience alone will not do it for you. For those young attorneys who dream of becoming top lawyers, the key is to be three parts lawyer and one part marketing agent.”

She continues with,

“Through expertise, involvement and shared values, top lawyers continuously cultivate reputable self-brands. It’s the essence of those brands that separates top attorneys from colleagues destined for repeated lateral moves or career stagnation.“

Using personal branding (for recent grads) and professional branding (for established careers and firms) to build a “reputation” that becomes marketable for growth — what a novel idea…

Throughout the article, while including networking, charitable involvement, and family activities, Littlejohn continues to support branding in the legal profession to benefit and advance careers and service to clients.

It makes perfect sense. In these times of exploding growth in social media networking, aggressive advertising and promotion by virtually every industry on the planet; lawyers need the same skills to build a brand that will be beneficial to their careers as well as benefit the service they can provide to their clients – without the concern for guilt or stigma of impropriety.

Hmmm. Sounds like a recipe for success to me.

Let’s cook up some conversation… I’d love to get your input. Do you know a lawyer that utilizes personal or professional branding to enhance their exposure and growth? Do you think lawyers that aggressively market their brand come off smarmy or cheap?

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
– The Brand Chef

“Is there more to the story?”

It’s never given to me immediately, but through focused observation, reading, research, discovery, and a few more questions; the answer about knocks me out of my socks, every time…

“Of course there’s more!” (You just have to reach a little…)

So below, are Resources for your story – a Baker’s Dozen from the Brand Chef:

1. Wikipedia
2. Facebook
3. Twitter
4. YouTube
5. EventBrite
6. Digg
7. Flickr
8. Ustream
9. del.icio.us
10. Last.FM
11. Google (virtually unlimited resources)
12. Yahoo Pipes (build your own feeds / mashups, etc.)
13. RSS Feeds (subscribe and update often)

I call them resources. Call them social media extensions. Call them whatever you want. But never under estimate the power of Social Media to find the answers to the questions you have. With that, you have control over the growth and reach of your personal and professional brand.

Extend your brand.

Keep Cooking – always!
Andrew B. Clark
–The Brand Chef

P.S. There’ are SO MANY MORE out there, but it wouldn’t have fit into my “Baker’s Dozen” theme… Go find ‘em and extend your brand – come back and list ‘em here!

Why?

Newsgathering has shifted from being a passive act—tell me a story—to a proactive one—answer my question.

According to journalism.org,

“…Pew Research Center survey. The figures for almost every traditional media platform are now at historic lows. For instance, the number of Americans who said they read a newspaper “yesterday” has fallen by 40% since the 1990s—to 34%. The number of people who watched the nightly network newscasts yesterday has fallen even further—by half—to 29%. Radio news is at 35%. Regular readership of weekly news magazines is down to 12%.”

So, what does that mean for us? Where is that 40% going to get their news?

Blogs, baby. Blogs! Not to mention podcasts, vlogs and heavy-handed translations of traditional media to online, user-driven sites, and micro-sites.

With that, yesterday, I ran across this story: On January 27th, Joshua Karp (follow on Twitter: @theprintedblog) will be launching a twice-daily free print newspaper in Chicago, San Francisco and later in New York City. The content he will be publishing will be solely from BLOGS!

“So what,” you say, “Nothing novel there?” Hold on. Joshua has a little twist for you.

His intent is to aggregate local content from blogs and print them in tabloid form in time for the morning and evening commutes… The advertising – focused to reach targeted, local audiences – supports the newspaper (of course). It will also include classifieds (of course).

From Joshua’s venture, The Printed Blog web site:

“The selection of content in The Printed Blog is based solely on the votes of readers and their geographic location. In such a way, The Printed Blog revolts against the top-down, ‘one size fits all’ model of newsprint, as we know it. Instead of one paper serving hundreds of thousands of people, as is often the case, The Printed Blog publishes hundreds or even thousands of highly-localized editions based on what a community declares is important to them. The papers are distributed to neighborhood pickup points in A.M. and P.M. editions, and will incorporate rapid turnaround reader comments.

