Nick Nanton's BlogPersonal Branding: Your Social Media Strategy Posted: Friday, January 27th, 2012 Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are continuing to grow in popularity at an astounding rate. These platforms provide an unprecedented opportunity for business owners to connect with their clients and their markets in real time—even if their audience is spread around the globe. And of course, social media is a valuable tool for personal branding as well—but there is more to the process than simply signing up for Facebook and hoping for the best. Like everything in business, the effective use of social media requires a cohesive strategy. Below are several important elements: 1) Start by identifying your objectives. What do you hope to accomplish through your social media presence? Are you hoping to directly sell products and services? (Note: in-your-face sales tactics ...read more Capitalize on Your Points of Differentiation to Create a Powerful Personal Brand Posted: Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 A primary objective of every personal branding campaign is to create a brand that helps you stand out from the crowd. A strong personal brand is both distinctive and memorable—which means that it is essential that your brand highlights traits or talents that make you unique. To accomplish this, it’s important to identify your personal points of differentiation and to identify several that can be incorporated into your personal brand. For instance: Do you have a unique educational background? Perhaps you attended a prestigious college or earned a prestigious degree? Or maybe you are a lifelong learner and have acquired multiple degrees. If your educational background makes you uniquely qualified to provide services to your market, emphasize it! You spent plenty of time and money pursuing your ...read more Lebron James is Back—What Can He Teach You About Your Personal Brand? Posted: Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1804460/lebron-james-is-back-what-can-he-teach-you-about-your-personal-brand The NBA season tipped off on Christmas day, which meant a return to the spotlight for Lebron James and the Miami Heat. As you probably know, Lebron James generated controversy (not to mention numerous headlines) last season with his decision to publically jilt the Cleveland Cavaliers in favor of the Miami Heat. In the process, Lebron’s personal brand evolved substantially—from a fan favorite, to a villain, to a gradually “rehabbed” image this offseason. There are a number of lessons that are relevant to business owners seeking to build a strong personal brand in 2012. Below are three of the most important. 1) If you’ve got bad news, ...read more Do You Have a Plan… and a System? Posted: Thursday, December 8th, 2011 Every successful personal branding campaign features two components: a plan, and a system to ensure that the plan is successfully implemented. Without both of these components, no branding campaign will work. This should be an obvious point, but you’d be amazed at how many business owners approach branding (and marketing in general) with only one half of the equation. There are some that have a great vision and an aggressive plan to brand themselves as an expert in their field—but that fail to create systems to ensure that their plan is executed. Then there are others who utilize systems to get things done, for instance, posting on their blog twice per month, using Twitter, speaking at networking events—but that don’t have any overarching strategic purpose behind their ...read more Netflix and the Power of Perception Posted: Thursday, December 1st, 2011 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1797961/netflix-and-the-power-of-perception Over the last couple of months, Netflix has undergone a major brand transformation—and not in a good way. They’ve gone from a trendy, convenient video provider to a bumbling, greedy, corporate entity—and the significance of this transformation has shown itself in terms of cancelled subscriptions (over 800,00 accounts lost in the third quarter alone) and a plunging stock price (a drop of nearly 75% since July). What caused this massive fall from grace? At its core, of course, were financial challenges. Netflix is facing increased competition and higher operating costs. But Netflix leadership made a fatal mistake while planning their response to these challenges—they failed to consider the power ...read more Personal Branding 101: “But I Don't Need a Personal Brand" Posted: Monday, November 21st, 2011 I once had a business owner tell me, “Nick, I don’t need a personal brand. My business isn’t flashy and neither am I. My customers know me as trustworthy, honest, and reliable—what more do I need than that?” What he didn’t realize is that, in stating that he didn’t need a personal brand, he had just identified his personal brand! Namely, this business owner is known to be “trustworthy, honest, and reliable.” I share this story to correct the misconception that a personal brand is something only for Hollywood celebrities and public figures. The reality is this: everyone has a personal brand. Your personal brand is simply the collection of thoughts and emotions that your friends, family members, customers, clients, prospects, and competitors have whenever you cross ...read more Lock Out Your Competition With a Strong Personal Brand Posted: Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 A strong personal brand provides many benefits to business owners—but one of the most valuable is that a strong personal brand allows you to effectively lock out the competition within your market. A well-built personal brand will establish a business owner as the leading expert in his (or her) market, will keep him at the forefront of customer’s minds, allows him to receive valuable media coverage, and inspires trust. Here’s how: 1) A strong personal brand establishes you as the leading expert in your market. Your customers want to work with an expert—that’s simply human nature. Think about it for a moment—if you had to choose a new doctor, and cost wasn’t an issue, who would you choose? Chances are, you’d look for the most well-respected, ...read more Get More Mileage Out of Your Brand Posted: Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 A strong personal brand is incredibly valuable for a business owner. A well-developed personal brand allows you to lock out the competition in your market—and it enables you to stop competing based on price. In other words, you can charge higher prices than the competition, and still win the business. However, it’s important to understand that a strong personal brand alone won’t provide the results you are looking for. Your personal brand is a tool—it’s a part of your overall marketing strategy. It’s a huge part, to be sure, but it must be combined with other marketing strategies in order to deliver maximum results. Below are several effective ways to accomplish this: 1) Incorporate your personal brand into speeches and public events. Whether you’re speaking to ...read more Have Fun With Your Personal Brand! Posted: Friday, October 21st, 2011 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1787569/have-fun-with-your-personal-brand You recognize the importance of building a strong personal brand—otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this blog entry. But have you found a way to make personal branding fun? Quite frankly, branding is much less effective when you view it as an inflexible job, something that you have to do on a regular basis. Your audience will identify branding that feels forced and artificial, and are going to be more attracted to a brand that appears genuine, vibrant, and fun. So how can you make your personal branding fun? 1) Make sure that your brand represents your personality and your interests. If you asked your friends to describe you, how ...read more Personal Branding: Relationships Are Key Posted: Tuesday, September 27th, 2011 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1782187/personal-branding-relationships-are-key As you know, personal branding is all about building credibility, visibility, and establishing yourself as an expert in your field. But there is another element of personal branding which is often overlooked, and that is relationships. In fact, I would go as far as to say that personal branding that doesn’t create and nurture relationships is almost useless. Creating a relationship with a target customer often turns him or her into a prospect, and nurturing that relationship can turn the prospect into a customer. Strong relationships with referral sources often lead directly to more great prospects. And the relationships you nurture with colleagues can be an invaluable source ...read more Personal Branding Tips: Three Reasons You Need to be on YouTube Posted: Tuesday, September 6th, 2011 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1777410/personal-branding-tips-three-reasons-you-need-to-be-on-youtube As technology continues to evolve, video is becoming more and more prevalent across the internet. Even five years ago, filming and publishing professional-grade video content was much more difficult than it is today. From a personal branding standpoint, video is a fantastic tool as it allows your audience to see your face and hear your voice… instead of simply reading text. Below are three great reasons why, if you are serious about personal branding, you need to be on YouTube: 1) Video allows you to connect with your audience in a way no other medium can. Blogging is great. So is a strong social media presence and well-written ...read more Personal Branding: It's the Details that Count Posted: Thursday, August 18th, 2011 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1773630/personal-branding-its-the-details-that-count There are plenty of misconceptions when it comes to personal branding, but I have found one to be particularly damaging: the idea that personal branding is nothing more than how you dress and the first impression you make on an audience. While it is true that your personal appearance and the impression you have on those around you are both important, the reality is that personal branding is all about the details. When you create a brand, you are telling a story. It does you no good to build a “mostly strong” brand--because the details that you get wrong will undermine the brand you are trying to build. Have you ever ...read more Rebranding 101 Posted: Monday, August 8th, 2011 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1771299/rebranding-101 Rebranding is a drastic action that's is rarely necessary. But nonetheless, it's sometimes the only option...so today we are going to walk through that process. Below are the essential first steps in the rebranding process. 