How to Build Your Brand with a Blog

Dan Schawbel has a free 52 page guide to building your brand with a blog. Everything by Dan is worth reading.

I love how it's broken up into beginner, intermediate, advanced, and expert sections, and it should contain something useful for everyone.

My only quibble, and a minor one at that, is that WordPress is not the only blogging platform out there. It's great certainly, but most people are better off with TypePad - it's not about the technology, and with TypePad you don't worry about such arcane things as plugins, FTP, software upgrades, etc. You just blog.

Great job Dan! Get Blogging Your Brand here, and let me know how you like it. Dan certainly knows personal branding and blogging inside out.

Facebook - "let's piss off our users"

Facebook has a new very different interface, and users almost universally hate it.

Techies tend to have disdain for users. After all, they're annoying. They want things. They break things. Technies consider them "stupid."

Of course, as true as this is, it's ridiculous. Users are the reasons things exist. Things exist to be used, and that includes Facebook.

But Facebook, with almost every human on planet earth, live, dead, and yet to be born, apparently as users, doesn't care what users think!.

Now there is something to be said to ignoring users sometimes. I've had projects building "next generation" systems where in interviewing users (hey, their input IS very important), it slowly becomes apparently that they want the new "next generation" system to look and act exactly like the old one. People don't like learning new things, or at least not HAVING to learn new things.

"You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs," said the Joker in the Batman movie, and I agree with the Joker with this one as it applies to Facebook.

Facebook chief Zuckerberg presumably has a plan, a vision, or at least some kind of clue that we mere mortals don't know or understand. He knows Facebook needs to change and evolve damn fast to reach it's potential or even remain relevant -- things change fast. For example, Google hasn't even been the dominant "Big Brother" for long. Again, things change fast, damn fast!

I'm betting on Boy Wonder Robin Zuckerman. And for the record, I think the new Facebook interface sucks. No problem, it'll change again in a few days.

Besides, Facebook is free; we got no right to complain.

As an aside, I thought Jack Nicholson made a great Joker in the Batman movie. Maybe he'll play Zuckerman in the Facebook movie someday, although he'll need as much makeup to resemble Zuckerman as he did in his Joker role.

So Zuckerman is breaking a few eggs, including the Facebook interface. Let's hope he's making a great omelet!

Blogging Your Way Into A Job

Tara Weiss at Forbes has a great article on Blogging Your Way Into A Job.

Getting a job is competitive today, and every edge helps. Blogging can help position you as an expert, and companies like to hire experts.

You don't even need to tell anyone you blog. Most job applicants are googled these days, and guess what? Your blog will show up.

Tara says it at least as well as I can: check it out here: Blogging Your Way Into A Job

She also quotes me a couple of times, and anyone considering hiring me may be impressed I'm in Forbes.

Oh, by the way, I doubt Tara would have found me and I wouldn't be in Forbes if I didn't blog . . .

5 Tips for Using LinkedIn as a Business Tool

I think all professionals should be in LinkedIn, but must admit my use of it is pretty basic. There is a lot I don't know or get.

Here a 5 Tips article on LinkedIn from eMartketing and Commerce

Oh, the five tips:

• Use the Q&A function
• Become an expert
• Join group
• Start a group
• Promote your blog

I've only done 2 out of 5, how about you?

Using LinkedIn for Business Correctly!

A great short podcast by Jason Alba on using LinkedIn for business. I learned a few things, and I've been using LinkedIn forever.

Did you know that the average LinkedIn user has a household income of $160,000? High power people use LinkedIn, not just bozos like me :) !

These are business people, professionals, people to network with. This isn't for teenagers looking for love or looking for insane chatter. This is professional, not business casual, but business. And it's free.

Jason recommends setting up your LinkedIn profile, connecting with others, and asking a question every week to two months on LinkedIn Answers.

Biggest mistake in LinkedIn? Not filling out your entire profile.

My friend G Jon, after significant bullying from me, eventually joined LinkedIn. Yes, he filled out his entire profile. and
HE GOT AN UNSOLICITED JOB OFFER!
And it was a great job. Unfortunately it required relocation he wasn't willing to do, but are you starting to get the idea of power here?

Jason also talks about Facebook briefly as well. Facebook is business casual with a bunch of personal stuff thrown in -- a strange mix as I describe it.

My Bottom Line: All professionals should be in LinkedIn.

Jason is the CEO of JibberJobber, and I strongly recommend his books:

Famous (Ted) Quotes? Huhh?

I love a good quote, and there are some great ones by the likes of Oscar Wilde, Groucho Marks, Winston Churchill, and other famous people.

I'm certainly not famous, but apparently ThinkExist.com, a GREAT source of quotes online, finds me quoteworthy.

Are you or someone you know in there?

Oh, the quotes are . . . . (drumroll please)

“It's the closest thing we have to a personal word of mouth on the Internet. Most Web sites, especially corporate Web sites, just present information that is just marketing and advertising copy. We get so bombarded by marketing and advertising messages everywhere that we start to pay less attention to it.”

“I do a fair amount of security awareness training, and people usually need to get burned a few times before they make a change. Security awareness is like exercise -- you have to keep it up to benefit from it.”

How did I find myself on ThinkExist.com ??

Perhaps you've heard of this little tool called Google? First page results, and a surprise to me.

Using the Social Web to Find Work

Chris Brogan has an excellent free ebook on Using the Social Web to Find Work.

It's a quick read, and worth it even if you're not looking for work. Unfortunately this is pretty timely for many of us.

Chris as usual nails it.

He starts talking about LinkedIn, which he uses slightly differently than LinkedIn suggests, and moves on from there. Personally I think all professionals should be in LinkedIn.

Click here to check our Chris' ebook

50 Useful Google Apps for Writers

From learn-gasm, 50 Useful Google Apps for Writers.

How many of these do you use?

I don't use very many, but the ones that I use are invaluable!

Warning: Google Toolbar is spyware. Skip Google Toolbar and don't help Big Brother Google watch you.

B2B Marketers Slowly Adopting Social Media

Business to Business (B2B) is "late to the party" when it comes to embracing social media, says eMarketing and Commerce (eM+C).

B2B is concentrating on tried and true methods like "e-mail newsletters, webinars, microsites, online display ads."

This mirrors what I'm seeing as well. Part of the reason is that it's easy to measure the success of traditional marketing methods like direct mail, email newsletters, display ads, etc. and harder to measure the results of social media.

But blogging other social media can have extremely beneficial effects for B2B.

That's one reason for my teleclass on "B2B: Is a Blog Right for You" -- the answers may surprise you.

Hacking Second Life

Having fun Hacking your Second Life... (pdf format) is a great article on the inner workings of Second Life. Parts of it are somewhat technical.

In the words of author and 2nd life fan magikh0e, "It would be a pretty good idea to fully read and understand Second Life's Terms of Service before trying/doing anything potentially stupid."

Now in Hacking your Second Life no one is suggesting anything illegal or improper -- it just how the beast works is fascinating.

Previously in Second Life Demystified, I described Second Life as

. . . a three-dimensional Web.

The World Wide Web is essentially flat - two dimensional. You get a domain name and build, whether it's a Web site, blog, bulletin board, podcast or whatever.

In Second Life instead of buying a Domain name, you buy a piece of Second Life real estate, and build something much more similar to a virtual building than a Web site.

Note: I'm not currently in Second Life. With a wife, lots of kids, dog, travel, I barely have time to blow my nose these days!