Who goes there: Your online brand and identity

All this deep social media thinking has me wondering about the best way to manage, wrangle, control and cajole my online life.

While many folks have connected to me through Twitter*, I've been trying hard to create some brand consistency across the web. That's why I started this blog and gotten a separate new gmail address - themkokc@gmail.com

But, of course, at last count, I think I have five different gmail address, plus a yahoo mail account, plus a work account. All of those e-mail addresses have their own address books.** My pal Sam Sims wondered aloud this past week if contact forms online will soon have spots for social media usernames. I'm hoping for a big hairy Google solution.***

And, as I try to build up my following on Twitter, I realize I've let my LinkedIn profile go dry for weeks. I also need to get a better account for YouTube, Yelp, Vimeo, UStream and the list goes on.

The key, and something I have tried to preach during the recent SM Speech World Tour, is that honesty is the best policy when it comes to online identity. I hold with that, but there is also the problem.

So many possible portals puts pressure on a user to keep things fresh because each site offers a possible interaction.**** And any possible interaction is a possible life-affecting***** interaction.

What I would advise is sitting down one day (I'll probably do it this weekend) and get all of your social ducks in a row. Make sure you are signed up for everything. Have a consistent username across all platforms and make sure your web is good and tight, everything linking to everything overall.

Why do this?

* First, it shows that you are on top of the tech. You should be able to sign up for new sites as they come and integrate them into your personal social media branding plan, instead of catching up with sites that people mention over a cocktail at Rococo.

* Check out wikipedia or some of the big social media news sites to get good lists of these sites.

* Figure out what the strengths of each is for you and that will help you figure out the best way for you to use it professionally.

* Use sites the applications out there which enable you to post across multiple sites (last.fm, etc.) and it will save you time.

* Include Google reader and your rss solution in this mix.

* Even if you don't do anything on a site, at least you have squatted on your online ID.

FOOTNOTES
* - @mkokc, ranked No. 16 in Oklahoma City. Take that @bbjsports!
** - Somewhere David Allen's head just exploded.
*** - What else is new?
**** - Hey, didn't I meet you on www.fansofbillnyethescienceguy.com?
***** - I looked it up a couple times and still don't know if that shouldn't be effecting.

Riding the flood

Resolved: Follow all of the innovations about social media and web tools out there on the World Wild Web.

Result: Fat chance, buster.

With the pace of change happening so fast in and around the media world, I felt like needed to do my best to keep track of everything that could effect my business, my life and my potential business. So every morning, I checked the revelant sites, kept my eyes out of tweets and retweets about news, set up Google alerts and skimmed YouTube and the rest.*

What I found out is that there is a flood out there. Even if you narrow you focus on one product, like my fondness for Twitter, it is so hot that the flow rushes past me like the mighty Mississip'. The folks at Mashable can't catch everything, but don't feel overwhelmed.

Instead of getting discouraged by this, I'm encouraged by the tech-tsunami.** It shows that even in the face of a economic kick in the head, Americans in garages, basements, backrooms and bars*** are still wringing Grade A New New Things out of existing products and birthing new ones faster than the octomom.

I could wake up tomorrow morning with the new Twitter home page**** and wake up Tuesday with 12 new ways to ninjafy it. People who crack the codes are that much faster and smarter than me.

Now don't get me wrong, I still have a few tricks under my sleeve as well and I feel lucky that I can grab a ride on the big floating log of first-adapter-ness and pluck out some of the choice debris of innovation during the deluge.***** I'm thinking of ways to refine my thoughts on how all of these gears fit together and have even come up with my own trademark phrases that I will roll out in the next few weeks (knock on wood).

Until them, I'm happy to be in the middle of the muddy mess, like Huck Finn and Jim and the cast of Land of the Lost.

Dry land is pretty boring these days. Might as well go with the monster flow.


FOOTNOTES
* - Just @freshpeel alone can keep you busy for days.
** - I tried technami, but it sounded weird.
*** - Most likely McNellie's.
**** - Any day now, Biz.
***** - Wow, extend a metaphor much?

Phone home: BlackBerry vs. iPhone.

I need a new phone. And I need to decide whether or not I will give into the iPhone temptation.

Right now I have a broken down ol' BlackBerry that I love. It's become a permanant fixture in my hand and keeps me up to date with just about everything I need to know.

But it does have it's limitations.*

So, what's next? My ball-and-chain contract with AT&T doesn't expire for a few months, so I am going to be faced with the Sophie's Choice of phone purchasing.

The addition of the Kindle app to iPhone may have pushed me over the edge.
The better Twitter app, of course, may win the day.

Of course, I'd like to go ahead and get something ASAP on eBay, but those Capitalists won't accept my $5 bids for a new BlackBerry Pearl.**

If you want to sway me, now's the time.

Comments, as always, are welcome.


FOOTNOTES
* - No camera, broken trackwheel, no room for new applications, wonky keyboard and fear of running water.
** - Or a trade for a mint-in-box Star Trek: The Next Generation Guinan figure.

Heading to Stillwater

The mkokc World Tour kicks off today with a talk at Oklahoma State and @billhandy's social media class.
Should be fun. Have a decent Powerpoint ready.
Thinking more and more about the web as Mayberry USA.
Report back soon.