Have you noticed how little kids have no reservations about being naked? They don’t think twice about stripping down to nothing and running around like free spirits…even if there are people around.

This is because they’ve yet to experience some of the raw feelings that many of us adults are hit with all too often – fear, embarrassment, vulnerability, inferiority, self-consciousness, etc. Little kids don’t have to worry about people judging them or feeling awkward when they’re exposed so openly. Baring it all is comfortable to them. But for many of us, there’s a huge sense of discomfort attached to being naked.

What if I told you embracing nakedness is one of the wisest decisions you could make in your life – particularly your professional life? Would you think I’m nutso? Maybe, but let me explain…

I’ve been referring to being naked in the physical sense, but let’s think about it now from a business perspective and why getting naked is a conduit to success. I just finished reading the book “Getting Naked” by Patrick Lencioni. It’s a business fable (which is a nice change up from other business books I’ve read because it tells a story) about shedding the three fears that sabotage client loyalty. If you work in any type of service industry where you manage clients (such as my field, public relations), this book will really hit home.

I’ve never cared for my last name. Even though it took until my late teenage years, I love and appreciate my very Italian and very unique first name (Nicolena, for those of you who only know me as Nikki). I always wished I had an awesome Italian last name to pair nicely with my first name. Not the case.

Stephan is not all that unconventional, but you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is for people to pronounce or spell. I’ve been Stephen, Stephens, Stefan…and everything in between. So you would think I’d be super excited to be less than three months away from snagging a new last name that is nearly impossible to misspell or mispronounce (MAL’s last name is Little).

It’s actually the opposite. All of a sudden, the thought of losing the last name I’ve had for nearly 27 years is terrifying. It’s like I’m giving up my identity. And with the social Web being such an integral part of my personal and professional life, my last name is also a huge part of my online identity. My last name is included on just about every online network or profile I’ve ever created. I’ve worked hard for the past five years to build a name for myself (or in other words, a personal brand, even though I still struggle with embracing that phrase). Now I’m steps away from giving up that name forever.

I know there are two simple solutions: Don’t take MAL’s name, or hyphenate my name. Hyphenating my name is not in the least bit appealing to me. So I’m left with the option of keeping my name as is.

There is no shortage of information available in books and online about how to be successful. Whatever it may be that you want to succeed in, whether it’s a career or personal aspiration, there are resources available to teach you about achieving success.

But I’ve been thinking more lately about what gets in the way of success – what you should completely avoid doing if you want to succeed. It’s much easier to allow ourselves to fall into those traps that prevent us from achieving greatness than it is to push through what’s holding us back. Sometimes these roadblocks are self-inflicted. Sometimes our environments or people in our lives are the perpetrators.

Regardless of the root cause, we’ll all come across barriers in the various paths we’ll take during our lives that cause us to lose momentum. Derived from my own personal experiences and what I’ve seen happen to others, here are five things to avoid:

It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for (c’mon, let me think everyone who commented has been sitting on pins and needles!) Time to announce the winner of my NOW Revolution book giveaway.

First off, a sincere thanks to everyone who commented on my NOW Revolution review post to enter the contest. Everyone had great answers, but I did note that creativity was a key judging factor. So, I would like to congratulate Karen Evans as the NOW Revolution book winner! Her creative use of a QR code to explain that the NOW Revolution is very relevant to her Creative Entrepreneurship class is the reason why she won. Karen, I hope you and your class enjoy reading the book and learning from all the social media for business wisdom that Jay and Amber share in the book.

For the other commenters, I HIGHLY recommend you consider purchasing The NOW Revolution and soaking up all the knowledge within it.

Thanks again to Jay Baer and Amber Naslund for the opportunity to review the book and do a giveaway!

If you’ve already read the book or plan on reading it, I would love to hear your feedback to see if you enjoyed it as much as I did.

When I received an email from Jay Baer telling me that he and Amber Naslund had chosen me as one of the bloggers to do a review and giveaway of their new book, The NOW Revolution, I was stoked! Jay and Amber’s blogs are on my must-read list. The knowledge I’ve gained from their social media and business insights has been invaluable, so I expected this book to be nothing short of phenomenal.