1) Understand your market. The essential goal of branding is to differentiate yourself from your competition. Therefore, before you do anything else, spend time thoroughly researching your market. Understand the branding strategies of your competition. Evaluate which brands have been successful--and why they’ve been successful. 2) Identify your niche in the marketplace. Before kicking off your rebranding campaign, it’s essential that you know exactly which segment of your market you are aiming for. Which ...read more Four Hidden Branding Opportunities Posted: Friday, July 1st, 2011 Branding is all about repetition, right? (If you have been paying attention to this blog, you know that the answer to this question is yes!) Whether it is your logo, your picture, or your writing—the more your customers and your market are exposed to your brand, the more powerful it becomes. That’s the reasoning behind many of the campaigns I help my clients run—social media, blogging, article publishing… it’s all about getting their names out there regularly. However, if you focus only on the “big” branding tactics, you overlook many less obvious but powerful branding opportunities. Below are four of my favorite hidden branding opportunities: 1) Email signature. How many times per week do your clients see your signature? For many of you, that number will ...read more Personal Branding: When Is It Time to Rebrand? Posted: Monday, June 20th, 2011 There are times in business and in life when it is time to simply start over. A new career, a new relationship, a new location—sometimes, it’s time for something new. This holds true in the world of personal branding, too. There are times when, for whatever reason, it is simply not worth continuing in the same direction. While this is a last resort, rebranding can be an exciting opportunity to completely revolutionize your business. Below are questions to help you determine whether it is time to rebrand: 1) Does your brand still differentiate you from the competition? The core purpose of branding is to separate yourself from the rest of your market. If your brand is no longer unique, it may be time to rebrand. 2) Has ...read more Personal Branding: Make it a Habit Posted: Thursday, June 2nd, 2011 Personal branding doesn’t happen automatically. Building a strong brand takes intentional effort. Today, a strong brand includes an active social media presence in addition to more traditional branding efforts. Effective branding takes time and effort—there’s no getting around it. I’ve spoken to many business owners who recognize the importance of a strong brand, but simply fail to devote the necessary time on a consistent basis. Here’s a secret: your branding campaign doesn’t demand hours of attention every day—in fact, taking ten or fifteen minutes to engage your Twitter followers may be enough most days. What your branding campaign does require is consistency—you need to be active multiple times per week, if not daily. And there is only one ...read more Personal Branding Doesn’t Have to Be a Chore Posted: Monday, May 23rd, 2011 It’s unfortunate that many consultants and branding experts portray personal branding as a serious, difficult process. The truth is that not only can personal branding be fun—but it is actually most effective when you are having fun with it. So today we are going to look at ways to make your personal branding efforts more fun as well as more successful. 1) Be yourself. Many business owners make the mistake of building a serious, all-business personal brand. And while the core of your brand has to be your business expertise, a boring brand is simply not going to be memorable. So spice it up. Showcase your sense of humor. Share some opinions that may surprise people. Don’t hesitate to ...read more Personal Branding Tips: Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Posted: Friday, May 20th, 2011 We have spent plenty of time going over branding strategies and techniques in this space—so today we are going to take a different approach. We are going to focus on common mistakes that I have seen over the years, and I’ll tell you how to avoid them. As you know, each time you interact with the outside world you have the opportunity to strengthen your personal brand. Of course, the reverse is also true—every interaction also presents an opportunity to undermine the brand you have worked so hard to build. Below are five common mistakes—make sure you are not falling victim: 1) Straying from the core of your brand. This is probably the most common mistake made by business owners. We ...read more Why Media Kills Most Small Businesses Posted: Thursday, May 5th, 2011 Inevitably, one of the first questions I get asked by new clients, or even just casual acquaintances, is, “how do I get on TV?” And I’m usually met with a blank stare or a really generic answer when I follow up their question, with my own, “why do you want to get on TV?” Their answer is almost always one of the following: 1. I just want to get out there more 2. I need some exposure for our product/service 3. I’ve always just thought that if we got on TV, our business would explode Getting on TV can do all of these things for you, but most people miss out on the fact that getting on TV, by itself, isn’t a very sound marketing strategy. In order to make you understand this, ...read more Personal Branding Online: Dealing With Criticism Posted: Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 I talk about social media all the time in this space, and you’ve often heard me talk about the incredible personal branding opportunities offered by blogs and social media. But like most things in life, while there are great benefits to branding interactively over the internet, there are drawbacks. And in the case of social media and blogging, the drawbacks are the other side of the coin that makes those platforms so valuable to begin with—namely, the real time and interactive nature of conversation. Every business would love to have a “viral” campaign—a video or other promotional material that explodes in popularity and is viewed by millions of people in the span of a couple of days. Social media makes this ...read more The Biggest Mistake Most Business Owners Make: Failure To Control The Conversation Posted: Monday, April 25th, 2011 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1748833/the-biggest-mistake-most-business-owners-make-failure-to-control-the-conversation In this blog series we've covered positioning and how if you position yourself correctly you'll have no competition. We've covered how to build credibility, and I even gave you my million dollar secret for media success and our formula for the business trifecta. We've laid it all out. But the third and final pillar of the Brand or Die triad is what ties it all together. To refresh you, the first two pillars are Positioning and Credibility. The final pillar is Community. Here's the secret: when you build community, you build value. You can base a community off of anything. A community is a group of people who have ...read more Twitter for Personal Branding Posted: Friday, April 8th, 2011 You’re using Twitter, right? Or if you’re not, you’ve at least heard of it. In the last couple of years, Twitter has exploded in popularity along with other social media giants like Facebook and LinkedIn. Twitter represents a great opportunity for anyone with an internet connection to reach an audience virtually unlimited in size—making it the perfect personal branding tool. If you haven’t begun branding through Twitter yet, now is the time to jump in. It’s very easy to create your profile and get started—but below are some often overlooked tips to help you make the most of your branding efforts on Twitter: 1) Choose the right picture. The space for your picture on Twitter is small—so anything other than a ...read more What Can Apple Teach Us About Branding? Posted: Friday, April 1st, 2011 Another month, another successful product release for Apple. As you’ve surely heard, Apple released their iPad 2 earlier this month amidst great fanfare. Sales have been brisk, and are expected to remain strong many months into the future. Here’s a question for you: how many other companies can grab instant media attention simply by announcing the release of a new product? Do Toshiba users breathlessly search the blogosphere for hints related to next year’s laptop model? How many people line up outside the Sprint store for the release of the latest BlackBerry smartphone? Clearly Apple is doing something that very few contemporaries can do. This success hasn’t happened by accident—it’s a result of a deliberate branding and marketing ...read more Developing Your Personal Brand: Make Sure It's Unique Posted: Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 We’ve talked quite a bit about the process of defining and building your personal brand. If you’ve been following my blog and reading my articles, you know that your personal brand can be identified by answering the following question: when people hear my name, what springs to mind? You know that the first step to building your brand is to identify the traits you’d like to be known for. And that brings us to a point that can derail your branding efforts if it’s not addressed—does your brand stand out? You may have a strong personal brand—but if it doesn’t separate you from the pack it’s not going to be much use. Effective personal branding is all about highlighting the ...read more Video: The 4 Letter Business Word That You NEED! Posted: Thursday, March 10th, 2011 Personal branding expert Nick Nanton talks about the four letter business word that you need! Check back often for more business, marketing and personal branding videos from Nick Nanton! read more Personal Branding: Make the Most Out of LinkedIn Posted: Tuesday, March 8th, 2011 Facebook and Twitter seem to be the brightest stars in the social media universe, at least for the moment. But equally important from a personal branding standpoint is LinkedIn. In fact, when it comes to your career prospects, LinkedIn can have a much greater impact than either Facebook or Twitter. So today I’m going to share personal branding tips specifically aimed at LinkedIn… I hope you find these helpful! 1) Completely fill out your profile. You know that often-irritating little reminder on the right side of your LinkedIn home page, the bar that shows how “complete” your profile is? Don’t stop working on your profile until it’s at 100%. Many LinkedIn users don’t bother to do this—so not only will you ...read more Personal Branding: Write Your E-Book Posted: Friday, March 4th, 2011 When it comes to personal branding, if you truly want to separate yourself from others in your field, you need to go beyond the norm. Most people that are serious about their branding have a blog, a website, a social media presence, etc. Each of those tools are powerful and I highly recommend them, as you know. But to truly brand yourself as THE go-to expert in your niche, it takes more. Two great ways to do it: write a book, or regularly appear on TV. Are those doable for you? If so, great, get moving! (If you ARE interested in writing a real book, you can start by checking out www.CelebrityPressPublishing.com for expert tips on the fastest, ...read more VIDEO: From the Outside Looking In Posted: Friday, February 25th, 2011 Nick Nanton discusses the importance of looking to the outside in life and business to achieve success. Check back often for more business, marketing and personal branding videos from Nick Nanton! read more VIDEO: Personal Branding Expert Tip: Lessons from the 53rd Annual Grammy Award Posted: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 Nick Nanton gives personal branding tips from the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards: Hope you enjoyed Nick's personal branding take on this year's Grammy Awards! Check back for more personal branding videos! read more Personal Branding Lessons from Lady Gaga Posted: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011 Attending the Grammy awards in Los Angeles earlier this month, I had the opportunity to rub elbows with some of the brightest stars in show business. While I’ve often talked about the importance of personal branding in the world of celebrities and entertainment, I was again reminded just how well Lady Gaga markets herself. Even in her glamorous world, Lady Gaga manages to stand apart from the crowd. And while she is a talented performer, she’s not the best ever. There is more to her rise to fame than simply her musical abilities. Below are some of the personal branding lessons we can all learn from Lady Gaga: 1) Live your brand 24/7. Everybody knows about the outrageous costumes Lady Gaga ...read more The Business Trifecta and the Secret formula for Media Success Posted: Thursday, February 17th, 2011 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1727569/the-business-trifecta-and-the-secret-formula-for-media-success In today's post, as promised, we're going to reveal the secret formula for media success. But, before we get into that there's three things you have to do to grow your business--media, marketing, and PR. Let's cover how many people make the same avoidable mistakes. A lot of people spend a ton of money on creating media. Let's look the example using video. A business will hire a video production company. They'll spend oodles of money to try to get a great looking video and then when the final video is delivered, they are often in a bind. They're now ...read more Have You Defined Your Personal Brand? Posted: Friday, February 4th, 2011 What do you stand for? What is your personal brand? I’ve spoken and written plenty about the subject—now it’s time for you to perform a self evaluation. Ask colleagues or friends the following questions (if you’re not comfortable asking them, do your best to answer them honestly from their perspective.) 1) Describe my personality in three words. 2) What are my most valuable skills? 3) When you hear my name, what single word comes to mind first? 4) What makes me different from everyone else? 5) Describe my attitude in one word. Make sure that you ask several people these questions so that you can develop an accurate picture. The answers to these questions will paint a strong picture of the personal brand you’ve been broadcasting. Look at the results—are they what you ...read more Be a Movie Star: Using YouTube for Personal Branding Posted: Monday, January 31st, 2011 When it comes to personal branding, there aren’t very many tools more powerful than YouTube. For a viewer, seeing your face and hearing your voice is much more impactful than simply reading your tweets or Facebook updates. On the other hand, branding through video requires more knowledge and time than simply using Twitter. And it can be intimidating—putting yourself out there for the world to see isn’t easy. Here are some tips to help you get started on YouTube: 1) Invest in good equipment. Nothing will sabotage your videos as quickly as poor sound or visual quality. You don’t need to spend a fortune, but make sure that your setup allows for a sharp picture and clear audio. 2) Don’t ramble. You ...read more The Importance of Consistency Posted: Wednesday, January 5th, 2011 One of the challenges of personal branding is staying focused. As we’ve talked about in the past, an effective brand is focused on a few traits or qualities. When you think Rolex, you think “expensive, high quality timepiece.” If Rolex sold cheap watches, their brand would be destroyed. Imagine the impact on the Wal-Mart brand if they began selling high end, expensive furniture. Or imagine if Taco Bell began selling hot dogs. In each of these cases, a strong, focused brand would be weakened by trying to do too much. The key to a strong brand is focus… and that goes for your personal brand as well. If you’re hoping to build a strong personal brand, the ...read more Don't Get Lost in the Crowd Posted: Monday, January 3rd, 2011 The emergence of social media has been fantastic for personal branding. Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like, everybody has the ability to create a platform to project their personal brand to an unlimited audience. This accessibility is a double-edged sword, however, because now seemingly everybody is doing it. Over the last several years, literally millions of people have begun establishing their personal brand through Facebook, Twitter, and other sites. So how can you avoid being lost in the crowd? Keep reading for tips on how to stand out in the crowded world of social media: 1) Focus on relationships. Twitter and Facebook are full of individuals and companies that are trying to establish their brand and sell their products ...read more Personal Branding Through Facebook Posted: Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 When it comes to personal branding through social media, most professionals gravitate towards LinkedIn and Twitter. Despite the fact that Facebook is the dominant social media platform, LinkedIn and Twitter are often seen as better suited for personal branding. This is in large part due to the perception of Facebook as a “Family and Friends” network. While LinkedIn and Twitter are certainly great platforms for personal branding, Facebook can also be used effectively for this purpose. Below are several tips to help you get started: 1) Don’t hesitate to be “friends” with colleagues. OK, this one is a bit complicated—there are many professionals that prefer to use Facebook only for personal activity. This is understandable… after all, most of us keep ...read more Five Easy Ways to Destroy Your Personal Brand Posted: Tuesday, December 21st, 2010 We talk about brand building often in this space. Today, rather than discussing tactics to build your brand, we’re going to go over common mistakes to avoid. These are common habits that will make it hard to build your brand—if they don’t destroy it altogether: 1) Negativity. Regardless of the type of brand you are trying to build, negativity is poisonous. Potential clients don’t want to work with an individual that is overly negative, and companies don’t want to hire negative employees. Don’t get on Facebook and complain about a friend or a business that mistreated you. When you’re on the phone with a client, don’t spend time complaining—not even about the weather, the local sports