On Tuesday, June 2, 2009, from 7:30am -10:00am, NY:MIEG hosted “Selling Yourself: How to Build a Brand in the New Digital World.”
Promoting your personal brand and business in the digital space has never been more of a challenge. Yesterday’s blog is today’s tweet so be prepared for what tomorrow brings! Discover how to make a name for yourself online from a panel of personalities who are leading the pack.
Bill Sobel (host) gave away tickets to the U.S Open and Brooklyn Cycloons.
Loomia was one of the sponsors. I got a chance to speak to David Leilosohn from Loomia. Check out how it works.
Ellis Henican was the moderator for the morning breakfast events. As a major event chaser I get to witness many moderators. Ellis has been one of my favorites. He has fun. How rare is that these days? It’s obvious that he really enjoys whatever he does in life.
” How you do anything is how you do everything. Your “character” or “nature” just refers to how you handle all the day-to-day things in life, no matter how small. — Derek Sivers
Ellis started by saying ” Bad things are happening to the best brands. GM filed for bankruptcy…. How can you have your own modern digital brands? ”
Norm Golden, actor and producer, was one of the panelists and co-creator of “50ToDeath.com”
This is one of his commercials:
Andrea Syrtash is a relationship expert, life coach, host and author.
Ben Relles and Amber Lee Ettinger rounded out the panel. Ben is co-founder barelypolitical.com and Amber is an American actress, internet celebrity, and model.
” How do you define your audience? ”
” Our audience is normally babyboomers but we have a young audience as well” said Norm.
Andrea mentioned an interesting note on platforms. ” It important be be multi-platformed but also know who you’re speaking to. What really surprised me was the global reach… people from all over the world contact me. I get even get e-mails from people in the middle east wanting basic dating advice. ”
On an international note: Norm told the audience that his online show is the # 1 watched comedy website in New Zealand. I wonder if the boys from Flight of the Concords watch 50 to death.
Another quote from Andrea:
” Companies are looking more like people and people are looking more like brands.” “Building a brand allows you to make personal connections. They will help you because they are loyal. They will help you shape your content. If you answer and e-mail you’ve got a fan for life. ”
Ben talked about building a personal brand around a specific idea: ” Sometimes people push and push and when something hits, often times people run with that. ”
Ben and Amber also spoke about big viral hits and slow, consistent connections made.Because of the fame of the Obama Girl video and other hugely successful viral campaigns often times people shoot for these goals yet as ” On dating ” proves if you put out a consistent amount of content you will establish your brand and build a following. One of the best things for Ben was that the Obama girl video lead people to check out Barely political which now runs on Fred Seibert’s NEXT NEW NETWORKS.
Be sure to look out for the expansion of Amber’s brand. She is an actress on the come up as well as working on a jewelry line. Amber send me some info and I’ll post it on here.
Final quotes:
When asked about the future Norm spoke about the different screens ranging from obviously being online to cell phones and other devices:
” There are million of screen sizes that we are looking to get our show across. The 22 minute format is too much for us now. Content is moving across every screen. ” - Norm
” Authenticity is so important. “ - Andrea
” I think you need a kernel of truth in everything you do. Be honest with who you are. I don’t think you can fool people ” - Norm. Wise words from a wise man.
Lastly, a fake Barack Obama came out as a publicity stunt for Cool Web Show. Very clever. The ” president ” came out and spoke about how great the new site was.
Poor Amber had no idea how to react to this random guy shaking her hand portraying her crush. She handled it well though.
The host
Bill Sobel. He is a truly great connector. He is as genuine as humans get. Bill always makes it a point to shout out anyone in the audience he knows. Previous to asking a question at a Bill Sobel event he’ll likely tell the audience when and where you met, what you’re doing now and why you’re so great. As a fellow connector I highly admire all that he does.
The social crowd + The networking crowd
Anybody that wakes up for a 7:30 am networking mixer and panel discussion is a crowd fighting for success and eager to meet others making it happen. Gil & Oran (The Brothers) made an appearance (they sponsored as well). Michele Joel, co-founder of Goldbug Group was in the mix. Jordan Baltimore, an entrepreneur I met during entrepreneur week, was connecting and mingling and speaking to Barry Schulman about the origins of his last name. Baltimore. Cool Name.
The venue
The Samsung experience store is in the Time Warner Center in columbus circle.
Nikki Stelma, event coordinator for the Samsung experience, opened the doors for yet another great event. Thanks Nikki.
Difficulty in getting in
Pay. That’s all.
Future information needed
Breakfast with Danny Meyer
Notables
The Panel.
Last chaser notes
Happy Birthday to Norm Golden!
