The Social Media Professor

Personal Branding Domain Strategies If You Have a Common Name

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I was just featured by BBC in an article “Standing out when your name is John Smith” addressing the challenge of building a personal brand online if you have a common name. A starting point in this regard is claiming a proper domain name where you can build a platform for your personal brand.

While I personally don't have many namesakes and didn't have any problems registering niklasmyhr.com, I am often asked this question and in this post, I will share my perspectives on this issue. I usually suggest that if you cannot become the John Doe, at least you should try to become a John Doe amongst the others.

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Lessons from FSU's Jameis Winston Twitter Faux Pas

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Social media can be a powerful tool by which you can invite your community to engage with you and your brand. It should be noted, though, that there are no guarantees in terms of where communications may be headed. In some cases, it can turn out to be a complete PR disaster such as with the Twitter chat with hashtag #AskJameis on Twitter with Jameis Winston, Florida State University's quarterback with a controversial past which resulted in numerous critical tweets, many with a rather morbid “humorous” twist.

FSUfootball

 

As I have not personally followed the past of Mr. Winston, I am not going to comment upon the specifics of his past and whether he deserves this criticism or not. Instead, I will focus on what organizations can do to avoid facing a backlash from their social media initiatives such as on Twitter like Florida State did. These kinds of reactions, also known as “Twitterjacking,” can happen to not only sports franchises but also to big global brands such as McDonald's which experienced a major backlash in 2012 to to their invitation to state their own #McDStories on Twitter.

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Erica Derrickson's Tweet Dreams

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tweetdreamsErica Derrickson quit her desk job only a year and a half ago, and already has a thriving photography business because of her implementation of social media marketing strategies. She speaks at local universities on social media, has been recently featured in Trade Secrets, and manages a Facebook group Hollywood East Actors Group which has over 8,000 members. Check out her acting reel, her film credits range from the National blockbuster The Heat (2013) which starred Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy to independent films like Melt (2012) and Rafi Baby (2011).

One day, Erica Derrickson tweeted her enthusiasm over Gary Vaynerchuk's latest best seller “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” suggesting it would be the perfect textbook if there were such a thing like a class on social media.

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Gary Vaynerchuk in LA with "Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook" book

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Gary Vaynerchuk and Niklas Myhr
Gary Vaynerchuk and Niklas Myhr

Always energizing to meet dynamo Gary Vaynerchuk as he always brings it all to the table as he shares his insights on social media marketing, personal branding, and on entrepreneurship either by speaking or with his book. The latest and, according to him, the final installment in his trilogy is named “Jab, jab, jab, right hook” using boxing analogies to illustrate the importance of two kinds of social media postings. Jabs are those updates intended to help, connect, and flirt with customers “in a romancing way” as he calls it, while a “right hook” is when you are going for the close or the knockout punch with an unashamed plug for whatever it is that you would like people to buy whether it is a product, service, event, idea, etc. His first book “Crush it!” was predominantly focused on going for the close in a rather aggressive manner while his second “The Thank You Economy” was all about jabs and building and sustaining long-term relationships.

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Buffer recommends Hootsuite, "Lethal Generosity" alive and well

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Buffer and its Founder/CEO Joel Gascoigne today referred disgruntled customers to their main competitor, Hootsuite. This post discusses this display of “lethal generosity.” For those who don't know, Buffer is a social media productivity tool allowing users to stock up or fill up a buffer of content to share that will then be disseminated over time on various social media platforms you connect to their service. This way, one's followers will not be overwhelmed by a number of updates at once followed by complete silence. I have personally found the service useful even if I have not consistently filled up my buffer as of late. Today, I was impressed by the service nonetheless. I got an email from the founder “Joel from Buffer” with an alert about a problem:
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Microsoft gets "MicroPhone" in Nokia Deal

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Business in Scandinavia 2011 outside Nokia HQ
Business in Scandinavia 2011 outside Nokia HQ

Today's announcement that Microsoft is buying the cell phone part of Nokia (their Devices and Services Division) was hardly shocking. Yet, it is a noteworthy event and also a little bit saddening given that it represents a significant milestone in the downhill slide of Nokia from its heights as the undisputed leader in cell phone manufacturing only a few years ago.

With our Chapman MBA travel course Business in Scandinavia, we visited the Nokia headquarters both in 2010 and in 2011. In the following, I will offer some reactions to what this acquisition may mean in the evolution of the mobile phone industry and intersperse it with some pictures from our Nokia visits. [Read more…]

BBC Interview on Personal Branding with a Website

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In an interview with BBC Capital, I was asked about the value for professionals of developing a website where they can manage their personal brands to support their career objectives. To me, it is surprising that this is still even an issue almost twenty years after we started exploring the World Wide Web. However, as I often encounter confusion regarding both what owning your own domain implies and its value, I find it necessary to further (also wrote a related post on “Good Domain Parenting” earlier) articulate why I believe this is important and outline the first action steps. [Read more…]

Chapman Students Boost Swedish Startup’s Social Media

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Megan Daugherty with Josefine Åhl

Recently, I published a blog post asking companies if they wanted student teams helping them with their social media efforts. Heeding the call was Swedish startup Oricane, a green technology company offering energy efficient software and big data solutions often reducing cost by 98% and power use by 99%.

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“Give and Take” talk by Adam Grant

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Niklas Myhr, Adam Grant, Give and Take, Cal Tech
With Adam Grant at Cal Tech

Glad I made it to Cal Tech where the Skeptics Society led by Michael Shermer hosted Adam Grant for a talk on his book “Give and Take.” In his presentation, Adam offered persuasive examples of how people who are indiscriminately helpful to basically anyone who asks can get ahead by accumulating a wider network over time and that what goes around comes around.

He claims that Mark Granovetter‘s theory of the strength of weak ties still holds true in that our strong ties often do not add significant news as they are exposed to the same sources and networks as we are ourselves whereas a weak tie moves in circles yet unfamiliar with us where new opportunities can emerge. [Read more…]

Internet Marketing In Real Life

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Niklas Myhr Melanie Duncan Devin Duncan
With Melanie and Devin

I very much enjoy having my former students visit my classes and today was definitely no exception as my Internet/Social Media Marketing class was visited by Melanie and Devin Duncan. Melanie Duncan graduated in 2008 and met her future husband Devin Duncan while he was also studying at Chapman University. As true serial entrepreneurs, they have worked on, and successfully launched, a number of businesses together including Custom Greek Threads, Luxury Monograms, as well as a business around the Melanie's personal brand. [Read more…]

The Social Media Professor

Orange County, California
United States

Also at NiklasMyhr.com

Contact

Please email me at niklas [at] thesocialmediaprofessor.com if you have any questions.