#106: Jordan Cooper of Not A Pro Blog Rants on Blogging, Social Media, and Marketing

Today I interviewed Jordan Cooper of NotAProBlog.com

If you are wondering, we will be moving back to our regular schedule soon and I may be mixing the podcast episodes up! (Thinking of having a monthly episode dedicated to interviewing one person similar to this episode)

If you want one-liners, Jordan is stuffed full of them. “Be Real”, “You Blog To Make Money”, and “Start a Blog” are just a few. I also ask him a question regarding marketing and what every single business is doing wrong. You will want to hear his answer if you are a business owner.

Need some inspiration? Read a couple posts from his blog:

What it takes to be an Overnight Failure

How to Win Friends & Influence No One

Putting Your Personality Into Your Passions

To learn more about Jordan or to chat with him via twitter, click on one of the links below:

Blog – NotAProBlog.com
Twitter – @NotAProBlog

Want to Retweet this episode to your Twitter Audience? Click Here.

Lets continue the conversation. Comment below or use these options:

• Toll Free Comment Line: 1-866-867(TMP)-2860
• Send me an e-mail.
• @taylormarek me on Twitter
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taylormarek

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (39.2MB)

Building a Personal Brand vs. an Iconic Brand

You are in the midst of setting up your brand, do you setup an iconic brand or a personal brand? Do you want people to remember you for something you stand for, or remember your brand for something bigger?

All of these decisions are eventually faced in the lifetime of an entrepreneur, often many times during their life. The same idea holds true for bloggers, podcasters, and every other new media vocation.

Why don’t we take a look at two popular brands and break them down. Perhaps it will help you in the decision making process…

McDonald’s

McDonald’s is known for its many fast food hamburger chains scattered across the globe. The initial idea was developed by Dick and Mac McDonald. They wanted to provide a way to give meals to people as quickly as possible. Their equity was purchased by Ray Kroc who then set out to expand it to the four corners of the earth. The result is that McDonald’s is now a worldwide brand worth many billions of dollars. Every kid from Generation Y to the present has McDonald’s branded permanently in their mind because of the mass marketing effort of McDonald’s. Can’t tell me it didn’t pay off well…

What is McDonald’s known for?

• Big Mac – This one product continues to pull in massive sales in part because of a well executed marketing plan.
• Marketing to the younger generation- You get new plastic toys! (Who doesn’t want one when you are little?) Consequently, when you are older you just walk in there out of habit.
• Food tastes good. Yup, nothing like sprinkling sugar on the fries to make them taste better and a soda, juicy burger, and the occasional salad or other goody. Hence why America is now plump as well.
• Affordability. How many times do you walk into McDonalds to find you are dead broke and can’t buy anything? Unless you are dumb enough to forget your wallet when you go in…
• Speedy Service. That was coined by the original owners and still holds true to this day. I’d like to see a system like that somewhere else on the world that is as efficient about what they do than McDonald’s. Personal Opinion Note: If I am short on time, I will go into McDonald’s to buy something fast.

Gary Vaynerchuk

Gary is one of a kind. He is a fireball of energy and strives to answer every question that is thrown at him. He grew up in New Jersey and was always fascinated with business. He started cutting grass, selling flowers, and then selling baseball cards. He was good at it too. Baseball card sales in his high school years amounted to “three thousand bones a weekend“! He then became interested in wine and read every magazine on the subject. He worked as a clerk in a wine shop, then created his own brand, opening a wine shop and then expanding it to unheard of heights. His tactics, as crazy as they were, are what pushed him into the position he holds now. When he stumbled upon new media/social media, he bit into it like a bull dog and refused to let go. Wine Library TV came out of that. Out of all the people I know in this space, Gary defines how New Media and Social Media should looks like.

He is now an accomplished author, video blogger, brand consultant, and speaker. That and he still holds his position at Wine Library. Contrary to what you may think, Gary actually does alot more for his wine company marketing-wise whenever he is interviewed. He has become associated with the wine world.

What is Gary known for?

• One line sayings. Gotta admit I love hearing the “legacy is greater than currency” and “CRUSH IT” quotes he throws out from time to time.
• Explosive Introductions. Yup, Gary is never without one. It turns alot of people off when he hollers his introduction to the video camera, but the rest become excited and engaged in a snap.
• Wine. Gary bleeds wine. It is all he ever talks about, and he knows what he is talking about. His opinion on wine undercuts the rest and brings a new light to it.
• New York Jets. You can’t go long without him speak on the Jets. If is blood is wine, his heart is the New York Jets. He knows everything about them too. He has to if he is to fulfill his dream of buying them.
• Passion. Not a day goes buy that he doesn’t portray it. He loves what he does and wouldn’t trade anything in the world for it.
• Authenticity. Gary is 100% real. Unedited and uncut, every vlog post and winelibrarytv show he has done in one take.
• Personal Branding. Gary epitomizes how personal branding should be done.

What can McDonald’s or Gary teach you about branding?

