The Personal Branding Blog by Rob Cuesta

Managing your Technorati authority

I noticed the other day that this blog's Technorati 'authority' rating had dropped by a point. Your 'Authority' rating is actually a measure of your blog's popularity, rather than a measure of the worth of the information you are imparting, based on the principle that the more people are discussing something, the  more authoritative it must be. High minded, but you can probably see the flaw in that argument: by that reasoning, the most intellectually stimulating and valuable media phenomena today are Big Brother, the Diana inquest and X Factor :-)

How (not) to do reputation management

I found a great blog post highlighting the dangers of old ways of thinking in a Web 2.0 world. If your gut reaction to someone 'dissing' your personal brand or your corporate brand online is to reach for your lawyer's phone number then you may want to read this post and think carefully about what you're doing, and the effect it may have on your reputation.

3 tips for writing great blog posts

A strong, well written blog can be the keystone of a great online identity, which in turn is a key element of a great personal brand. The problem is that the 80/20 rule applies as it does in so many areas of life: 80% of the really valuable content comes from 20% of blogs.

So, how do you make sure that your blog is helping you to build your reputation, not hindering you? How do you make sure that your blog is one of the good 20%?

Interesting blog layout

I recently stumbled across an interesting site. It's not so much the content I want you to look at - although I enjoyed the site even though my Italian is a little rusty, and it's over 10 years since I lived in Copenhagen! - but rather the layout.

10 things you should do if you make a big mistake

We all make mistakes. On one occasion early in my online career I became an accidental spammer when someone offered me a marketing list of 10,000 names in a specific industry. In my enthusiasm at receiving such a windfall, and with a high profile joint venture to promote, I emailed all 10,000 contacts directly (horror of horrors), promoted my upcoming big-name teleclass (even though they had never heard of me), and invited them to unsubscribe from my list (which they had never signed up to) if they didn't want any more contact from me (which they hadn't wanted in the first place).

An uncomfortable 24 hours followed, as email after email of some of the nastiest, most vitriolic personal attacks I've ever seen poured into my inbox. However, as soon as I realised my mistake I put into action a recovery plan which earned me a lot more emails of thanks and understanding.

Personal Branding Magazine

While I was preparing for my recent trip to Toronto I completely missed the fact that the second edition of the new Personal Branding Magazine has gone live over at personalbrandingmag.com.

Keep in touch: supporting your brand with touchpoints

A couple of years ago, Mercedes commissioned a market research firm to identify all the 'touchpoints' its customers had with the brand (in other words, all the different ways that customers interacted with the brand). How many do you think there were? 

A directory of blogs

Blogs are an inportant element of your personal brand, providing you with online presence and a forum for demonstrating publicly your expertise. But they're not much use if no-one can find them.

My new Technorati profile

If you're going to use a Blog to build your online presence then you supposedly need to set up a Technorati Profile. I'll be watching carefully to see if it does, indeed, increase my visibility online - watch this space!