team, or anything else. ...read more Defining Your Personal Brand Posted: Monday, November 29th, 2010 I devote a substantial amount of time talking about personal branding in this space. However, I’ve realized that though nearly everybody has heard of personal branding, many people aren’t clear on exactly what it is and how it is defined. A great way to understand the concept is as follows… when somebody hears your name, what pops into their head? That’s your brand, for better or for worse. Try a few examples: when you hear the name Michael Jordan, what do you think? Competitor? Basketball player? Winner? How about Nelson Mandela? Obviously Nelson Mandela and Michael Jordan are better known than most of us. But everyone has the opportunity to develop and project their personal ...read more Build a Better Career With a Strong Personal Brand Posted: Monday, November 22nd, 2010 I’ve written about personal branding often. If you’re a business owner, celebrity, or executive of a large company, you no doubt understand the importance of your personal brand. On the other hand, if you’re an employee and not the face of an organization, you might question the importance of your brand. Let me state this loud and clear: personal branding is an essential element of career building. Whether you are an accountant, a restaurant manager, or a school teacher, your personal brand can play a critical role in determining the success of your career. If you haven’t been paying attention to your personal brand, don’t panic. Technologies that make it easy to establish your personal brand are ...read more Conan O’Brien: Social Media Success Story Posted: Wednesday, November 17th, 2010 I talk often about the importance of social media for marketing and personal branding, so today I thought I’d share a success story… Conan O’Brien. Whether you are a fan of his show or not, you probably remember what happened to him early in 2010. Conan had just taken over The Tonight Show, but NBC executives were concerned with his low ratings and decided to replace him with Jay Leno. Conan wasn’t allowed to appear on TV for 9 months—a length of time sure to destroy his public visibility and marketability. Soon after, O’Brien signed a deal to host a show on the cable channel TBS. At that point, it looked as if Conan was going to have to ...read more Personal Branding: Using Your Blog Posted: Monday, November 15th, 2010 You’ve heard me talk about the many ways to project your personal brand, but here is another great one for you: your blog. You’re probably familiar with the countless great reasons to blog—blogging can drive traffic to your website, can help with SEO, keeps you engaged with the online community. However, many people underestimate the importance of blogging as a means of broadcasting your personal brand. There are several obvious ways to brand your blog, including the design of the blog, your picture, and more… but today we are going to cover some less common ways of branding yourself through your blog. 1) Commenting on other popular blogs in your niche. An effective blogger will spend MORE time commenting on other ...read more The Rise of Internal Evangelists Posted: Friday, November 5th, 2010 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1695023/the-rise-of-internal-evangelists In our last blog on FastCompany.com, we talked about putting some personality in your marketing, but we wanted to expound a bit due to some questions we got. This whole concept fits in very well with the new transparency movement, which you've undoubtedly heard a lot about recently, because letting people know who you really are is an important part of transparency. But you might be saying, "Well I'm not a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker, or (insert what you do here) so that won't work for me." Or, "but I run a large company, and it's not just about me." What we want to share ...read more Does Your Business Offer a Payment Plan? Posted: Friday, October 8th, 2010 In this economy, lump-sum payments are becoming more and more difficult for people to swallow. Often it isn’t the actual cost of something that prevents a person from purchasing a product or a service but the inability to cough up a large lump sum up front to pay for that product or service they want. After more than three decades, even Disney (the family Mecca) has expended its branding strategy to include offering a family-friendly payment plan for Florida’s season pass holders. Gasp $275.84 to purchase a seasonal pass for Disney, ouch. But $15.74 per month to take the family to see the Mouse any time they want, now that’s something to think about. That’s what, three lattes a month? Do you have a ...read more Personal Branding: Building Your Brand With Video Posted: Tuesday, October 5th, 2010 In our last blog, Personal Branding: A Great Picture Can Go A Long Way, we discussed the importance of consistently using a quality photo of yourself to help build the foundation of your brand – not to mention a good first impression. Now, with that in mind, just imagine how video can build upon that! The age-old quest for small businesses has been to separate themselves from the pack, and offer a new and unique experience to their customers. With personal branding, we recognize that building your business around your personality can be the most unique attribute you have – you are the only you! Use your personality to let people get to know you. Once people get to know and ...read more Personal Branding: A Great Picture Can Go A Long Way Posted: Friday, October 1st, 2010 If you want people to know you, they have to SEE you! Choosing the right photo of yourself and using it consistently can be one of the easiest and most effective things you can do right now to provide a foundation for you personal branding strategy. Here are a couple tips on using the right photo to represent you and your personal brand. Quality Matters The easiest way to instantly lose credibility with prospective customers or clients is to showcase an unprofessional photo. When I visit a new website, or even a twitter page, the first thing I look at is the photo. It bothers me when I see professional people using unprofessional photos. I instantly think that if they didn’t take the ...read more Personal Branding Tip: Put a Little PERSONALITY in It! Posted: Monday, September 13th, 2010 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1687239/personal-branding-tip-put-a-little-personality-in-it Many people who we come into contact with have amazing personalities, in person, and then we go check out their content (their blogs, articles, videos, books, etc), and it's totally flat and stale--or what we often describe as very institutional or corporate feeling. We're going to tell you to do the exact opposite. That is not at all what your clients and prospects really want. They want to know who you really are. Think about it this way, the way that you connect with people is really based on a scale of how much ...read more Personal Branding: Something Needed? YOU Provide It! Posted: Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 I recently came across a story in a Jacksonville, Fla. newspaper about a soon-to-be opened specialty shop. The shop is called “Sauce-a-holics” and they will be selling gourmet salsas, hot sauces, rubs, snacks, etc. What caught my attention was the story behind the opening of the shop and how it relates to personal branding and branding companies. One of the owners, Don Smith, was looking online for some Christmas gifts for a colleague, and was surprised to find a huge niche market of hot sauce and salsa connoisseurs. After spending a good portion of his money on shipping, he thought that it would have been great to just go to a local store and purchase the products. When he looked ...read more Personal Branding: Protecting Your Brand Posted: Friday, September 3rd, 2010 We live in strange times. It’s hard not to turn on a radio or a television set without seeing advertisements for identity theft protection or reputation defense. It’s not only imperative now to physically protect our home, family and possessions – it’s also extremely important to protect our virtual “possessions” as well as our reputation. With the exponential growth of the Internet over the last 2 decades, the use of online social networking, paying bills online, and the vast personal information available through social media sites has made the risk of identity theft an increasingly growing problem. Our personal lives are quickly becoming a huge set of data points. Naturally, businesses, large and small, are no exception to this reality. There’s really ...read more Personal Branding Tip: Choose To Be Different! Posted: Thursday, August 26th, 2010 I love when I come across a story that shows a business thinking outside the box when it comes to their marketing. I recently heard an interview with one of the members of the band Cheap Trick. The band was preparing to do a string of 9 shows in Vegas where they will play the entire album of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, along with some of their own popular hits. This is interesting enough on it’s own, but what really stood out to me was a little interesting and humorous exchange at the end of the interview. When asked about their new album, front man Robin Zander proclaimed “Right now we have the number one 8-track in the world!” ...read more Personal Branding Tip: Forget What YOU Know Posted: Thursday, August 26th, 2010 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1682547/personal-branding-expert-tip-forget-what-you-know Watch the Video Blog from Nick here: Personal Branding Tip: Forget What YOU Know In my last blog for Fast Company, I explained to you