Now that social media is clearly a permanent disruption (i.e., here to stay, and making organizations and individuals reinvent themselves if they don’t want to get left behind), it’s worth paying attention to the various ways its precepts can inform professional development, organizational leadership and personal branding. Business “best practices” that have been in use [...]
Apr 11, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Social Media, Technology | Tags: best practices, bold, brand, branding, CEO, CEO branding, change, charisma, clarity, conflict, crisis, disruption, experimentation, failure, Humanize, Jamie Notter, leadership, leadership traits, loyalty, Maddie Grant, organizational leadership, personal branding, professional development, reinvention, Social Media, social organization, stakeholders, strategy, transparency | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] I recently received an intriguing email from a former branding executive who now runs a small marketing consulting company. Nancy Shenker, whose new venture is called theONswitch, found a way to build a personal brand by breaking rules, being rebellious and tapping into her self-professed “dark side.” It sounds like a [...]
Apr 02, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features | Tags: Alanis Morissette, Amy Poehler, bad girl, Bad Girl Good Business, Betty White, brand, branding, breaking rules, direct, glass ceiling, Hillary Clinton, injustice, innovating, innovation, inspirational, irreverent, Judith Regan, Nancy Drew, Nancy Shenker, Nancy Sinatra, personal brand, PR, public relations, rebellious, resourceful, results, role model, Sheryl Crow, stereotype, theONswitch, Tina Fey, Tina Turner, women | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] When it comes to family names as brand names, unless you’ve done something terrible or had the bad fortune of sharing a name with someone who did, it’s hard to do much worse than “Trump.” For most of the past four decades, the Donald has slapped his name on some of [...]
Mar 27, 2013 | Categories:Brands, CSR, Features, Insights, PR | Tags: affair, Barron Trump, brand, brand name, branding, cause, celebrity, divorce, Donald, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Elle Decor, Eric Trump, Eric Trump Foundation, family name, footwear, giving back, golden ticket, handbags, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, jewelry, liability, Los Angeles, Marla Maples, New York, New York City, Operation Smile, personal brand, PR, public relations, St. Jude, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, The Apprentice, The New York Observer, The Wharton School, Tiffany Trump, Trump, Trump Organization, University of Pennsylvania, Yahoo, Yahoo Shine | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] I’m writing this just after the conclave of cardinals announced the successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who last month became the first modern-day pontiff to abdicate the throne. They charted some new ground, choosing 76-year-old Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first non-European to fill the role in more than 1,200 [...]
Mar 18, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Social Media | Tags: abdication, Argentina, behaviors, branding, bureaucracy, Catholic Church, change, church brand, communication, conservative, corruption, culture change, debate, entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, environment, Europe, Forbes, Forbes.com, George Brandt, honesty, integrity, Jesuit, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Latin America, leadership development, passion, personal brand, pope, Pope Benedict, Pope Francis, progressive, progressive pope, relationships, respect, Romy Ribitzky, Second Vatican Council, secularism, sex abuse, startup, The New York Times, transparency, Twitter, Upstart Business Journal, values, Vatican, Vatican II, vision | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] A colleague of mine recalls a time when a new boss had taken over her department and everyone was anxious. One of his first acts: handing out New York Times obituaries of distinguished people. “Read these,” he said, “and think about what your obituaries would say.” His gambit worked. The ice [...]
Feb 27, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Media, Social Media, Trends | Tags: brand, branding, celebrity, CEO, community, Connecticut, David Collins, death, Facebook, Forbes.com, haring, journalist, Legacy.com, life directive, Life Without End, memorial service, Mindy McCready, newspaper, Nina Lentini, obit, obituary, People, personal brand, position, positioning statement, Princess Di, Social Media, survivors, The Day, The New York Times, transparencys, Whitney Houston, will | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] Last weekend, I came across an interesting article in The New York Times about people who had Livestrong tattoos and how they felt about them now. The upshot is that most of them—at least most of the people quoted in the article—don’t have a great deal of regret. They got the [...]