1. The brand is your defining point. Everything is built off of it.
2. Have a unique story. No one likes the same old bland status quo.
3. Personal brands depend on the person, iconic brands depend on the decisions of the company.
4. If the person dies, their brand will continue on in a solidified state. If the icon dies, so does the company.
5. Icons are remembered for all time, so is a person.
6. Iconic brands become an authority symbol, personal brands become a person.
7. People tend to trust iconic brands as they mature, same with a personal brand. With the personal brand however, a trust level is built with that person.

Hope that helps you out. I for one am enjoying building a personal brand.

Am I missing anything? Am I totally wrong? Is there something you’d like to share? I’ve pulled the soapbox over, would love to hear your two cents.

The Apple iPad. Greatest thing since iSlicedBread?

It is a week after all the hubbub around the Apple press conference. Things have now cooled down a tad. Now its time for me to interject my thoughts…

Here they are:

The iPad is nothing more than a glorified IPhone, only bigger.

Yes, you heard me. That is what I think of it. Now, before you start calling me out on twitter, let me say a couple things. (Yes I know about all the jokes, but I am not posting them here)

First off, Scobles’ 16 year old kid agrees with me! Secondly, Paul Colligan, the tech guru that he is, ran the numbers on the iPad which proved to be quite interesting. Third, a college friend of mine has 27 reasons against the iPad. And finally, my good friend Harrison Painter thinks that the iPad will soon be coming to a WalMart near you!

Oh, and I haven’t even launched into the jokes yet! (Don’t worry, I’ll be breaking them out at the end)

In all honesty, lets go back to my original quote. It does everything the IPhone does, why do we need another thing to lug around? And by lug, I do mean lug! Don’t worry though, you won’t be getting flatter abs or bigger biceps with this thing anytime soon.

I am not convinced. I was really looking forward to what would happen with IPhone’s exclusivity deal with AT&T. And I REALLY didn’t like the fact that to add insult to injury that Apple goes ahead and throws in 3G on AT&T.

Now that you’ve heard the bad, here is the good side.

What I did like about the iPad was the option to have a bigger screen to see more detail. The 3G option is pretty neat as well. I did look at Verizon’s netbooks when they first came out but realized I would max the bandwidth usage in an hour with that I do, so the iPad just might be the answer to that problem. If only it had an iBall camera though!

I could see this device finally making use of the RPG gaming apps in the app store. Now you can actually see detail on a larger screen and have more options than be squished between your two thumbs.

I also liked the fact that this takes us another step in the digital media distribution medium. Looking forward to the day when we no longer read inewspapers, as “neat” as they once used to be, and iwalk around with a little tablet thing with all the news we need at the touch of our finger. That and the podcast options too.

If I do get my hands on the iPad, it very well may be version 2 or 3.0.

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?

iDone.

My 2010 Resolutions

Ok, before all of you start throwing bananas at me, let me say one thing…

I originally didn’t want to make any New Year Resolutions!

That changed though. You are getting the benefit of reading them now that I am posting them on the web for all to see.

Resolution #1: Find 1000 True Fans

Being that I am starting to take my online presence more seriously and in developing my online business, I find this is a key component. I wrote about it in my Thought Leaders post not too long ago.

Resolution #2: Find and interview the Thought Leaders

Yup, also from the same Thought Leaders post. I find that if I surround myself with the Thought Leaders of this realm, collaborate together, and become good friends, we can take this vibrant world of New Media to the next level!

Resolution #3: Comment and Stumble every blog post

I’m finding out that if I can comment on and stumble every post, the more traffic that blog sees and the chances that I get noticed. Not only does it benefit my reputation, but it also shows I am out on the web interacting with other people, leaving little tips of my own as I go along. If you think about it, it really works out better for the short and the long term, as well as benefits both parties. The unique thing when I stumble posts is that it pastes it into my Friendfeed account and sends out an automatic tweet to my twitter audience later on, where even more people read it. Pretty cool eh?

Resolution #4: See if I can maintain a daily post

Yeah, this one will probably be a kicker of a one to keep, seeing as I am a full-time college student with a 30 credit hour semester load, but we will play it by ear and see what happens. I would love for you guys to keep me accountable. Holler if I haven’t posted anything, and I will see what I can do to post something for you.

As a matter of fact, lets make it even easier. Click here to send me a tweet if I fall behind for the day.

Those are my resolutions for the year 2010. What are yours? Comment below.

-Taylor Marek
Your ever present Social Media Nut ;P

#105: A Chat With Nathan Hangen

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Today we have a chat with Nathan Hangen. Be sure to take notes for this one!

I was originally impressed by the post he wrote called “How to be like Batman“, the interview came out of that.

The stats regarding podcasting that I mentioned in this episode can be found at:
http://blog.blubrry.com/2010/01/28/podcast-consumer-attitudes-study-released-video/

To learn more about Nathan, read his book, or chat with him via twitter,
click on one of the links below:

Blog – NathanHangen.com
Book – Beyond Blogging
Twitter – @nhangen

Want to Retweet this episode to your Twitter Audience? Click Here.

Sponsored by Create A Fan Page.

Lets continue the conversation. Comment below or use these options:

• Toll Free Comment Line: 1-866-867(TMP)-2860
• Send me an e-mail.
• @taylormarek me on Twitter
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taylormarek

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:54 — 20.1MB)