It was our first time – blogging!

We would like to complete this blog episode with a short flashback on the last two weeks in which we were real bloggers for the first time. We made some life lasting experiences that we would like to share with everybody who thinks about starting a blog.

The challenges: setting up a blog and market it throughout the different social media channels is said to be very easy – well, we can tell you it isn't. We experienced a pretty hard and rusty start...
The questions you should ask yourself: "Do the preferred media for advertising accept my blog-address? Didn't I use too many characters for my URL address? Are there other blogs with the same topic? Could I use them as a guideline? Do I have enough time for starting all my advertising campaigns on the media platform I want to deal with? Is setting up an account and a profile on a certain media platform really worth it? Do I have enough knowledge about technical aspects such as basic programming and HTML usage?" If you can answer all these questions with YES, go for it!
Furthermore, make sure you can fully stand behind your blog topic. We experienced that we actually branded ourselves during these two very intensive blog weeks by permanently posting status up-dates and messages about our blog "Brand Yourself on Social Media". We actually were applying second order branding – almost as complex as Web 2.0, don't you think so?
Over the time we bothered all our friends on Facebook, Twitter, via e-mail and so on by bombarding them with links and invitations to our blog. Now we are wondering what the consequences are regarding our reputation will be...
However, we probably put more meaningful status up-dates, messages and links on Facebook and Twitter than many others – that may compensates.

So far our experiences. Once again, many thanks to our followers! We might be back one day on a voluntary basis. It's never too late to start blogging:


Stay tuned and do not exaggerate – neither on social media nor on blogs. And never forget: "Social media is like teen sex: Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise it's not better." True!

'It wasn't me!'

That's easily said, but who will believe you when it is you making destructive comments on weblogs, accumulating huge amounts of debt or even committing crimes? Branding yourself on social media is a powerful tool to reach in a short period of time many people, to promote yourself and share all kind of information!But be aware of the information you share! Before you even realize it, you are dealing with identity theft.

We often share information on the web without thinking. We share our names, email addresses, education and working background, credit card information and so on. The consequences of identity theft are diverse but mostly profound. The most harming form occurs when someone pretends to be you in order to disrupt your life. This can take the form of stalking and provoking or even steeling your social media identity for financial purposes. In the latter case, your identity is used to buy stuff on your credit card or open new accounts on your name. And it doesn't stop there.. What if someone commits fraudulent crimes in your name? It ruins your whole reputation and cancels out further professional and personal opportunities. It doesn't even look hard to steal someones identity. Have a look at following example:

It's an example of a guy who, while developing a ranking algorithm for Twitter, Twitterank, discovered how easily account information could be obtained. This example was an innocent one, but shows again how easily private information can be abused on social media.

Is there anything we can do in order to protect ourselves against identity theft through social media?
Some recommendations:

- If possible, use always your full name when doing the registration on social media sites. This in order to prevent someone else acting in your name.
- Limit sharing personal information to what you think is really relevant
- Create a free Google Alerts account for your name. Every time your name will pop up online, you will be warned by email.
- Boost your online reputation. Create a blog and provide content that indirectly boost your reputation. Look for search engine optimization in order to be sure that when your name is googled, good things about yourself (your brand) are found first.
- In case you discover someone using your identity, contact immediately the administrators of that social media platform in order to put things right!

And of course always keep in mind: anticipate, anticipate, anticipate! Once your reputation is damaged, whether online or offline, your reputation is lost!

Google social search - be more visible!

By launching google social search, google pays even more tribute to the importance of social networks. Social search is a feature that gives you content edited by members of your social networks as the search results. Why can that be helpful? In some cases, it might not be so relevant to you what the general search produces for you search request. Information your peers and colleagues share about this topic can be more helpful, for example because you trust their opinion or know you have similar interests. Finding a friend's blog about, for example, his Africa trip, can be of more value than getting a list of travel agencies and general travel guides.

So, how can that help you to improve your self branding in social media? We've talked about the organization of your profiles and what to do and what to avoid in former posts. Once decided which networks may help you boost your career, add those to your google profile. Now everytime someone in your networks searches for a topic you have written about in your blog, online CV or on twitter, you will appear in the social search results. That gives you an even greater chance to position yourself as an expert of your field of interest. Also people who are not aware that you are the person to ask will be lead to your profiles like this. Furthermore, social search can make it easier to find out who to contact if you're interested in a certain company or job position. Just type in the company name and get results of the contacts who might have exactly the kind of knowledge that will make your application better than others'.

Let google employee Matt explain to you how it works:

Is there a difference between online and offline social etiquette?

In today's social media age the border between public and privacy gets more and more blurred. Privacy often becomes an illusion. Nonetheless, in my opinion there is not much of a difference in the social behavior rules for online social media compared to the offline world. To illustrate this we tried to come up with five golden rules of social media etiquette. We could also call them "netiquettes":

1. Listen
Listen first before speaking - meaning be aware of the context. Listening gives you a better sense of not only what people are saying but also how they are feeling. In virtual spaces where there are no visual cues, good listening skills become a powerful asset. Listening also helps you map out your current social media footprint or measuring your marketing campaigns over time. Additionally, keep in mind that you don't know everything, and you can learn from others if you take the time to listen.

2. Be nice
Although this sounds quite trivial, being nice is often not respected. You can call us old-fashioned but we think it should not be so difficult to just treat people as you would like to be treated from others as well.

3. Be real
Because of the anonymity the Internet allows, there is little to no accountability online. Authenticity is the most important for any good and valuable social media behavior. Just be yourself, you'll have far better and more long-lasting positive results than if you try to be someone - or something - you're not. And do not forget: One always meets each other twice - and in today's virtual world even more. Furthermore, cheaters never win! And once everyone sees you for the cheater you are, you can't un-ring that bell. Therefore, be accountable, people will respect you, whether they agree with you or not.