And…they proved me right.

I started reading this book with the mindset of wanting to provide my honest thoughts, whether good or bad. If I decided to give it a glowing review, I also wanted to share a few pieces of constructive criticism. Now, Jay and Amber both have several more years of experience doing social strategy work than I do, so I certainly didn’t expect to one-up them on anything. But I had a very hard time coming up with recommendations for improvement. It’s that darn good.

Like Jason Falls mentions in his NOW Revolution book review, this isn’t another social media book. It doesn’t focus on the tools and tactics. It’s a book that helps you understand the fundamentals of doing business in what Jay and Amber have dubbed the NOW revolution – a “new era of open communication and reciprocal and real-time online participation.” I’ve read a few of the more recent books that include some element of social media as the main theme, but this book is completely different. It’s literally a step-by-step playbook that teaches you how to implement the internal and external elements needed to turn your company into a social business. If I were a business owner reading this book, I’d be doing a happy dance.

Here are my overall impressions of The NOW Revolution:

• I like how Jay and Amber honed in on seven key shifts needed to be successful as a social business – Remove silos and drive culture change; hire and empower a new type of employee; organize internal teams for maximum external impact; listen by answering the new telephone; travel the “Humanization Highway” and respond effectively to online feedback and inquiries; plan for, find and manage crises sparked and/or amplified on the social Web and redesign success metrics to be relevant in the instantaneous business world we live in.

I identified and agreed with every single shift, but Jay and Amber proposed some big ideas that could be very intimidating to a business owner. Breaking the book down into these shifts was a smart idea because it made the book more digestible. Even better, each shift is drilled down and outlined further (with a succinct recap at the end of the shift), making it nearly impossible to be left scratching your head after you finish reading each shift.

• I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the incorporation of the Microsoft Tag technology. All you have to do is download the Tag application on any smartphone and additional resources related to content shared in the book are immediately available. Very creative idea.

• This book is written beautifully. The tone is natural and conversational. It’s not full of social buzzwords and jargon. It’s full of smart business advice explained in a very matter-of-fact manner. Even if your business is doing absolutely nothing with social media right now, I guarantee you will fully grasp the teachings in this book.

• There is no redundancy in this book. Each chapter/shift focuses on a new idea or concept. One of my main gripes with some of the other social-related books is they are full of repetitions. There are only so many ways to say that monitoring is important!

• I very much appreciate that Jay and Amber clearly and repeatedly state that there is no one-size-fits-all approach (there are too many people who think because this particular social approach worked for company X, it will also work for them).

• This book includes really great examples of how other businesses have made social work for them – and they’re not the same case studies those of us who spend a lot of time in this space have heard one too many times. Social Media Club Detroit even gets a brief nod in the section about Moosejaw!

• The book wraps up with the ever important measurement topic (everyone’s favorite, right?), which true to the theme of the entire book, is presented in such a way that your eyes won’t glaze over once you’re done reading it. I really like that Jay and Amber include sales as a reason for incorporating social media into your business, but also acknowledge that creating awareness and building loyalty are two other important rationales for wanting to become a social business. There are ways to measure all three, and you’ll learn exactly how to in this section.

I only have two minor pieces of constructive criticism:

• I wish the Microsoft Tag resources were available somewhere online (most logically the NOW Revolution website) for people who don’t have smartphones. They are great add-ons to the book. Some can easily be found through a Google search, but it would be nice if they were listed with accompanying links on the book’s website.

• I think highlighting the importance of having a social media policy in place should have happened earlier on in the book. Granted, Jay and Amber give a detailed explanation of social media guidelines in Shift 3. But the first two shifts are all about empowering employees to be your brand ambassadors online, trusting them to be potential spokespeople and adding new roles that center on social media and real-time Web responsibilities. If I were a business owner reading those first two shifts and I didn’t know it was custom (and highly recommended) to put social guidelines in place, I may slightly freak out about the “what if’s.”