… As our society moves towards individualized information, The Printed Blog has the courage to respect our readers. We recognize the value of what individuals have to say, we publish the information they create, and provide them with the information they demand.”

News = information relevant to the people. When traditional news sources become irrelevant, or self-serving, people go to their community for relevance.

I’m interested in Joshua’s new venture. The online community will drive content. Readership will be driven by the local community. Advertising will benefit from a more targeted audience. Hmmmm…Where can this go wrong? Market? Content? Commuters? Advertisers? Classifieds?

Can you combine the past with the present? Why not just keep it all online? Why take it to press?

What do you think? Take a look at his formula and give me your thoughts.

Until Next time…

Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
- The Brand Chef

Case in point:
LinkedIn is a great business-networking tool. I’ve only been a member for a short time, but from what I’ve seen, the opportunities are endless.

So, when prompted to import my contact lists from Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo, I was very particular about who I invited. Why? Heck, my retired dad doesn’t need to be in my LinkedIn network, nor does my kids’ school nurse! Call it caution – maybe respect?

So, I filtered… and filtered. I evaluated and built a strong network of contacts that had RELEVANCE to my PROFESSION and ME. I chose people that I could help and in-turn may help me. Thus, the result of the requests I sent out was somewhere around 99% acceptance. And that network grows more and more every day by my diligent research and requesting of introductions by my approved contacts to their network members – as intended (I assume).

Jump ahead a couple of months… I recently received a request to be in someone’s LinkedIn network. GREAT! But after reading it, I was somewhat surprised, because I’d never met this person. I’d never even heard of him… And to top it off, not only was this guy a complete stranger, but his request was the stock,

“I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. – ‘Name Namerson’”

Hmm. Completely foreign AND impersonal. Not such a great start, “Mr. Namerson.”

So, in typical “Jerky” fashion, this was my response:

Hi “Mr. Namerson,”

I have to apologize if we’ve met, but I don’t seem to remember you. This, of course could be a gross mistake on my part, but if you could remind me of how we know each other, I’d be greatly appreciative. Then, I could accept your invitation and benefit from networking together.

That said, If we haven’t met and you’d like to have me join your LinkedIn network, maybe we should get together and see if there is some common ground on which both of us can benefit.

Thanks so much for your invitation, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Andrew B. Clark

Yep. Jerk. Told ya’.

Shortly after I shot off my response, I thought, just maybe, I was a little too harsh. Maybe I was being a jerk. After all, my response wasn’t very “social” was it? I left my office that day with the expectations of never hearing from “Mr. Namerson” again…

The next morning (Saturday), my Blackberry buzzed me out of a sound sleep at 6:30 a.m. As I tried to focus on the little, glowing screen, I saw; “RE: Join my network on LinkedIn”.

Surprisingly enough, he didn’t respond just to call me a jerk. In short, “Mr. Namerson” was abashed. Sure, his response included an apology but better yet, it included the information that should have been in his initial contact:

A quick overview of his background
A logical connection to others in my professional network

He went on to list:
Benefits of being in HIS network
His purpose and interest in being in my network
Directions for fostering a relationship

This morning we met for coffee. I now have, what I would consider, a good friend and valuable asset in my professional network.

So, maybe it wasn’t such a jerky move. Maybe it made “Mr. Namerson” more aware of purposeful networking vs. number gathering.

I see people out there with 50K contacts or followers and wonder are they networking with value and purpose, or are they just gathering numbers to win some sad, strictly mental, social contest? How well can they even know 50,000 people?

What kind of networking professional are you? Do you network with value and purpose? Do your contacts feel they can trust and respect referrals from you – and vise-versa?

Please comment and let us know your thoughts. Maybe I’ll let you into my network.

Until Next time…
Keep Cooking!
Andrew B. Clark
–The Brand Chef