Bill Cammack

“Personal Branding” has been hotly debated recently in my circles. “Do I have a personal brand?” “Does personal branding exist?” “Am I a brand or a person?”

Part of the reason this is discussed so often is that people tend to define a personal brand in terms that don’t mean anything. By using terms for PEOPLE that are used to categorize COMPANIES, people are turned off to the concept or fail to understand the true meaning of the term.

Does personal branding exist? Yes. Do *YOU* have one? Maybe.

Basically, a “personal brand” is what people EXPECT when you come to mind. Period. Some people have this and some people don’t.

A personal brand is achieved through ACTIONS which people come to associate with your name or face. If you never DO anything that people perceive, you do not have a personal brand, IMO. This is because your name doesn’t “ring bells” and doesn’t alter anyone’s perception of a situation when they find out that you’re involved. This does NOT mean that you aren’t important… It merely means people don’t KNOW who you are and/or what you do.

For instance, if you google Emmy Award Editor I’m #1. Actually, I’m #1 AND #2, because the youtube version of the collab I did with Indy Mogul is in the second slot, with 11,240 views. People hit my resume page or my “about” page every single day, so lots of people have associated the name Bill Cammack with quality videotape editorial. This is what they EXPECT when they find out I worked on a project… Quality.

So what about Ian Jenkins?

“Who?” :D

Ian Jenkins is a friend of mine who edits and works A HELL OF A LOT HARDER than I do. :) Ian edits a show for Next New Networks called “Fast Lane Daily”, which just won a 2008 Webby Award.

That’s Ian in the white FLD shirt and headphones. Also pictured are a couple of other NNN friends of mine, J-Rad & Alan Kaufman.

Now… If I had a project I wanted to get done, Ian Jenkins would be one of the top guys I’d want working with me. That’s because I happen to know his work ethic and the skill and dedication he brings to the table. I know this because I’ve spoken to him, I’ve seen his work and I know people that work WITH him. Does he broadcast this himself? No. Not that I know of. Is he crafting a personal brand? Not that I know of. He’s doing what he does. IS “Ian Jenkins” a brand? HELL YES! :D That’s because when *I* hear his name, I EXPECT certain things from a project Ian worked on.

So who’s the better editor? Bill Cammack or Ian Jenkins?…. Unfortunately, editing is highly subjective. The only thing that matters is whether the job gets done WELL and ON TIME. So I say NEITHER of us is better as a editor. My personal brand is more recognized, because I spend hours every day working on it and Ian doesn’t give a damn. :) Ian meets deadlines every. single. day. while I play SOCOM. I’m freelance, so I’ve worked for a ton of shows, companies and people for advertising, corporate and broadcast productions. Ian’s a staffer, so he works on one show, and it runs on the internet, but he probably produces 15 videos for every one that I output. Ian shoots video as well. So do I, but I’d rather edit, and Ian’s probably better at shooting, because he does it infinitely more than I do.

My point is… You can’t tell JACK from how well someone uses the internet to publicize themselves. I’m not going to tell you to google Video Editor Resume (I’m #3) to figure out who’s GOOD or who can make it happen. That’s just a list of people that know how to use tags, or even worse, actually PAID PEOPLE to get them better rankings on google. :/ Doesn’t mean they’re any good at what they do AT ALL. Doesn’t mean their name “rings bells” IRL. What matters is what people know or perceive about you, which IS your personal brand, whether you LIKE that or not and whether you EMBRACE that or not.

Regardless of whether you brand YOURSELF, people are going to brand YOU. I started telling people to Google “Bill” (I’m currently #9 of 541,000,000 pages for “Bill”) because I don’t carry business cards, and it’s really the easiest way for people to get in touch with me. Next thing I know, hahaha this is how I’m being introduced to people at parties. :) This wasn’t MY idea, but people get a kick out of that and it spreads from person to person.

Actually… And I don’t know whether to laugh or cry about this… :D Neither my professional accomplishments nor my stellar search engine rankings (e.g. women dating nyc #3) are what most people that I meet “know me for”. It’s always “….. YOU’RE that guy that’s in all those pictures with all those women! :D”.

So, BESIDES not overshadowing your BUSINESS brand with your SOCIAL brand, :) the moral of our story is… Do you have a personal brand? Maybe. It depends first of all on whether you actually DO ANYTHING, and second on whether you’re letting people KNOW that you do these things or whether other people are publicizing you. If people think differently of something because you’re involved with it, that’s your PERSONAL BRAND at work. This does NOT only have to do with business either. We’ll get into that another time. You might have a personal brand when it comes to dating. The fact that you can be trusted in general and your word actually MEANS SOMETHING is potentially part of your personal brand.

There’s also NEGATIVE personal branding, such as when a client refuses to pay you for several months for work you did for them and you’re getting ready to blast their name and company all over the WORLD WIDE WEB for not living up to their agreements EVERY SINGLE DAY until you get satisfaction, which would amount to receiving PAYMENT IN FULL for services rendered. But that’s a story for another day. :D

So that’s what I think about personal branding. If you’re in the “public” eye (as ‘public’ as our small Echo Chamber gets) brand yourself or other people will do it for you. Whatever opinions come to mind when people hear your name or see your face, that’s YOUR brand. Even if NO opinions come to people’s minds or they’ve never heard of you, that doesn’t matter as long as YOU know what you’re bringing to the table. “The Fame Game” isn’t for everybody. Not everybody CAN do it, not everybody SHOULD do it and not everybody does it WELL.

So.. Does ‘Personal Branding’ exist, or am I talking about vaporware? :D

What do you think?

~Bill

Brett & Alana, originally uploaded by Bill Cammack.