Feb 21, 2013 | Categories:Brands, CSR, Fashion, Features, Marketing, Trends | Tags: Andrew Weil, Angelina Jolie, Ashley Olsen, Brad Pitt, brand identity, brand logo, brand names, branding, Brangelina, cancer, celebrity, celebrity brand, CFDA, cookware, crisis, Drew Barrymore, Emeril Lagasse, Fashion, Fergie, France, Gwen Stefani, identity, JKL, Just Keep Livin Foundation, Kardashian, L.A.M.B., Lance Armstrong, Lily Munster, Livestrong, Marilyn Monroe, Mary-Kate Olsen, Matthew McConaughey, Maxim, Megan Fox, Miraval, Parker rating, personal brand, personal branding, rosé, tattoo, The New York Times, The Row, Trends, typecast, Womenswear Designer of the Year, Yahoo | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on CNBC.com.] I recently came across some survey data that suggests 2013 will be a tough year for CEOs—or, at least, many of them believe that it will be. Now that the economy’s “green shoots” of recovery are starting to bud into potential blossoms, expectations are up in terms of performance. It’s no [...]
Feb 19, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Social Media | Tags: board of directors, brand, brand building, branding, CEO, CEO Snapshot Survey, chief executive, CNBC, corporate brand, economic recovery, Facebook, Harris Interactive, human, human brand, Humanize, identity, Jamie Notter, leadership style, Maddie Grant, management, Mark Zuckerberg, personal brand, personal values, profile, recession, RHR International, Richard Branson, Social Media, stakeholder activism, strategy, team, the economy, Thomas Saporito, Tony Hsieh, transparency, Virgin, Zappos | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani, Fiorello LaGuardia: The mayors of New York City have long been men with outsize personalities and strong personal brands. Not only have they had one of the most influential, highest-profile platforms in the nation, but they’ve also been strategic about positioning themselves and shaping the way others [...]
Feb 12, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Politics, Social Media | Tags: 9/11, Andrew Cuomo, brand, branding, Cablevision, climate change, Democrat, Ed Koch, Fiorello LaGuardia, Forbes.com, gun control, Hurricane Sandy, Independent, Joe Lhota, legacy, lymphoma, Madison Square Garden, mayor, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Michael Bloomberg, MTA, New York, New York City, New York Daily News, personal brand, philanthropy, political party, Quinnipiac University, Republican, Rudy Giuliani, Sandy, September 11, smoking ban, soda ban, subway, transit, Twitter, unbranded, Village Voice, website | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] I can’t muster up too much sympathy for a Hollywood star whose personal branding woes haven’t prevented him from earning more money than most of us ever dream of seeing, but from an image point of view, I do feel bad for Ben Affleck. Even after all these years and all [...]
Feb 05, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Insights, Uncategorized | Tags: Academy Awards, Africa, Argo, Ben Affleck, Bennifer, best director, best original screenplay, Boston, brand, branding, charity, Critics' Choice Awards, Dazed and Confused, Forbes.com, Gigli, Golden Globe Awards, Gone Baby Gone, Good Will Hunting, Hollywood, image, J. Lo, Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Lopez, Kathryn Bigelow, Kevin Smith, Matt Damon, movies, New York, Oscars, Perez Hilton, personal brand, Quentin Tarantino, Razzie Awards, reboot, rehabilitation, Steven Spielberg, tabloids, The Town | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] Even though Lance Armstrong has been in the news for months—the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s incriminatory report was released in early October, though speculation was raging well before that—he’s really just at the beginning of his problems. From a crisis management and personal branding standpoint, he has a long road ahead [...]
Feb 01, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Media, PR | Tags: apology, Ashley Olsen, athlete, brand, branding, CNN, crisis communications, crisis management, cycling, doping, drugs, Forbes.com, fraud, interview, Jake Tapper, Lance Armstrong, Livestrong, Matthew McConaughey, Media, media consultant, Oprah Winfrey, performance-enhancing drugs, personal branding, PR, public relations, publicity, reboot, rehabilitation, responsibility, Sheryl Crow, Social Media, sportsmanship, The New York Times, United States Anti-Doping Agency | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] In what was undoubtedly old news to anyone who has been paying attention to the British royal family, St. James’s Palace issued an official statement last week to announce that “Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to confirm they are expecting a baby in July.” (Hello, [...]