4. Add value
While entering a social media platform try to start any online conversation with the aim of adding value. Before adding a post to a platform, ask yourself: How is this providing value to the conversation or the community? 5. Pay attention to language issues Improper, inappropriate or bad language may, in the worst case, lead to a permanent ban from a forum or group. It is also important to remember people from other countries may be participating in the conversation and language barriers may be an issue.

This short video also explains our "netiquettes":

"I know what you did last summer…because I have internet."

The rise of social media not only raised possibilities but also some threats. The topic of digital footprints got more and more important. What did you do offline and online in your past and what can be accessed of it online? A lot of people participate in social media and share pictures, movies and personal data without thinking about all the others who can access this information too and what it can be used for. All of this is summarized under the name of digital footprint: "Who are you and what did you do online?"

But why are we talking about this topic - is there a need to talk about it?

Just recently Louise Fletcher was mentioning a Human Resources poll which showed that more than half of all Human Resources employees google prospective job candidates and 46% stated that they have already eliminated candidates because of what they found online about them.

So it does matter what you do online and what can be found about you online!

It can affect your life as well as your current and future working position. We would like to give some examples of digital footprints that went wrong:

The first example is about a video on YouTube, where some teenagers were tying a speeding camera on a tram in Zurich. Because this video was posted on YouTube the police was able to catch these young people and start legal actions against them.



The second example is about employees of Disneyland Paris and what they did in their breaks in between working shifts. It is left to say that those employees are not working for Disneyland Paris anymore.




Now think about yourself! How many pictures, movies or statements of your or produced by you are available online and who would you NOT like to see them…
Maybe you can not even remember everything, so go online and google your own name and see what will be shown.

What can you do if you want to clean your digital footprint?
Louise Fletcher suggests three measures:
1.) Change your name which is attached to your unfavorable information if possible (This can be a profile name or just the name written underneath an information or picture).
2.) Write to the owner of the specific website to ask to remove the specific information about you.
3.) Replace the unfavorable information results about you with positive ones by completing your online profiles (in a positive way), adding testimonials to your profiles (possible on LinkedIn) and commenting on serious blogs with serious content.

If those measures can not help you in some hard cases the best way to deal with unfavorable information is to prepare for it when you are being asked about it.

Preventing instead of fixing!

Our approach to this topic is slightly different from Louis Fletcher's. We suggest acting preventive when uploading information to the web and keeping in mind what you would like to have online about yourself and what rather not.
1.) If you open a profile on a social media platform and you know there will be content you do not want having connected with your name, do not use your name for setting up the profile and use a nickname or an imaginary name instead.
2.) Monitor links connecting your name with additional information in the web and remove them as far as possible if you do not like them.
3.) And the overall golden rule: Think before you act! Before you upload information to the web think if you really want everyone to see this information. Deleting afterwards is one thing; the memory of the web (like google archive that stores past information in the web) is another one.
In general you can say that you will always add information to your digital footprint online. The best way to deal with it is being aware of it and constantly monitoring it to prevent situations like "I know what you did last summer. I saw it online!"

RANTS ON... personal branding

Why the hell should i care...

...about personal branding? For some of us it might seem quite awkward to think about branding yourself. What is it good for and is it good at all? Are we a product just like cornflakes, cars and perfume that requires marketing instruments to sell itself? Does this mean that branding yourself is nothing else than a personal sellout, a denial of who you are in order to create an acceptable image for your friends and future employers?

Well, as in many cases, the answer is yes and no and each of us has to find his own answer in this ethical issue. Of course personal branding can be seen as a manipulatory instrument to influence or to fool other people about yourself to reach whatever goals. But if personal branding means for you that you should adapt your image to other people's taste which would lead to a general homogenization of our society, you might be doing exactly the opposite of what personal branding is all about.

Some years ago I saw a T-shirt in a store with the inscription "I am unique - Just like everyone else". It says a lot about modern individualism and our dilemma of trying to be different but at the same time looking for belongingness. Personal branding is not meant to force all of us in socially acceptable patterns. Let's remember how branding historically emerged. The first goods that were branded were commodities. They were homogeneous products like soaps whose producers tried to differentiate.

So maybe we aren't that different than cornflakes and cars ;-) Branding is not meant to make all of us look alike, but it should induce a momentum of self-reflection. It should raise the question in each of us

- Who am I, what am I all about?

- What can i do best, what motivates me and gives me meaning?

- What makes me different from others and what makes me the only choice (for whatever ;-) )

Looking on it from this point of view it becomes clearer that personal branding itself is neither good or bad.

It can be used to activate your brain or to brainwash... It's your choice.

Welcome to our blog!

Hi everyone,

We are a group of students at the University of Lugano (USI), Switzerland. On the occasion of our digital marketing course we started this blog about personal branding on social media. In the future you will find here articles concerning your virtual identity that you might find helpful.

Everyone of us is already involved in personal branding. Impression management takes place in all kinds of every day situations. We do it when we get dressed or when we talk to people. This is how we try to influence the impression that other people might form about us. Since we spend more and more time on the internet where information about us is available through social media, it becomes increasingly important to keep an eye on the way people could perceive us in the digital space. Especially since hiring managers started to use search engines to screen their candidates.

Our blog will continuously provide you with a set of useful methods for generating a distinguished web presence that could be beneficial in aspects of life.

Your

BrandYourself-Team

PS: As you can see from the picture, we are all more or less social media addicted. Even during the breaks at uni we skype or chat instead of talking to each other ;-)