To sum everything up, buy this book, especially if you’ve yet to learn or are struggling to grasp the fundamentals of what it means to truly be a social business.

And now the fun part – the giveaway! I have one copy of The NOW Revolution to give to one lucky person. Since everyone is busy, I decided to modify my original giveaway idea to avoid anyone having to invest a lot of time to enter. To enter, leave a comment explaining what the NOW Revolution means to you. Feel free to use photos or video to illustrate! The more creative the better (is this an obvious enough hint that I’m judging on creativity???). Make sure you link to your website, Twitter profile or include a way to contact you in your comment.  The contest ends Tuesday, February 22. Go!

With all that exists on the Internet for people to consume, it’s not easy to create content that spreads like wildfire and grabs people’s attention. But whether you’re a marketer or a small business owner, if the people you are trying to reach spend time online, then understanding how to create signal with content (Valeria Maltoni defines “signal” as the ability to convert traffic to a website) is really important.

So, how does one successfully create the type of online content that people want to share? What we discovered during this week’s Tweetea chat is there are some core reasons why people are motivated and inspired to spread content online.

We have the Detroit in Ruins photo gallery on the Guardian’s website to thank for this lively discussion. As of today, it has been tweeted 7,234 times and shared on Facebook more than 71,000 times. Those are mind-boggling numbers! Here’s the key question this example prompted:

What motivates people to share online content?

I was feverishly taking notes of my suggestions and those of the Tweetea participators this week because I didn’t want these great suggestions to only stay within the Twitter chat. So, here are 22 reasons why online content spreads:

• It helps people improve/become better at something.
• It’s community-oriented.
• It’s innovative and unique.
• It’s all about an emotion. Thoughtful, inspiring, sad, funny, etc. Evoke emotion through content and people will share it.
• It deals with unexpected experiences. Surprise the viewer/reader/listener.
• It’s inspiring.
• It’s current and relevant.
• It’s beautifully crafted.
• It’s something people have never seen/heard of before.
• There’s a compelling message, whether positive or negative.
• It tells a good story.
• The timing is right.
• It’s something impossible to contrive.
• The site is clean and simple to navigate, so it’s easy to share the content.
• The content or site it’s hosted on has strong SEO.
• It’s a component of a well executed marketing plan.
• It tugs at the heart strings and is heartwearming.
• There’s a newsworthy angle.
• There’s humor.
• The quality is great (poor audio turns people away from your content).
• It’s accessible via mobile devices (you can’t watch Vimeo videos on an iPhone).
• People with a large community spread it.

One piece of advice kept making it’s way back into the conversation – You can’t ever guarantee that content will go viral. And if it does, that content better be part of a bigger plan to help sustain interest in the product/service/company/person long after the shiny object syndrome dies down.

What are your thoughts on online content? What’s missing from this list?

** Shameless Tweetea plug – Join us every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. either in person or on Twitter using the #tweetea hashtag for more fun and interesting convos like the one that inspired this post!

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It’s the last week in 2010, and this is the week when New Year’s resolutions and goals are on many people’s minds. My style the past few years has been to figure out what specific things I want to accomplish in the coming year and then do everything I can to make them happen. I hadn’t actually put goals on paper (or in digital form) until I started at Identity. Was that wrong or irresponsible of me? I don’t think so. Everyone operates differently.

It’s important to set goals for things you know you want to change/accomplish/work on the following year. But, sometimes the need for change pops up at a different point in the year – not in the beginning. This happened to me this year. One of my 2010 goals that I set at the end of 2009 was to revamp this blog – and I did by February 2010 (largely thanks to Hubert Sawyers). However, I decided I was ready for a job change after the new year, so I didn’t plan for one of my 2010 goals to be securing a new job. I set that goal in February, and I achieved it by the end of March.

I share these personal examples to make two points:

1. Do what works for you when it comes to setting goals.
2. Don’t become so fixated on the goals you set at the beginning of the year that you ignore the need for change/growth throughout the year.