Jan 29, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Social Media | Tags: baby, brand, branding, British monarchy, British royal family, Cambridge, Carole Middleton, child, Cirque du Soleil, Daily Mail, duchess, E!, family, hair, Kate Middleton, Kim Kardashian, merchandise, Michael Middleton, MILF, Morrissey, personal brand, pregnant, Prince Harry, Prince William, Princess Diana, Queen Elizabeth, royal, St. James's Palace, Today, Twitter, URL, Us Weekly, Windsor Castle, Yummy Mummy | Leave A Comment »
On Forbes.com’s CMO Network, @havaspr CEO Marian Salzman focuses on one of the most important issues today in business: personal branding. She has talked about it through the lens of the red carpet, political beliefs, reinvention, ideas conferences, even Hurricane Sandy. She has wondered if branding should begin at birth and whether readers align their [...]
Jan 28, 2013 | Categories:Agency News, Brands, Politics | Tags: branding, British monarchy, CMO Network, Forbes.com, Hurricane Sandy, ideas conferences, Kate Middleton, Lance Armstrong, leadership, Marian Salzman, personal branding, Politics, Prince William, red carpet, reinvention, Sandy, Social Media, Timothy Ferriss, Tony Hsieh | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] I recently got a humorous pitch from a real estate agent in New Hampshire, where, he wrote in his email, “there is a theme-branding wave that is part capricious, part serious business.” At first his proposal made me giggle, but then I saw how it reflects the ways in which personal branding [...]
Jan 15, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Marketing, Politics | Tags: branding, Brands, community branding, corporate branding, freedom, identity, libertarian, liberty, Live Free or Die, Marketing, New Hampshire, PorcFest, porcupine, real estate, state | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] I’ve written extensively about brands—personal brands, community brands, conference brands and so on. But I’m certainly not alone. This era is widely regarded as the age of the brand. But most of the personal branding conversation doesn’t focus on the age at which we begin branding; it focuses more on adults [...]
Jan 09, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Social Media, Trends, Youth | Tags: Blue Ivy, branding, Brands, career, children, college, community brands, company brands, conference brands, domain, hiring, name, parenting, personal brands, school, search engine, TED | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] With last week’s news that Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, and his Downtown Project have pledged $1 million to Venture for America to help revitalize downtown Las Vegas (full disclosure: My agency helped spread the word through pro bono media outreach), I got to thinking about the role of character [...]
Dec 12, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features | Tags: Amazon.com, authentic, authentic communication, bad boy, BitTorrent, branding, character, community, content, corporate culture, customer service, Delivering Happiness, Downtown Project, Fast Company, Forbes.com, good guy, human element, Jeff Bezos, Noah Fleming, old-fashioned values, open communication, personal branding, The 4-Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferriss, Tony Hsieh, Venture for America, Zappos | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] We’re in an age of ideas conferences—not just such stalwarts as Davos and TED but also upstarts like All Things Digital’s D conferences (D11 is next, in May)—and attendance is increasingly seen as a mark of legitimacy. They’re the ultimate see-and-be-seen gatherings. Smart talk is today’s hot commodity, whether you’re speaking, [...]
Nov 26, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Technology | Tags: All Things Digital, Aspen, Austin, branding, CGI, Clinton Global Initiative, co-branding, conference, connections, D conferences, Davos, Do Lectures, ego, ideas, ideas conferences, networks, personal brands, pop-up, PopTech, Renaissance Weekend, Solve for X, Sun Valley, Switzerland, SXSW, Techonomy, TED, TEDTalks, TEDx, The 99% Conference, The Feast, thought leaders | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] The words “business” and “business leader” often conjure up Dow Jones–size companies and the big names who lead them. We’re almost as fascinated by stars of big business as by stars of the big screen. And why not? A recent Forbes article pleading “Bring Back the Celebrity CEO” makes the case [...]
Oct 22, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Health and Wellness, Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: Amazon, apps, Bill Gates, blog, branding, Burnt Peaks, business, business leader, CEOs, Chris MacAskill, community, company brands, customers, Dollar Shave Club, Don MacAskill, Facebook, fitness, Forbes, Internet, iPhone, James Mairs, Jeff Bezos, King of Shaves, Meg Whitman, personal branding, personal brands, Phil Knight, purpose, Queen of Shaves, Richard Branson, RunKeeper, Silicon Valley, small businesses, SmugMug, Social Media, taking risks, Tony Hsieh, Twitter, Venture for America, Will King, Zappos | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] Personal branding is the name of the game these days, and in our age of radical transparency it is informed not just by how you present yourself but also by the people you associate with. Just as product- and service-based brands have to choose their celebrity ambassadors carefully, individuals looking to [...]
