Oh, this whole world of social media and social networks and network fatigue is ticking over so very quickly when you’ve been called an influential, anything with -rati at the end of it (digerati, twitterati…), or as I was recently called, Twitistoric.  The cycle of interest, adoption, mastering, abandoning is happening at a mind numbing pace.
Because of that rapid pace, some people are claiming that the Death of the Influentials will happen sooner than later. Some digerati (Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble to name a few) are claiming that the best way to create an internet strategy is to obtain …read more

Where do you draw the line between opinon and defemation & libel? Model Liskula Cohen is asking a New York court to force Google to reveal the identity of the anonymous blogger behind “Skanks in NYC“. 
The site is composed of exactly five posts, all aimed at snarking at Cohen, with images that had to have come from friends or friends of friends. All of the pictures were of Cohen, with friends or at a small party with what looks like close friends. Maybe Cohen should be trying to track down where those photos came from rather than trying to get the …read more

Couple of months ago, Geoff Livingston, among many others, including me, waxed philosophically about Personal Brand vs Reputation. There was quite the debate both on Geoff’s site and here. 
I’ve struggled with my own business brand for years, even when I had a strong brand with my PR business. I have always had a billion projects on the go, and they don’t all fit under the umbrella of the PR firm. Some of them downright seem contridictory.
What I ended up doing, was technically, creating a brand for “Colleen Coplick” rather than anything else. I’ve got a site, sure, but much like …read more

Facebook Connect.  Myspace Data Portability. Google Friend Connect. All of these individual services are supposed to be there to help you manage the fire hose of information that comes to you through your social graphs, but who owns that information?
The idea behind Facebook Connect and all of the other connect services, is to make all of the social media sites easier to use. Basically, the thought is that users will be able to log onto other websites using their Facebook ID, and see their friends’ activities on other sites as well. They’re also giving members the chance to broadcast their …read more

Internet famous. Rockstars. Gurus. All words that have been used to describe the people who are working a personal brand, rather than building their reputation.
Geoff Livingston has a fantastic post about the fine line between building your reputation or building your personal brand.
Some will argue that these two phrases are interchangeable, and yet, I have to agree with Geoff when he points out:
Reputation is built upon past experiences — good or bad, a real track record. Personal branding is often an ego-based image based on communications. [source]
When I look around at all of the people who are considered “internet famous” …read more