Brett Petersel & Alana Taylor

Alana Taylor, originally uploaded by Bill Cammack.

Alana Taylor

Alana, Jill, Chrissie, Florence, Bill, Michelle & Whitney, originally uploaded by Bill Cammack.

Alana Taylor, Jill Hanner, Chrissie Brodigan, Florence Holdeman, Bill Cammack, Michelle DeForest & Whitney Hess

Alana, Bill….. Pravin, Jill & Jon, originally uploaded by Bill Cammack.

Alana Taylor, Bill Cammack, Pravin Chandiramani, Jill Hanner & Jonathan Dingman

Whitney, Walt & Alana, originally uploaded by Bill Cammack.

Whitney Hess, Walt Ribeiro & Alana Taylor

Alana & Bill, originally uploaded by Bill Cammack.

Alana Taylor & Bill Cammack

Interestingly enough, both Alana Taylor & Amanda Gravel posted about people’s Facebook rap tactics this week… although their topic is really universally applicable in the world of Social Media.

Essentially, Amanda’s post was about how people send friends requests with zero context or explanation of who they are or why they want to be “friends” with her. Alana’s post is about a guy friending her and immediately writing stuff to her that she found creepy:

Alana: “WHATT?? Can you come off as any more of a creep???

I have no idea who this guy is, but he is telling me in a Facebook message that his fantasy is to marry a girl he sees in a picture!?!?!”

hahaha Oh Man! :D Online dating is a bad idea to begin with (Especially if she’s a PC-user. Bleech! :( ) But I think the problem here is that the lines have blurred between Social Media sites and online dating sites. I don’t think the fact that Facebook throws people’s relationship status updates on their front page helps either, haha.

I went the other day to the Facebook home page and saw that a friend of mine had broken up with whomever she had been dating. At least that’s what I thought I read, because there was this big, red broken heart in the middle of the page with the caption “Whomever is no longer listed as in a relationship”. Come to find out later that day when I talked to her that she hadn’t broken up with her boyfriend, she had hidden her status entirely. For some odd (read: stupid) reason, that prompts Facebook to issue the announcement “no longer listed as in a relationship”. Um…. WHO CARES? How about NOT announcing that AT ALL, or at least changing the name to something less misleading, such as “Whomever has hidden their relationship status”.

So, since Facebook likes to tell people when other people are single (or show no relationship status at all), it makes sense that single guys are going to hit on single girls and see what they can get. Unfortunately, a lot of guys get their rap tactics from television and movies (which are… SCRIPTED!) and really have nothing intelligent to say to women at all. In this case, these guys should have read “Take her to the Book Store!”, because “You look good” and “I have fantasies about you and me” isn’t gonna cut it. It’s ALSO gonna get your spot blown when you get blogged or twittered about. :D

ChrissieB: “Men, please listen up, “women talk!” If you ask 1 girl out & DM another girl in her network about a date as well, you will NEVER get a date.”

D-Oh! >-<

Another problem with kicking "You look good" as your opener and closer in a rap email is that Social Media chicks spend a considerable amount of time expressing their personalities and ideas online. This allows you to E-Stalk them at your leisure. It’s not like meeting them in the club, where you don’t have a chance to know anything about them EXCEPT for how they look. So… When the only thing you have to tell them is your physical reaction to a picture you saw of them, you’re telegraphing the entire reason you friended them in the first place.

OTOH, it’s disingenuous to “Fake it ’till you Make it”. I’m not saying to hide the fact that you think she’s physically attractive. I’m saying “You look good” has to be ONE of the reasons you wanted to talk to her… not THE ONLY REASON you wanted to talk to her. :D

Amanda’s post was more generally applicable outside the realm of “the pursuit of happiness”. When you’re going to “friend someone” on Facebook or wherever, it’s usually a good idea to tell them WHY you’re doing that. This is an ESPECIALLY GOOD IDEA if you have no contacts in common with them, whatsoever. Even if you do have a bunch of people in common, that doesn’t mean that you and this other person should be contacts, like for no reason.

I’m definitely guilty of sending out messageless Facebook friend invites. :) However, when I do that, I’m more extending the *opportunity* for someone to be in contact with me than attempting to begin an active dialogue between us. It’s more of an indication, an acknowledgment that I’ve seen Social Media content from that person that I’ve found interesting, cool or educational. I currently have 668 Facebook “friends”. Assuming I were able to remain awake for 24 hours in a row, that means that I could interact with each of them for 2.1556886 minutes per day. Oh… that’s assuming I didn’t interact with anyone from Myspace, LinkedIn, forums, mailing lists, comments on my own site, iChat IMs……. So, for me, friending people on Facebook is more like “Hi. I’ve seen you around. Get in contact if you want to :) “.

However, if your goal is to start up some sort of non-shallow relationship with someone, Amanda’s absolutely right that it REALLY IS a good idea to let them know WHY you’re friending them and don’t make them search all over creation to figure out who you know, what you do and what you feel the value TO YOU is of meeting that person. Also, if your goal is to kick game and get on, realize that “You look good” worked for Richie Cunningham because “Happy Days” was a television show. It was in the script that Richie would do dumb stuff, but get the rap anyway. That stuff doesn’t work IRL and it works even less online. Balance out your approach between what your benefit is to kickin’ it with her and what HER benefit is to kickin’ it with YOU and you’ll have a much better chance not to end up in the tabloids.

DatingGenius

Alana & Bill, originally uploaded by Bill Cammack.

Alana Taylor & Bill Cammack

Alana, Brett & Sanford, originally uploaded by Bill Cammack.

Alana Taylor, Brett Petersel & Sanford Dickert