Blogs Are Free Samples of Your Brand

The headline of this post is borrowed from my good friend Mike Wagner who I felt captured the significance of the business blogging event also known as SOBCon 07.  Here's the presentation I gave which can be downloaded from Slideshare.  As mentioned in a previous entry—I stressed that blogging is a commodity.  Anyone can do it.  There are over 75 million blogs out there—that's a lot of noise.  But I went farther in my presentation.  I said this:

Stop calling yourself a blogger.

Why did I say this?  Well, here are the notes I wrote for that particular slide:

"Blogging is a commodity.  Anyone can do it.  We are human beings with passions and interests that come out in our blogs—not the other way around.  Stop calling yourself a blogger.  You are a… (designer, businessperson, marketer, artist, baker, mother, grandfather, etc).  Calling ourselves bloggers takes away from what makes us unique."

After I made the statement I clarified my intent to the audience.  I said something along the lines of "we don't need to abolish the word blogger from our vocabulary—especially in meetings like this, but we should be careful how we refer to ourselves to the outside world".  I was calling for a shift in mindset more than anything else—my theory is that focusing on the passion more so than the medium will lead to a better personal brand.

What it all boils down to is this: 
Being a blogger doesn't make us unique.  Our individual talents, passions and personality does.  This is the stuff brands are built from—and blogs, despite all of the baggage that comes along with the word is an extension of our brands, whether it be personal or business.  My presentation was at the core about building a unique brand enabled by personal publishing on the Web, and then delivering a great experience.  As we discusses at the event—many folks who come across our blogs may not even know that it's a blog they are reading—what they are interested is in value.

Here's another set of notes from my deck:

"Our passions should drive what we do—what we write about.  Find your passion and you will find your voice.   ...Make your message an experience.  Curate conversations.  Facilitate relationships.  This will lead to affinity and passionate communities."

You get the point.  Anyway, it was a really great day for me.  I finally met some good folks that I've been in touch with over the past few months.  In addition to Mike Wagner, I got to meet (and spend time with) Drew McLellen as well as Mike Sansone, Director Tom, Liz Strauss and a whole lot more.  It was an energetic mix of business and relationships (and laptops)  ;)


photo credit

Additionally, Jason Alba has pulled off some of the best note taking I have ever seen and posted them over on his site.  You can view the notes as organized by speaker:

• Blog Critiques: What’s a Successful-Blog?  
• Wendy Piersall, eMoms at Home, Blog Coach  
• Tools Panel: Chris Cree (moderator) with MyBlogLog, Evoca, TheGoodBlogs  
• Drew McLellan, Mike Sansone, Mike Wagner - The Iowa Way  
• Andy Sernovitz - Word of Mouth guru 
• Rodney Rumford - VideoSticky 
• David Armano - Conversation by Design 
• Liz Strauss: Successful and Outstanding Blogs 
• Phil Gerbyshak: 10 Ways To Make It Great 
• Non-virtual open mike (mic) night

In summary, SOBCon07 went well past the free sample.  We got to taste the real thing—live and in person.  My favorite part?  Dinner and drinks after the whirlwind of activities.  It was terrific to unwind in good company—and proof that business, brands and community do indeed go hand-in-hand.

Comments

[Connie Reece]

Thanks for sharing the slides from your presentation, which was as thought-provoking as I had expected. It was great meeting you at SOBCon.

[Mike Rohde]

David, thanks for coming to SOBCon07 and sharing your thoughts. I found your thoughts and imagery very insightful.

I resonated with your comment about no longer calling ourselves bloggers, and shared this thought with Phil Gerbyshak while you were speaking to us:

We have websites and don't call ourselves "websiters" so why, if we use blog software, do we call ourselves "bloggers?" Isn't it odd that we've adopted a name based on our publishing software?

I believe "communicator" makes more sense, because whether we use words, images, sound or video to convey a message, the intent is to communicate ideas with other people.