that you have to display your expertise and all the ways you could do that. But I've had a bunch of emails and posts that have asked me, "But, Nick, where do I begin?" And here's where you've got to begin. You have to forget what you know. Now before you go off saying I'm crazy because I told you before to "get out of the business you're in" and now I'm telling you to "forget what you know", here's what's important--you ...read more Personal Branding Goes Gaga Posted: Monday, August 23rd, 2010 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1679211/personal-branding-goes-gaga Not satisfied with the small screen any more, reportedly Lady Gaga is looking to move to the big screen in what she hopes will be the next blockbuster music movie even though there is no script, producer, director, or plan. The slight negative tone to this blog is not to diminish the music star's ability to keep her career in the news and everyone guessing, "what's next"? Does anyone know, may be the better question. Naturally, an announcement of a potential movie deal is a long way from the appearance of one and hints of movies give Gaga and company many opportunities to continue to stir the press machine ...read more Hitting the Target in the Age of New Media Posted: Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 by J. W. Dicks, Esq. & Nick Nanton, Esq. Akira Mori, president and chief executive officer of Mori Trust Company, Limited, said, "Past success stories are generally not applicable to new situations. We must continually reinvent ourselves, responding to changing times with innovative new business models." Nothing could ring truer in this New Economy where seemingly every attempt to draw on past success strategies is met with less than stellar performances. The reason for that result is that economic change, while appearing to be the same, is always based on a different set of circumstances than ever before; the flaw is to assume "a recession is a recession just like the last one" and that the results are the same each time. They are not. Our ...read more Are You a One-Hit Wonder? Posted: Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 Many of you know that I have been involved with music my whole life. I’ve learned that the music business is pretty much like any other industry. A lot of the same strategies we use with our branding agency, I used in one way or another managing bands and artists over that last several years. I’ve always tried to help others, whether it is in music or other areas of business where developing a personal brand is key to long-term success. I’ve always asked if they want to be a “one-hit wonder” or a “hall of famer.” Remember these gems? 1974 - “Kung Fu Fighting” Carl Douglas 1983 - “Too Shy” Kajagoogoo 1992 - “I’m Too Sexy” Right Said Fred All of these ...read more Tony Robbins's Personal Branding "Breakthrough" Posted: Monday, August 2nd, 2010 This blog was originally posted and featured on FastCompany.com. The original post can be found here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1675170/tony-robbins-perosnal-branding-breakthrough By Nick Nanton, Esq. and JW Dicks, Esq. If you missed Tony Robbins's new mainstream premiere of Breakthrough, his new reality TV show, you missed the evolution of the blending of infomercial, reality TV, and soap opera. While these adjectives describing Tony Robbins's new show could be viewed as negative, we don't intend them that way. It is the representation of the re-launch of Tony's career in personal development and the launch of a new and powerful blended medium. Had this show been an infomercial, there would have been a strong call to action for viewers to buy the hot product Tony was selling. This may have resulted in ...read more Are You Using The Media? You Should Be. Posted: Friday, June 11th, 2010 Did you know right now there are journalists sitting at their desks wondering what’s new that they can write about? It’s true. Having worked with a number of journalists over the years, I can’t tell you how many times I have been told that the information I just provided is exactly what they needed to meet a deadline. Journalists, like potential clients, are at the mercy of the information they find. When information comes to them, it makes their job easier. Easier job = happy journalist. So what does this mean to you? It means that if you are marketing and branding your company, you need to know what journalists are looking for and be ready to supply it. Maybe it’s information about a grand opening, ...read more How to Choose Your Avatar Posted: Friday, April 16th, 2010 No, we are not talking about picking a movie time here, but if you saw the movie, then you know that an Avatar is a representation of yourself. Wiki says, “An avatar is a computer user's representation of himself/herself or alter ego, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games, a two-dimensional icon (picture) or a one-dimensional username used on Internet forums and other communities... It is an object representing the user.” Now that we have that straight… Choosing the right avatar to represent your personal brand is just as important as selecting a logo for your company. Perhaps more important in the world of social media because that is what people see every time they correspond with you on Twitter, ...read more Put Your Best Image Forward Posted: Monday, March 29th, 2010 One of the most important personal branding tools is a professional photo. Please note that I said professional photo; the image you use for your personal brand should be taken by a professional to ensure that you are portraying the right image. There are photographic styles for every image, but a quick snapshot taken by your friend with poor lighting, a busy background and other people in the image is probably not the best image for your brand. A friend in the publishing industry tells the story of a famous actor – I dare not name – who was to appear in a magazine. When a request was made for the actor’s photo, he sent a picture of himself at what appeared to be a ...read more Your Direct-Mail Campaign is Only as Good as Your List Posted: Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 We talk a lot about technology because it's new and sexy, but sometimes it's important to refocus on the basics. The basics may not be as sexy, but they have built great businesses for years and are still working for branding and marketing in the new economy. Even in our highly digital world, branding consultants will tell you that the direct-mail campaign is still one of the most important tools in a branding agency’s bag. But even if you plan the best campaign, if your campaign doesn’t reach your intended recipients, you might as well throw your cash out the window. When your mail piece arrives at the post office, it is feed into a machine to read the address and give it a barcode for ...read more What Lance Is Doing That You Aren’t. Posted: Monday, March 8th, 2010
An Audience of One Posted: Thursday, February 18th, 2010 What is that one mistake that people, usually unknowingly, make when it comes to marketing themselves? Press play below to find out! I was talking to a client the other day and I realized something that I wanted to share with you. It’s the concept of the Audience of One. As most of you know, my background is in the music business, and in the music business, everyone wants what? A record deal! In the business world, I found that everyone wants a book publishing deal and seemingly everyone in the world wants a reality television show deal. Why is that? Well, when I really break it ...read more Do You Exist on "the 2010 Web?" Watch this to find out! Posted: Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 As we wrap up 2009, I thought I would give you my predictions for 2010 and give you a heads up about something you may never have thought about that could be severely affecting the growth of your business. It's a big problem, with a simple solution. To learn the solution, watch this 2 minute video I prepared for you: As always, I'm here to help and I wish you a very safe and prosperous New Year. ~ Nick read more Have you met the 3 foot giant? Posted: Monday, November 9th, 2009 I don't often post entries that aren't about some sort of way to grow your business directly, but every now and then, something comes along that is simply worth sharing. First, let me pose a question to you: Would you trade places with a 3 foot man in a wheelchair? Before you say "NO WAY!"you need to watch this video from a friend of mine, Sean Stephenson (it's only about 3 minutes and TRUST ME, it's worth watching): Seriously, just watching this 3 minute video of Sean, ...read more ADWEEK: Business Leaders Most Persuasive Celebrity Endorsers Posted: Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 I just got this from Michael Fishman at Juniper Pond Media: It's an article written by AdWeek that shows that Business Leaders are the "Most Persuasive" Celebrity Endorsers of products in ads. Business Leaders Ranked Highest with 37% of the "Most Persuasive" vote, followed by athletes (21 percent), TV/movie stars (18 percent), singers/musicians (14 percent) and former political figures (10 percent). Read the entire article here: http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/data-center/research/e3i26911e62ce1ee0f7592607732d0b6d57 So, that leads me to the question, what are you doing to become the business celebrity that endorses your own products or services?! If nothing, you need to start seriously considering it. read more Richard Branson, Lindsay Lohan, Jay Abraham and the New Rule of Engagement Posted: Sunday, November 1st, 2009 I just got back from an amazing week of building relationships.
