Mar 08
Love0

A Zebra Loses His Stripes and Discovers his Brand

By Uncategorized

Daniel Rothamel is a real estate professional in my community. He is/was the Real Estate Zebra, a brand he developed because of his history as a basketball referee.

In recent history, Daniel was sued for trademark infringement by another firm using the zebra brand 3,000 miles away.

Because Daniel is a blogger and an active social media user/connector in our community, many came to his defense, blasting the frivolous lawsuit and even generating a Facebook page to demonstrate support.

Today, Daniel shared the letter he sent to the attorneys who filed the suit and explained his reasons for deciding, ultimately, to let go of the zebra in his branding.

The conversation will, no doubt, continue as some agree or disagree with Daniel’s decision (let’s remember that it’s a personal decision based on someone with a personal brand.) I’m sharing this story and the example of it as an excellent example of the use of social media in a variety of ways:

  1. The brand exists and has widely held support because of the blog and the relationships Daniel has nurtured through social media
  2. People know and follow Daniel — not a zebra — and because of those relationships, Daniel had tremendous support while enduring a hardship
  3. Daniel used his blog and specifically video to share his story and his final decision, an excellent choice to share the news in a personal, meaningful way

What I love about this the most is that Daniel has learned through all of this that he is the brand, that Daniel Rothamel is the brand — he doesn’t need the stripes or the zebra look, name or identity to be the real, caring professional that he is.

Hats off to you Daniel, for a job well done — you’ve impressed me with your work ethic, your use of social media and the man you are behind the stripes.

Watch Daniel’s video below, but make sure you read the post as well.

Mar 08
Love0

Finding Balance Between the Personal and the Professional

By Communications

I’m not perfect.

Of course, no one is, but in the culture of social media, admitting that — no, owning that, is for the first time, a benefit.

The intersection of the personal and professional in business requires that business show its human side, that the people who represent businesses include a personal element that allows others to know them on a deeper level.

What does that mean?

It’s something people struggle with, or in some cases, the sticking point that keeps some from engaging successfully in social media. They say, “why would anyone care what I’m thinking or doing?” or  “I don’t want to live my life publicly.”

I’m here to tell you that there’s definitely a difference between personal and private — don’t mistake the two. No one, least of all me, is telling you to share your private life online. If it’s private, it doesn’t go on the internet.

You’re not going to get away without being human, however. And the way to be human online is to be a bit personal. Celebrating a personal triumph? Share it! Enjoying what you do? Let us know. Heading to a favorite restaurant? Tell us (maybe we like that restaurant, too). The way people connect to the people who represent businesses is by identifying with them on a personal level. If you don’t give us reasons to do so, that element is missing.

A quick story: people often talk about celebrities as if they know them; morning TV anchors have cornered the market on this relationship development. When Katie Couric’s husband passed away, my mother sent Katie a card. Know what? So did thousands of other people. I’m not suggesting we all pretend we’re celebrities and share all the most intimate details of our lives, but the benefit of connecting with others who understand a (sometimes unique) situation in your life, outweighs the risk you may feel in baring a bit of your person in your professional life.

Need help managing your professional and personal profiles online? Sign up for the next Jaggers Communications workshop, Thursday, March 17 at 9am at OpenSpace.

 

Mar 04
Love0

Building the Business: How you can Help

By Communications

My friend Jennifer asked me a great non-social media question yesterday. She said, “What can I do to help?” She’s lovely and kind and just the sort of friend we should all have. We were talking about business, specifically my new business, which I just launched in January, 2011.

Business is going well and I’m busy, but I am looking for new clients and opportunities (so often we forget to let people know that we’re eager for more or new business — wouldn’t it be terrible if everyone assumed I was too busy to take on new work?)

Jennifer was genuinely interested in the kind of business I hope to gain, so I thought I’d share my answer with the broader audience of my social network.

First, to clarify (someone called me a publicist yesterday and I openly grimaced), Jaggers Communications helps businesses and nonprofits reach their business goals through strategic marketing, content creation, public relations and social media.

Experience is concentrated serving clients in:

  • Life sciences and other science-based business
  • Clean energy
  • Health care
  • Education (institutions and products/services that support learning)
  • Travel and tourism
  • Small to medium-sized business to consumer companies

I’m so appreciative to all the community members who have already helped with referrals and endorsements. As a “connector” it give me great pleasure to connect others to opportunities as well, so don’t ever hesitate to ask.

Mar 03
Love0

The Four Hats Your Social Media Team Should be Wearing

By Social Media

When someone manages several job responsibilities, we often say that the person “wears a lot of hats.”

When social media became the responsibility of various people within companies, that was a hat that was added, for some, on top of a lot of other, already ill-fitting hats.

The idea, of course, is that we all each only have one head — how many hats can we wear, really?

In an ideal situation, you can parcel some of the social media activities out to several team members. I recommend four roles, contributed to by four individuals. I also strongly recommend cross-training or “switching hats” periodically so that each member of the team is well-versed in all the elements of a good social media plan.

The Four Hats of Social Media

  1. The first is the listening hat — no earflaps on this one. In this role, the team member is responsible for creating, maintaining and monitoring alerts and feeds that capture mention of the business or brand name, industry news and other related content. This person will spend about an hour a day scrolling through a feed reader, flagging mentions to share or follow up and thinking about trends in online conversation.
  2. The second hat is the connecting hat — I like to think of this hat as the sorting hat as in Harry Potter. For some people this role will come naturally; this is often the person who leaps at the chance to go to networking events and as soon as she has business cards, is reaching out to new acquaintances to connect with them and follow up online. This person keeps an eye on the social networks of the leaders in the organization and facilitates and encourages connections among community members.
  3. The third hat is not unlike those crazy things the Queen wears — real conversation starters. This is the engagement hat — and the role of the person wearing this getup is responsible for asking questions, making offers, responding, replying and generally keeping the community conversation rolling. 
  4. The fourth hat I picture as an old newsroom fedora with the press card displayed prominently in the brim. This is the publisher’s hat, the one responsible for gathering or creating content, for taking existing content, breaking it into bite-sized pieces and posting it on the Internet, representing the company, its services and its people.

Clearly smaller businesses or organizations will need to have one or two people wear all four hats — but the good news is that some can easily be worn simultaneously. It’s even possible to wear all four (I do, and man does my head get hot!) It’s important, though, if you do try to segment the activities, that a regular schedule of switching, or covering roles for one another occurs, so the entire team is comprehensively cross-trained.

How does your team manage multiple roles?