To build off the first point, take a strategy Chris Brogan has openly shared, and one I’m trying out in 2011. Chris suggests picking three words to use as guidance for what you do in the coming year. This strategy still includes goal setting, but in a different manner. I like this idea, and I’ve picked the words I want to guide me to success in 2011 (also saved as an Evernote note so I can frequently access them and add to them).

I’m also a fan of what Amber Naslund wrote about goals and resolutions in her Brass Tack Thinking post today. All too often, we break New Year’s resolutions because we don’t hold ourselves accountable for those goals that we set. Similar to the second point above, Amber prefers a daily resolution that encourages her to constantly make great things happen. This way, growth and action happen all year long.

A third and final point on goals: If you prefer to go the traditional route and set a certain number of resolutions/goals that you plan to concentrate on in 2011, then do it the right way. Borrowing from something that’s drilled into our heads in the PR world, make sure your goals are SMART. Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.

It’s simple. Don’t choose flaky goals to accomplish in the new year, or you’re setting yourself up to break them.

What are your thoughts on New Year’s goals/resolutions? Do you set specific ones, or do you have your own style?
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Something happened this past weekend that reminded me why going the extra mile is so important.

MAL and I had to go out of town for two days for a family funeral. When we came home, we noticed a card stuck in between our front door and the screen door. It was the card of a police officer from our community. He wrote a message saying that he had moved a box that was delivered to our house from the front porch to our back porch. Maybe I was so touched by this gesture because I was just coming off an emotional two days, but I wish the officer knew just how much that little effort meant. That box contained a Christmas gift for MAL’s dad, and if we had come home from the funeral and learned someone had stolen that gift, it would have added unnecessary stress and frustration to the mix of emotions we were feeling. I emailed the officer to thank him and let him know that his little act of kindness meant more than he probably realized.

The officer didn’t have to go the extra mile. He could have kept patrolling the streets and completely ignored the big box sitting in front of our house. But, he didn’t. He took five extra minutes out of his busy day to stop and save us from someone potentially stealing that gift. I may never meet this officer in person, but he showed he’s a person who truly cares about his community and takes his job seriously.

Are you going the extra mile, both in life and in business? Are you taking time to put in the extra effort, or are you allowing excuses to stop you from achieving greatness? Putting forth extra efforts in life and in business shows that you stand for something. It shows you care and you have passions and ambitions. It shows you’re worth the time, energy and dollars people will invest.

Here are a few simple suggestions on how to go the extra mile in your personal life and in your career/business:

Personal Life

• Don’t allow yourself to grow distant from family and friends. Even if you have to schedule time on your calendar to call someone (I do this), make the time to call people you care about. Yes, we live in a world full technology, and sometimes it’s much easier and quicker to send an email or Facebook message. But nothing can compare to hearing someone’s voice or spending time with someone in person. Make an effort to frequently call and spend time with friends and family.

• Offer to help. Whether it’s a coworker who you notice has been down lately, or someone you don’t know so well asking for recommendations on something that falls within your expertise, take the time to offer to help. Now, I’m not saying devote so much time to helping others that you can’t accomplish your own work or goals. You will have to say no to some things. But, when you do, point the person in the direction of someone who you think can help.

Business

• Always do more than what is expected of you. If you’re ambitious and you want to move through the ranks in your company, show initiative. Come in early and stay a little later to complete a deadline ahead of schedule. Share creative ideas you have to grow your business or your client’s business. If your company has internal committees (team building, newsletter contributors, etc.), join one. Do things that make your boss’, coworkers’ and clients’ lives easier, and do them without being told. Put customer service at the core of your business, and go above and beyond to impress the people who spend their hard-earned money with you.

• Many companies offer professional development and continuing education opportunities. If yours does, take advantage of opportunities to expand your knowledge about your industry. I don’t care how old you are – the learning should never stop. Another idea is to set a goal to read a certain number of books per quarter. I know you’re exhausted when you come home, and if you work at a computer all day, you’d rather stare at the TV screen than your computer screen when you come home. But, if looking at the computer screen for another hour or so at home means you have time to catch up on reading industry blogs that enhance your learning, do it.