It started in Los Angeles Monday night when I attended Richard Branson Direct to Fan: Creating an Effective Offer Page and Fan Acquisition Techniques by Mike King Posted: Saturday, September 12th, 2009 Although this is an article for fledgling bands, don't fool yourself. It's a great article that you can take some real cues from to help you market better using social media combined with solid marketing principles. Thanks to @collinsmatt for sending it my way! Here's the link: http://blog.tunecore.com/2009/09/direct-to-fan.html read more Become a Journalist, Quickly and Easily with YouTube Posted: Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 I was reading through a Mashable post today, as I usually do-- and by the way if you don't read their stuff, you should be! It's the best stuff out on the web on social media trends and tips. In any event, today they had a post titled "The Journalist's Guide to YouTube" that had some great tips in it, but the one that really caught my eye was the last one was a section titled "How Journalists Can Use YouTube" that discussed a really cool way for people all over the world to broadcast local news, and a link to educational content that will teach you how to do it well. They mentioned that one of the toughest things for ...read more Great Video Tool Posted: Thursday, August 27th, 2009 If you're looking for something a little different for your website, whether it be for marketing or for pleasure, you've got to check out Animoto It turns your photos and videos into movie preview style videos. They look better than just about anything else I've seen. Enjoy! read more Great Video Tool Posted: Thursday, August 27th, 2009 If you're looking for something a little different for your website, whether it be for marketing or for pleasure, you've got to check out Animoto It turns your photos and videos into movie preview style videos. They look better than just about anything else I've seen. Enjoy! read more Think Social Media is a fad? Posted: Monday, August 24th, 2009 Think again. I found this great video that gives you some hard facts. Check it out and let me know what you think. read more YOU Are the One Responsible for the Economic Recovery Posted: Thursday, August 13th, 2009 I just got back from New York City, where our first group of America’s PremierExperts® launched their book in Times Square! Thanks to your support we hit the best-seller list! We also had some great training sessions including a spectacular 3 hour social media marathon session with Peter Shankman from HelpAReporterOut.com on how he grew his following with social media from 0 to over 100,000 and built a million dollar business in a little over a year. Our final adventure was on a private yacht (the same one they used on the show The Apprentice!) out to the Statue of Liberty to celebrate our Entrepreneurial Freedom. (here is a link to a pic I took of the Statue of Liberty: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=59418242&id=2008767#/photo.php?pid=7973266&id=507820116...read more I’m a ________ (Insert Your Career Here), Not a Celebrity…or am I?! (Part Deux) Posted: Friday, August 7th, 2009 In my previous post, I discussed 3 strategies for becoming a Celebrity in your market niche to lock out your competition and increase your profits. Those strategies were: 1. Websites 2. Blogs 3. Articles If you haven’t read that post yet, you can read it by clicking here Now we’ll get to the other 2 that I promised you. Let’s get started: 4. Press Releases This is an easy concept, but most people miss it. So, you may want to read this part twice. People do not know what you are doing unless you tell them. It’s as simple as that. Did you land a big settlement? Did your practice just celebrate its 20th anniversary? Are you under new management? Are you opening a new location? Are you involved in a charitable cause? These are ...read more I’m a ________ (Insert Your Career Here), Not a Celebrity…or am I?! Posted: Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 When people I meet first learn that I Coach on the topic of Celebrity Branding®, many of them shut down almost instantly. It’s funny, because if there were one subject most American’s are obsessed with, if they would admit it (yes guys, you too!), it’s Celebrities. But I’m actually not talking about Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Oprah or Dr. Phil, I coach entrepreneurs, CEOs, professionals and many others how to charge more for the same services they are offering now, create recurring revenue streams in their businesses and lock out their competitors in their field of expertise. How, you ask? Using the power of Celebrity Branding®! Interested now?! Celebrity Branding® is a series of strategies used to get a specific market, those who ...read more Sales PREVENTION Skills Posted: Thursday, May 28th, 2009 This morning I went to breakfast with my dad for his birthday. So first of all, happy birthday Dad! But, afterword I was inspired to record a video, you can view it below, or keep reading to see what I talked about. But, our waitress was so unfriendly that I almost didn’t want to buy breakfast, and I was hungry! But our experience reminded me of a couple things that happened recently that I like to call “sales prevention.” And I do think some of the activity in this “new department” is responsible for the slump in many people’s businesses. The other day I was placing an order for some ...read more Check out IncSpring.com Posted: Friday, May 15th, 2009 It's a very cool website that allows you to pick up great brand concepts and designs-- sometimes even with domains! They'll even sell you an entire business concept! Here is a quick video I filmed about it, check it out: http://tinyurl.com/qtnznp read more THINGS YOU NEED TO SEE: Cool Gadget for Web Videos Posted: Thursday, May 7th, 2009 A friend of mine, Brook Pifer of www.Brook-Pifer.com, just sent me an Xshot Camera Extender today. If you are doing any flip videos or anything else where you need to video or photograph yourself, this is the best solution out there, it makes life so much easier! UPDATE: Now, FOR THE RECORD, I'm NOT suggesting that you need to use this thing in public, although the two friendly girls in the marketing image suggest that may be a great idea. LOL I'm suggesting that anywhere your comfort zone might let you use it (for me, that would be in my office), that it's an easy way to get a good image of yourself. It's never better than say...someone else you ...read more Texas and Australia Collide!!...??? Posted: Friday, March 27th, 2009 It's hard to believe that 1 week ago last night, Thursday night, I was in Austin at South By Southwest (SXSW), the biggest music festival in the U.S., rocking out to one of the bands I represent, "A Day to Remember." These guys have been tearing it up recently. Their most recent release hit #21 on Billboard's Top 200 records in February of this year. You can check out some video of them on youtube, there's lots of them out there! Be forewarned, they rock pretty hard and heavy :). But the story I'm going to tell you about actually happened exactly a week ago, on Friday morning, at one of the biggest brunches you can be invited to, the BMI SXSW ...read more All You Need in a Video (Part II) Posted: Thursday, March 5th, 2009 In my previous post "All You Need in a Video" I talked about the fact that a heartfelt video that connects with your prospects and clients, regardless of production value, is all you need in order to connect with your audience. Well, here is an example of me taking my own advice (notice that the birds weren't added sound effects! they were just part of the background, and I was still able to get my message across!) Here is a link to the video: http://www.celebritybrandingyou.com/cby-video/ read more Celebrity Branding You™ - Isn’t He Just Talking About Personality Driven Marketing? Posted: Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 I was being interviewed on Inc. 500 CEO, Chris Hurn's Small Business Success Strategies series, last week and he asked a question that I answer all too frequently in person, but I'm sure many of you have never heard my answer. What he essentially asked me is, “How is Celebrity Branding® different from personality branding, and the long-standing concept of a personality driven business?” While I can't summarize everything that Celebrity Branding® includes in one short article, let me tell you one of the main differences. The main difference is in the magnitude of focus and commitment you give to your positioning. You can have personality in any brand. But Celebrity Branding® is taking your personality and making you the focus, not the back-story ...read more Somewhat like on American Idol, "I'm going to Hollywood!" Posted: Friday, February 6th, 2009 I'm heading out to the GRAMMY's with my wife and my business partners tomorrow. We're really looking forward to it and we're actually staying right across from the Kodak Theater where they film the Idol finals. We even got invited to Ne-Yo's after-party. We'll let you know how that goes...
Anyhow, as I was packing, I was reminded of the last time I flew on a plane, a few weeks ago when I was coming back from France. I had so much time on the plane I actually ran out of things to do, watch, read etc, so I resorted to the airline's shopping catalogue...in german.
