Reiki Music. Video Marketing

Does personal brand have a place in business?

Sort of!

A business is nothing more than a collection of people and their values. Or is it?

Ideally a business is a vision. An entity with a mission statement. Something which is re-sellable as an entity. The quaint notion that a business is a “person” on the end of a Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn handle, is quite a recent Internet marketing notion.

A personal identity may front a business, as in Bill gates did with Microsoft, or Jeff did with Amazon. And their values may have defined or still define) the business. But a business is an “organic machine”. In Anime terms, a real “Ghost In The Shell” but for business.

A business is seldom possible with one man. There is usually a team. They may be outsourced, or freelance contracted, or even a pool of friends banter in the pub, but a business is essentially a machine. If it wasn’t a machine, it couldn’t have “scale” and you’d be back to earning a maximum of dollars for Y hours of “your” time.

And people don’t scale. Teams of people scale. They may be inspired or directed by a few key identity men, but they are only part of the machine. A part which can, and should, be changed from time to time.

Even with a simple scenario of a book author, your team is you writing the book. But then somewhere there has to be marketing research. Marketing promotion. Manufacture (design, proof reading) and distribution. Then there has to be logistics, fulfillment and customer care. And then there has to be business growth, some how.

This is way past 1 man and his eBook. Is it a surprise that these people make very little money? Probably less they could in a 9 to 5 as a column hack.

So I find the concept of personal identity a misnomer in business.

Because the web makes life more personal and open than it ever has been previously, people are confusing, personal web presence, with business web presence. The main protagonists of this are people who are (self appointed) celebrities. But celebrities don’t make films. They only star in them. And then may or may not contribute a box office seller.

We can;t all be celebrities.If no one packed the film in the box, no one would ever sees it. If there wasn’t a key grip, then how far would filming get? “Team work” and a business is a team.

Who is the president of CBS right now? Personally I have no idea. What is his Facebook handle? What does he Twitter about? I don’t know and I don’t really care. Is he richer than the most of his celebrity actors? Quite possibly!

Naturally being a celebrity is an attractive dream.

Naturally celebrities sell us on being celebrities ourselves.

Naturally businesses have evolved which take our money to teach us how to possibly become a celebrity.

Let me ask you this…

How many celebrities can you still remember 5 years on?
How many “talentless” celebrities (ones who have paid or slept bribed) can you still remember even 1 year on?
Who is happier and more secure? The 5 minute celebrity or the president of the film company?
Are you honestly one of the 0.02% of people who are charismatic and mind fluent enough to be a celebrity?
And when I say celebrity here, I am applying it equally to being an Internet business owner.
Do you want to be a celebrity, or do you want to have a business with longevity?

Recently John Reese, an IM person, blogged that people should not hide behind anonymity and use their real name and real photo, and steer away from avatars and pen names.

My Response Comment to John Reese:

We don’t buy from Richard Branson, but we all know who Virgin is (or used to be anyway). We don’t buy from Bill Gates, but we all know who Microsoft is (or was).

And that is another point raised by Eban Pagan, et al.

One aspect of business is to build it and sell it. No matter how much you love it, or how long down the line it is, unless you want to be IMPRISONED by your own business (freedom being something which most IM started IM to gain) you need to build your asset (something I know you are keen on) you need to separate your business and personal identity.

That doesn’t mean you don’t have a personal brand, or identity, or kudos/karma/ethics which are public, and help to define your business brand, but it means that your professional identity is different. Just like film and pop stars have personal lives.

YOU are not the normal! “John Reese” IS the brand. When John Reese dies (or retires) John Reese the brand will not exist.

We can see the way that Frank Kern repositioned his personal reputation (Which was all he had) in to one of his brands, Mass Control.
Now he has an option.
Mass Control as a (sellable) brand and Frank Kern as the person behind the brand, “at the moment.

I use an avatar because I look like crap. You look like a film star.
I hope that business is one of the few places that my lack of good looks and deep voice, does not get in the way of people listening to what I stand for.

I use the Twitter handle “ReikiMusic” because that is what my Twitter brand identity is about. My name means nothing. I am a long way from Pete Buick being synonymous with Reiki Music. So I describe my brand by what it is.
In some ways that is more honest.

John Reese is synonymous with something in IM, not sure what, (oh yeah folder 2.0 – LOL).
But even you are the personal identity behind your brands traffic thingy and business thingy.

I wasn’t actually being funny when I said “thingy”, I really don’t remember what you do. I only remember “your” name.

Now maybe that is the way you have intended it be. But AFAIC it means your business isn’t sellable. And if you suddenly have an epiphany and want to do baby clothes instead, what does John Reese mean to that market?
And wouldn’t Toddlerz be a better marketing tool?

Peter
The man behind ?
Well 550 things, which is another reason why “I” do not work as a brand.
I am not Richard Branson, Bill Gates or John Reese. Who is?

And would you really rather have a picture of Ed Dale, or a Cartoon Character?!

http://www.income.com/blog/2008/05/05/anonymous-marketing-is-dead/

2 Responses to “John Reese brand or machine?”