Trust me, I know there are days when you just have to curl up on the couch after work or else you risk losing your sanity. And there are days when you know you should call your family member or friend, but the last thing you want to do is have an hour long conversation.

Never forget to take care of yourself, and absolutely allow yourself to have days where you focus more on you than the rest of the world. But don’t forget that even the tiniest of efforts can produce grand results.

What are your thoughts on going the extra mile, and how do you do this in your life and business?

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Yesterday I attended the inaugural 140 Characters Conference Detroit at the gorgeous Fillmore Theatre. Perhaps I’m a bit biased because I was involved with making this conference happen, but I think it went pretty darn well! And if you search through the #140conf Detroit hashtag stream or talk to anyone who attended or watched via Ustream, you’ll see most people agree.

Every conference has takeaways – ideas we generate from what we learned from those who were imparting knowledge on us. 140conf Detroit was no different, except that in my mind, there was one main lesson learned.

The real time Web is powerful.

I’m trying hard to not get on my soapbox and preach to all those who still think the Web and social media are just for nerds and tech geeks who have nothing better to do with themselves put play online all day. But I sincerely hope that anyone who may have previously doubted the impact the Web can have on people, business and society aren’t nearly as cynical after 140conf Detroit.

Need some solid proof? Read on.

The entrepreneur panel consisting of Todd List, Pat Williams and Dan Walker taught us how the Web can help people who take a risk and start a business on their own. Sidenote to this – Todd didn’t talk about this yesterday, but he once shared at Tweetea that he credits Twitter for helping him make friends and encouraging him to be more social and active.

Stephen Clark from WXYZ-TV taught us that Twitter can be a bridge that closes the gap between traditional and new media. It provides a channel for people in the community with amazing stories to share those directly with the reporters and anchors who broadcast local news to us every day.

Speakers like Nicholas Provenzano on the education panel taught us how the real time Web is a tool teachers can use to collaborate for education reform, more closely connect with students and provide a creative platform for education.

Anissa Mayhew taught us that the Web can be a channel for providing support when life throws an unexpected curve ball our way. Anissa had a sudden stroke, and while she was in a coma, friends, supporters and people who didn’t even know her used the Web to send her messages, console her family and stay updated on her recovery process.

Nelson de Witt taught us how the Web can bring together a family living in separate countries and divided by war and tragedy.

Julian Bond taught us how Twitter can give the public an inside look into the operating room during a surgery, and how creative use of video can result in new patients.

Beverly Cornell taught us how Twitter is the reason she got back her stolen laptop.

If that’s not enough proof for you, then read Jonathan Oosting’s article on MLive about 12 social media ideas and success stories from 140conf Detroit.

Trust me when I say that I know social media has to be more than one big “I love the Web!” fest. Investing time and resources in social media and the Web must eventually result in action, change and growth. I heard Charlie Wollborg loud and clear when he challenged everyone to quit patting themselves on the back and instead get active.

So, what part are you playing in sharing the power of the social Web? Are you telling others about success stories? Are you inviting people to events and conferences so they can learn/see for themselves? Are you spending more time preaching than using the real time Web to create real results?

With those final thoughts, I leave you with the trailer of a soon-to-be hour-long documentary that John Hammond debuted at 140conf Detroit. It’s about Detroit bloggers who use the Web to spread the positive word about amazing things happening in their community.

PS: A sincere thank you to Jeff Pulver for bringing 140conf to the Midwest and Michigan, as well as Chris Barger from GM and all the other sponsors, volunteers, attendees and supporters who made this conference possible. See you next year!

I attended the Brand Camp University conference this past Friday at Lawrence Tech University. Last year was the first time I attended a Brand Camp conference, and while the speakers last year were awesome and I learned a ton, I have to say the 2010 conference trumps the 2009 one.