I saw an image very similar to this one:
ALL YOU NEED in a video! Posted: Monday, January 19th, 2009 I wanted to show you a video from none other than LeAnn Rimes. I went to her website because I'm actually going to be in Nashville on Thursday where she'll be hosting the finals of the Colgate Country Showdown on TV and one of our clients is in the Top 4 and is competing for the title. I'll let you know how it goes! But, in any event, check out the video she has up on her site: http://www.leannrimesworld.com/splash/splash_wicc.php It's to promote her song, "What I cannot Change." What I want you to notice is that even big stars don't always spend lots of money and time to get a great quality video up online. Many of us hide behind the fact that we ...read more It All Comes Down to This… Posted: Saturday, January 17th, 2009 I’m writing this at 5:50am at the Nashville airport, getting ready to hop a plane back to Orlando. I arrived yesterday afternoon to watch our client Johnny Bulford www.johnnybulford.com compete in the finals of the Colgate Country Showdown. It’s kind of like American Idol but it’s only for country music and it’s been going on a lot longer! It’s in its 27th year! Artists like Garth Brooks, Martina McBride, Leann Rymes, Billy Ray Cyrus and many others got their career starts in the Showdown. There were thousands of local and regional contests that all culminated in the final that was hosted last night, by Leann Rymes, with the top 5 winners from the final 5 regions. Johnny was the ...read more Building a Business on the Back of your Blockbuster Posted: Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 In the past several months I have been traveling the country and meeting with many highly successful business owners and entrepreneurs, including several "household names" that you would certainly recognize if I mentioned their names...but that's not the point of this blog. The point is that I'm going to teach you how to avoid making the big mistake that most people make at the height of their success. These celebrities, at one time or another, had millions of dollars media (radio, television, internet and newspaper), F-R-E-E media, talking about them and giving them publicity because what they had to offer, whether it was simply an entertaining personality, answers to a burning question the fans wanted to know, or the answer to a common problem the ...read more Do your clients think you would wash their kids in your kitchen sink? Posted: Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 What do all of these images have in common? Keep reading and I’ll tell you!
Meeting With George Ross Posted: Thursday, July 24th, 2008 I am writing this blog on my flight back from New York City after some great meetings. I flew up yesterday to speak at the New York/Northern New Jersey chapter of Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle on my book tour to promote Jack and my new book, Celebrity Branding You. You can check out some pictures here: http://tinyurl.com/6kvog9 When I finalized my trip to New York, I decided to take up George Ross, Donald Trump’s Lawyer and Chief Negotiator as well as his board room co-star on The Apprentice, on his offer to visit him at his office next time I was in the city. So I emailed George and we set up a time to visit yesterday morning. You can see ...read more A Funeral Home that has Members and the Secret to Moderate Success Posted: Thursday, June 19th, 2008 As I write this blog post I’m sitting in the exit row on an airplane coming back from my second trip to Baltimore this month (I also had to go to Cleveland for 2 days which was even more interesting!). The guy sitting next to me was looking for some calculus homework help…fate obviously placed him in the wrong seat! I could have spent the entire duration of the flight convincing him to throw in the towel and take up something useful, but hey, I can’t save everyone. Oh well… I can assure you the marketing conferences and meetings I have been attending have been well worth the trips or you would never get me to leave my wife and 2 sons to go to any such place! And yes, for ...read more Are you relevant? Posted: Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 I hope my subject line didn't make your heart skip a beat because you thought I was being rude, but my point is that this should be the exact question you ask yourself when trying to communicate with your "audience" of prospects and customers. If you can stay relevant, and integrate current events, pop culture and news items that your prospects and customers are paying attention to into your marketing, your message will be much better received and it will be more likely that your audience will act on your message. If you have been reading my posts and articles for the past few months, you'll notice that I have posted several times about American Idol. It’s currently the biggest show on TV, and I have ...read more American Idol 2008 Picks Posted: Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 Back on March 17th, on my Business Blog, I posted the following post: http://www.dicksnantonagency.com/blog/the-idol-factor.php When there were 10 left, I made my top 5 picks for American Idol. Interestingly enough I got the top 2 right and Brooke White did make the top 5. 3 out of 5 isn't bad odds for the music biz! I think David Archuletta will win, however, when he puts out his first record, if he tries to go too pop I believe he will be eaten alive. I believe he will do best in the A/C market with Josh Groban and Michael Buble. We'll have to wait and see. I do feel that David Cook will sell way more records, and that he's a more mainstream artist, but I don't think ...read more The Power of Connecting Posted: Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 During this time of constant media coverage of the impending Presidential election, I am constantly reminded of the words of Dr. Frank Luntz, world-renowned professor, political consultant, and author of the book Words that Work. In the book, Dr. Luntz discusses the “Beer Factor.” He says that, although many factors weigh into electing a President, one of the most important things a candidate can do to create a loyal following is to sit down and have a beer with potential voters. Bill Clinton was wildly successful due to his charisma and an overwhelming majority of people found him interesting whether or not they agreed with his past. Thus, he passed the Beer Factor test. The underlying principle here is that he had the ability ...read more Start the Conversation Posted: Monday, April 21st, 2008 It always amuses me when I go to a group meeting of some kind (like the last one I attended in Nashville - The GKIC SuperConference - in early April) and people walk up to me out of the blue and say things like "Hey Nick, how are you? Are the kids doing well? How have things been since that record deal you just negotiated? Is the band doing well?" This may sound like idle chatter, but what makes this exchange so fascinating is that often I have never spoken a word to this person in my life. Seriously. What I have done is started a conversation with them through blogs, articles, press releases ...read more Event Update: Songwriters and Sales Letters 2008 Posted: Monday, April 14th, 2008 .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Why YOU Are Such an Important Part of Celebrity Branding® Posted: Friday, March 28th, 2008 I spoke at the University of Florida’s Music Law Conference just a few weeks ago and the topic of discussion that surfaced (as it always does) was, “Where music is headed and is there a solution to stop piracy and free digital downloading?” When I gave my answer, there was a puzzled look on many faces, not because it was a profound answer, but more likely because it was an “I knew that!” kind of answer. The computer has made many things possible and many common tasks easier. But every sword cuts both ways, and the fact that digital data can be perfectly duplicated has wreaked havoc on many industries. Even though many industries have felt the effects of this phenomenon, one of ...read more The Idol Factor Posted: Monday, March 17th, 2008 About 30 million viewers tune in to watch American Idol each week. With significant interest and business in the music industry (and for a touch of guilty pleasure) I tune in each week and play "Armchair Record Exec" along with my wife, Kristina. I have even taken a stab at playing some "Fantasy Idol" and picking the winners. I had a good run at it last year but alas Sanjaya Malakar staying on the show led to my demise because I continued to pick him to get the axe each week, but much to my disgust (and my Fantasy Idol ranking) he stayed much longer than any of us expected! But I digress... The interesting thing about American Idol is, if you watch from ...read more The Secret Summit of Million Dollar Marketers Posted: Monday, February 18th, 2008 I just returned from a meeting that you probably had no idea existed. I had heard rumors of this meeting taking place in the past, but this time I too got the call to attend. The meeting took place in a midwestern town that was practically in the middle of nowhere. I assume this is because it was very inconspicuous and no one there would recognize the celebrities who were present, 20 of the best marketers in the world to be exact. I don’t know for sure how many total there were, but I do know there were at least 3 private jets at the airport from the members of this group. All that to tell you that this was not a