Thanks again for sharing your work with us, it's greatly appreciated! :-)

[Christine Kane]

This was the most compelling thought of Saturday. I loved what you said about this. I'm writing a post about the conference now and finishing up with this "you're more than a blogger" idea. Thanks for your insights, David!

[DA]

Connie, it was really nice meeting you in person. Thanks for sharing cocktails with is.

Mike, glad your gears are turning—if you dn't leave a conference like this, then it most likely was't a very good conference.

Christine—I'm really sorry I missed your performance. I'm actually a huge sucker for singer/songwriters. I would have loved to hear you live.

[Lisa Gates]

David,
I loved your presentation and I love your clarity, and here it is once again.

By far the biggest take away for me what the headline on this post, and that blogging is only the mechanism for what we're up to. And, getting to share the table with you at dinner was sweet too.

Wouldn't it be cool if we could have holographic conversations and move from blog to blog like we do at a party?

[Adam Kayce : Monk At Work]

I know I told you this already, but I loved your presentation. And, it was great to connect with you in person, too.

I loved the parts about how your passion fuels your brand — that one kicked off a huge philosophical brain dump for me on the plane ride home, and helped me get a lot more clear about the whole idea of purpose, brand, and creating value in the lives of the people we touch.

My only regret was that we didn't get more of a chance to chat... but it was a great start. Thanks again.

[Jason Alba]

This was a compelling presentation as I'm a student of personal branding and I've always been jealous of your talent! I loved your style, the content and the thought-provoking ideas you brought up - I agree that this was (one of the) most compelling thoughts of Saturday (the other one, for me, was Wendy Piersall's about her mission).

And you seriously missed out on an amazing performance by Christine Kane.

Jason Alba
CEO - http://www.JibberJobber.com

[Paul McEnany]

Good stuff, DA. I'm jealous you got to meet all those folks! SOBcon dallas?

[Matt Dickman]

David -- I really enjoyed the slideshare. Not a substitute for being there in person, but it'll have to do until SOBCon08.

To your point about blogs and being a blogger I can't agree more. I wrote a post a short while back about trying to re-name blogging since it confuses people who aren't in the know (quite a few people). It came back that the real way to transcend the term is to focus on your personal brand, creating real value to your readers and letting your passion shine through. Thanks for sharing.

[William Tully]

"Blogs Are Free Samples of Your Brand" - MY GOD! Is that an actual original thought?! Sorry, I'm about 100 posts into my feed reader and very little is currently worth reading...

Just wanted to say Thanks! for the concept and thoughts that followed.

Cheers,

T.

[Rodney Rumford]

David,
It was a pleasure to meet you at the event. As I told you (and anyone that would listen) that your blog design is head and shoulders above from both a content and design perspective of 99% of the blogs/websites out there.

As we discussed, I think the one thing that I always take away from your blog is your ability to take a concept and boil it down to one visually digestible nugget that resonates with readers and delivers a mental image that they can relate to. That is no easy task my friend!

Keep up the great work and let's stay in touch.

Cheers!
Rodney Rumford

[DA]

William,

Doesn't matter if it's an original thought or not. What matters is how much truth there is to it. That statement has a lot of truth.

Matt, I'm sure we'll meet soon.

Rodney, was great meeting you. I enjoyed your talk and learned a thing or two about online multimedia. And thanks for the kind words!

[Dawud Miracle]

David, Thanks for everything over the weekend...the good conversation, the excellent and thought-provoking presentation, and your critique on my site. You've enriched my life - thank you. Yes, really. I'm sure we'll connect again soon.

[Dawud Miracle]

William...

I don't think it matters whether the thought is orginal or not. I second what David said in that it's the truth in the statement that's important.

The truth, along with the unique expression you give to the thought. Because regardless whether the thought, idea, thing is unique...you are.

[Terinea Weblog]

I feel it is important to remove the word "blogging" as most business first hear the word when the news reports either something bad about it or a new pop star has embrace it.

[Lokes]

Some times generic names can not changed and embeded in deep rooted. This also falls in the same category.
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