The speakers’ topics and presentations all varied, but these three pieces of advice remained consistent throughout many presentations:

1. Rather than spending time mapping out how to build your personal brand, take action and make great things happen. Your actions = your personal brand.
2. Unless you are a business owner/entrepreneur, then your personal brand should never grow bigger than your commitment to your employer.
3. When done right and at the appropriate times, there’s nothing wrong with self-promotion to build your brand/reputation. But, if you really want people to listen to you and care about what you’re saying, be someone who focuses more on highlighting others than yourself.

In addition to those three nuggets of wisdom, here are some key takeaways from each presentation:

Hajj Flemings, @HajjFlemings
• Think of personal branding as a commitment to lifestyle and the quality of life you want to live.
• Intrapreneur – someone who works in an established organization and paves the path for change.
• Personal branding is a skill that’s becoming more important. Your degree alone won’t separate you from the competition.
• Always make sure your personal brand is portable.
• There’s a genius inside of us and we too often keep it locked up. Genius is your intersection between passion, problem and process.
• Have a mixed strategy of what you own (your domain name) and what you rent (Twitter handle).

Olivier Blanchard, @thebrandbuilder
• A brand is not a set of clothes you take on and off. It’s not a logo. It’s authentic. You can’t fake it.
• Olivier is hesitant to call this personal branding because a brand is rigid.
• It’s difficult to manage a personal brand in an environment like social media that’s always changing.
• The idea of personal brand online didn’t exist until recently. The bigger your brand, the more of a threat you are to a company. You can bring a lot of reach/exposure, but if you say one wrong thing/post one wrong picture, then it’s crisis mode for the company.
• If your company won’t let you express yourself online and is too fearful of your brand/identity, you have to think if that’s the right place to work.
• Being all about “me” and focusing more on your brand than your work is selfish. A real brand is doing your job and doing it well.
• If you go into a company with social equity and continue building it while at your job, you have to discuss what happens when you leave. When Frank Eliason left Comcast, he left all his social equity and had to start all over again.

Peter Shankman, @petershankman
• Your job is to embrace the concept, not the brand.
• When self-promotion is done right, you’re not promoting. You’re helping your audience.
• Social media is brevity. Brevity is knowing how to write. Bad writing is killing America. Bad writing will kill your credibility.
• Social media is not a conversation. It’s engagement. It’s talking to someone and having a response but letting others talk. Have something valuable to say to people online.
• Connect first when you have nothing to promote. Then people will listen when you do self-promote. Make it about them, not you. The best self-promotion in the world is helping others. Then they’ll do the promotion for you.
• Ask yourself before you tweet: “Is it worth it?” “Will it be relevant tomorrow?”
• Don’t say “How may I help you?” online. It’s too generic. Reach out to someone directly who has a need/problem and you can help.

Ari Weinzweig
• An inspiring, strategically sound vision leads to greatness.
• Good book to read – Using the Power of Purpose by Dean Tucker.
• Tap emotional creativity in workplace to eliminate energy crisis in workforce.
• 98 percent of work is drudgery. Can you look past it to see bigger vision? Are you laying stone, or building a cathedral?
• Just be you. When you try to be someone else, no one cares.
• You need to give your customers some really compelling reasons to buy from you.
• “Compelling” means you are excited, motivated and driven to get off your behind and do something.
• People do their best work when they’re part of a really great organization.

Panel Presentation

Moderator: Stephen Clark
Panelists: Mark Winter (@mark_winter), Karen Evans (@karenevanstm), RJ King (@dbusiness)
• What students must possess to succeed: Good communication skills. Respect authority and honor tradition, but make a statement. Need good balance. (Karen). Never stop learning, specialize in a niche. Must be a good writer and communicator. Must have accountability. (RJ)
• The biggest killer of brands is companies that won’t look at origination of problem, but only look at symptom. (Mark) Have your core product/service be really good to have a good brand. If you truthfully provide what you say you are, those who try to damage your image won’t succeed. (Karen)
• Good books: The Speed of Trust, Stephen Covey and The Go-Giver, Bob Burg. (Mark)
• Have a plan of who you want to be. Don’t focus so much on what you want to do when you’re first getting out of college. (Karen)