vacation ...read more What's old is new again! Posted: Monday, February 18th, 2008 Continuing on the theme of one of the articles in the Dicks & Nanton Business Growth Report (if you aren’t getting it…you should be! So shoot us an email to let us know!) I wanted to take a minute to look at how “cyclical” opportunities can create astronomical revenue for your business. Let’s look at an example. It seems if you slap the word “organic” on any product these days you won’t be able to keep it in stock (and you’ll be able to charge about 10 times the price for it!). You can look at many industries from food to cosmetics and you’ll see that if organic products aren’t already the fastest growing sector, then they will be very soon. What is ...read more Product Placement and the Football Playoffs Posted: Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 Thanks to ad-eliminating “Tivo” and other fast forwarding DVR’s, expensive television ads are hurting and returns on investment are falling. To counter attack the loss, advertisers and the people that sell to them are creating new and different ways of placing your product directly in the main event. This is referred to as “product placement.” This weekend while both working and watching the football playoff games I had turned my attention to the post-game show. “What to my eyes did appear” but Jared …the spokesperson for Subway, giving live advice to all of the sports announcers about which one of the subway sandwiches sitting on the table would be the best for them to feast on. Yes, Jared was wearing his Colts game ...read more The conclusion to my story… Posted: Monday, November 12th, 2007 Last time we discussed how I was speaking with a sales person on the phone and right as I was warming up to her and asking her to tell me a little bit more about her services and fees, she “flipped the switch” and became a sales drone losing all hope of connecting with me and making the sale. If you didn’t get a chance to read that, you can click here to read it. Now for the solution: What should she have done? She should have told me “the story.” She should have taken the time to understand what I was trying to accomplish and then proceeded to paint me a picture about how much better my business would be 1, ...read more A Sales Story…with a Sad Ending Posted: Friday, October 19th, 2007 I took a call this morning that I was actually rather excited to take. We are marketing some medical products for a client of ours who is a physician and I got an interesting inquiry about marketing through an online community of physicians. This could be a great supplement to the other forms of marketing we are doing. So I took the call and a pleasant sales woman and I began to discuss how she could help us market our producs. From the moment I asked her about the different “packages” she turned into a sales drone. I ...read more Radiohead, The 4-Hour Work Week and the Importance of Raving Fans - From Copyblogger Posted: Friday, October 19th, 2007 Copyblogger continues to put out great content on a daily basis. this post really caught my attention because those of you who speak with me regularly know that I always encourage my clients to think about music and business in a congruent fashion because the music business is no different than any other business at its core. It also has some great commentary about why an indie act would even want to consider getting a record deal...or not. Check out this post for a great perspective and some advice you can actually use: www.copyblogger.com/radiohead-the-4-hour-work-week/ read more How to Attract More RSS Subscribers – For Real (from Daily Blog Tips) Posted: Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 This is a great article about how to attract more RSS Subscribers. You can read it by clicking on the link below: Daily Blog Tips For those of you who don’t know what RSS is, here’s a link to “Feed 101” from Feedburner, the best in the biz! Feed 101 read more REVEALED: The 1 Trick That Will Let You Fire Your Marketing Agency and Keep More Money for Yourself Posted: Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 Jack, my law partner, and I have had this ongoing dialogue for the past year or so about which word is better: 1. Attorney 2. Lawyer What we do know is that lawyers prefer the “high-brow” word Attorney and so many of them use it in their marketing too. In their opinion, it increases the perceived value of their services. What we didn’t know is whether the general public felt the same way or not. We both had a hunch that the word lawyer was more commonplace, and therefore a better keyword for us to use in our online marketing and pay-per-click campaigns. Now, one year later, WE KNOW ...read more Big Profits From Little Changes Posted: Thursday, July 5th, 2007 Periodically we always take a fresh look at our product lines and those of our clients to see if any can be slightly altered to its advantage. Use a list like this, of eight ideas, just to run through quickly in your mind. One big change a year can make a huge difference in your bottom line and sometimes without adding very much in additional overhead. Those changes are Power Changes because they make such a big addition to your income stream. #1) Can you “plus” a product, service or business you have? "Plussing" is adding something to a current product you currently have, to create something else. Look at the beverage industry and all of the flavors of Coke that have come out ...read more Getting Clients Online - "Show and Tell" Posted: Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 One of the biggest fears for most people who are thinking about doing business with you online is that they don’t know you personally, and want to make sure you aren’t trying to scam them. The best way to remove this fear from site visitors is to literally take it back to elementary basics “show & tell.” By this I mean you should both show and tell visitors who you are. Tell them about your company: a. when it was founded b. where you are located c. who the principals are d. who the core management team is e. who some of your customers are f. what you do Show ...read more Is Your Business Extraordinary? Posted: Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 It drives me nuts when I go into a business and I have a chance to look around for more than 5 minutes without someone noticing me or asking how they can help. I usually laugh, leave and chalk it up to stupidity. But you know what drives me REALLY nuts?! When a business serves me, but they do it just like everyone else. When you go to the store and buy something, what happens next? I’ll tell you. 99% of the time the answer is NOTHING. You can buy a television, groceries, a car, or anything else you so desire and 99% of the time they let you walk out without thinking twice and if you’re lucky you may get a half hearted “thank you ...read more Riches In Niches Posted: Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 While we are all inclined to say that “our business can help anyone” is that really the smartest path for your business? Lets look at a simple commonplace example. If you are having knee problems, do you go to a family practice doctor, or do you go to an orthopedic specialist? Well, I go to the orthopedic specialist and I would guess most of the rest of America does too. And you (or your insurance company) usually pays more for a visit to the specialist. This is just one example of many that I could discuss, but you get the point. You see, we’ve been taught in today’s society to go see experts. And we’ve also been preconditioned to pay these experts more for their services. This ...read more |
Click play to listen to Brian Tracy speak about The Dicks Nanton Branding Agency! |
When Lance was the only one in his office who was single, his “friends” got together and decided to help him out. So they put up this billboard.
Oh yeah and they made him his very own website as well:
www.datelance.com/
While this is a pretty funny prank that ever so timely in the month of February, what I want to call your attention to is how clear the message is here: Lance is looking for someone to date (or at least his friends are looking for someone for him to date!).
And while some might argue that he must have a strong desire to be miserable (that was a joke), lets assume that he’s looking for ...
Now I can ...
As I was driving into my neighborhood a couple of weeks ago (before I moved into our new house, which is tiring to even think about, and why I didn’t get a chance to send you this sooner!) I saw a sign taped to a stop sign that read:
College Babysitter
555-555-1212*
*(actual number withheld to spare the poor kid)
Now, it doesn’t take more than about 4 seconds to find your own punchline, but if you’re like me, the first thing your mind conjures up, is probably something like one of the above pictures, or this:
No one gave this “well-educated” college kid the first lesson in marketing! You’ve got ...
Songwriters & Sales Letters 2008, originally uploaded by ndnproductions.
We held a client appreciation party called Songwriters and Sales Letters at this year’s Glazer Kennedy Insider’s Circle™ SuperConference in Nashville, TN (April 3-6, 2008) along with Chris Hurn of Mercantile Commercial Capital (2007 Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies).
Our friends and clients got the extremely rare opportunity to hear four of the greatest songwriters of all time play their hits. These songwriters don't go out into public often but, due to ...