Oct 17, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Politics, PR, Social Media | Tags: Ann Romney, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, branding, campaign, clout, colleagues, Culpwrit, Forbes, friends, Gallup, Klout, Melinda Gates, Michelle Obama, personal branding, privacy, social media monitoring, social media presence, spouse, transparency | 1 Comment »
This is the ninth in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. This is not another piece about how a majority of Americans are overweight or obese. Nor is it a description of the way weight problems bear down on employee health and productivity. There are plenty of articles out there [...]
Jul 26, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Health and Wellness | Tags: Anil Ambani, BMI, branding, business leaders, CEO, CEO branding, CEO Challenges, CEOs, Chris Boyce, Cleveland Clinic, competition, corporate wellness programs, Delos Cosgrove, exercise, Forbes, globesity, Google, happiness, health, healthy habits, marathon, mindfulness, obesity, perceptions, productivity, running, Russell Simmons, Virgin HealthMiles, weight prejudice, yoga | Leave A Comment »
This is the eighth in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. There’s a lot to be said for a CEO who manages to keep things on track with measured stewardship. Even in good times, when the media are all jazzed up with tales of business derring-do, there’s something heroic about [...]
Jul 25, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, PR, Technology, Trends | Tags: ambition, brand traction, branding, business leader, caution, CEO, CEO branding, CEOs, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, fear, innovation, opportunity, recession, risk | Leave A Comment »
This is the seventh in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. How quickly could you come up with a dozen examples of great creativity? My guess is it would take you an hour at most if you have a good Internet connection. Your examples might include a few movies, books, [...]
Jul 24, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Trends | Tags: Apple, branding, CEO, CEO branding, CEOs, Charleston, creative war room, creativity, Detroit, innovation, inspiration, office location, Omaha, Paul Orfalea, Pittsburgh, radical recruitment, recruiting, Tucson | Leave A Comment »
With leadership in crisis, work-life juggling acts getting tougher, and Twitter and Facebook leading conversations, ethical C-suite executives today have a great opportunity to stand out by showing their true colors and connecting with their employees, their customers and their communities. Marian Salzman, CEO of @erwwpr, is spearheading agency thought leadership on the issue with [...]
Jul 23, 2012 | Categories:Agency News, Brands, Insights, Social Media | Tags: branding, business leaders, C-suite, CEO, CEO branding, CEOs, conversation, education, Facebook, leadership, Social Media, thought leadership, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
This is the third in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. You might be sick of people talking about social media. That’s understandable. It can get tiresome when the hot topic of the month becomes the hot topic of the year and looks set to be the hot topic of [...]
Jul 18, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, PR, Social Media, Technology | Tags: Bill Gates, branding, CEO, CEO branding, CEOs, comments, controversy, employees, Facebook, Flickr, Forbes, humanity, Internet, investors, LinkedIn, Martha Stewart, Michael Dell, narrator, Pinterest, PR, Reddit, Richard Branson, share, Social Media, social platforms, Spotify, stakeholders, Technology, Tom Peters, Tumblr, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube | Leave A Comment »
A massage before take-off. An in-flight shower. Three-star meals. These days, first-class flights are more dramatically luxurious than ever before—in stark comparison to the spartan amenities afforded those occupying the back portion of the plane. Though first-class passengers account for just 5 percent of those on long-haul routes, and business class passengers for 15 percent, [...]
Dec 20, 2011 | Categories:Advertising, Brainsnacks, Brands, PR, Social Media, Trends | Tags: Advertising, aviation, branding, economics, first class, flight, luxury market, Occupy Wall Street, plane, public relations, reality television, Social Media, Southwest Airlines, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
Cultivate Good Social Media Habits
This is the third in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. You might be sick of people talking about social media. That’s understandable. It can get tiresome when the hot topic of the month becomes the hot topic of the year and looks set to be the hot topic of [...]
Jul 18, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, PR, Social Media, Technology | Tags: Bill Gates, branding, CEO, CEO branding, CEOs, comments, controversy, employees, Facebook, Flickr, Forbes, humanity, Internet, investors, LinkedIn, Martha Stewart, Michael Dell, narrator, Pinterest, PR, Reddit, Richard Branson, share, Social Media, social platforms, Spotify, stakeholders, Technology, Tom Peters, Tumblr, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube | Leave A Comment »