Christopher Barger, @cbarger
• Have a succession plan. If the person who leads social at your business leaves, you need someone who will take over.
• People – get over yourself. You represent the brand; your role is to help close business. Your brand is nothing if you aren’t contributing to your company’s goals, which is mainly selling.
• The day you think you’ve outgrown the brand is the day you stop being effective.
• Once you sign on with a brand, you always represent that brand – even when you’re not talking about it.
• Know the HR/social media policy and follow it, even if you think it’s too restrictive.
• Be careful about crossing the professional and personal streams.
• Be inclusive. Teach others and help raise them up.
• Remember who signs your check. Keep the focus on the brand. The brand is still bigger than you. Use common sense – don’t do something that will tick off HR.
• It’s all about results at the end of the day. Check your ego at the door. Recognize the symbiosis.

Lynne d Johnson, @lynneluvah
• There are so many social media experts. Social media changes too quickly to brand yourself as an expert.
• Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Skittles are examples of brands with social media fails. They didn’t do enough research and think things through enough before initiating a campaign.
• Social media is still new. Building your brand using it is new. You’re going to fail and you’ll learn from those failures. It’s OK to fail.
• Vitamin Water is an example of a brand having success with social media. Used Facebook to create the Flavor Creator, where people created and voted on a new flavor. Results: seven minutes of engagement per app session. Tens of thousands of total votes. 40,000 unique label designers.
• Brands must: be authentic, be transparent, decide what its voice will be online, engage, be more human.

Sarah Evans, @prsarahevans

• When there was an earthquake in Chicago, Sarah used social media to share her experience. New York Times and CNN got in touch with her to share her story. Good mention of her business. Results: Five new viable business inquires in four hours.
• Find an opportunity to showcase what you do best. Meet a need in an innovative way. Ask people what they want online, give them what they want.
• Generate a lot of quality content, do it for a good cause, give freely and give often.
• The moment she knew #journchat became a community was when someone broke a rule and she didn’t have to correct them. People from the community did.
• The best time to build a network is when you don’t need one.

Wayne Sutton, @waynesutton
• What he has done with his brand: Participated in the Chevy SXSW road trip, got the opportunity mainly from his online presence. Ford contacted him about doing a 1,000 lap challenge with the Mustang, they tapped Wayne to cover it and blog it. Tweeted photo of Steve Jobs at the Oscars, CNET, All Things Digital, Mashable and others shared his photo and credited his site.
• The most important thing he’s done with his brand is meet great people.
• Your website should be your home base. Use social networks to bring traffic back to your site.
• No one is a social media rock star.
• Using location based services is a great way to build a community.
• Businesses and brands are missing out on the power and potential of location based services.

Cd Vann, @thatwoman_is
• You can have an authentic brand and be transparent, but you can still be irresponsible (example is Al Capone).
• Your peers and followers make your personal brand authentic.
• If you are too honest or transparent when talking about your personal brand, someone may interpret that you won’t value their privacy.
• Cd aims to be translucent instead of transparent. It’s not being dishonest.
• Some people are so open online that they destroy the DNA of their brand.
• She cannot be transparent or else people won’t see a consistent image online and offline.
• How does a brand achieve authenticity (through eyes of consumers, by sharing original stories).
• There’s a time to let people know when you’re having fun online, but you still must be responsible. Think about what you’re putting in black and white.

Thank you to the entire conference planning team (disclosure: I was one small part of the team that made this all happen), the sponsors (thank you Buick for loaning me the Enclave for a few days!), the speakers and the attendees for contributing to a successful conference! I’m told the presentations were recorded, so be on the lookout for those in the next few weeks.

If you attended Brand Camp or watched the live stream, what was your experience? What are some things you learned? Do you think the same/differently about personal branding after the conference? Share your thoughts in the comments!

PS: Brand Camp inspired me to change my Twitter handle to @nikkistephan. It was long overdue. If you followed me at @EstrellaBella10, you’re still following me. Just know that my handle has changed.

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