HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on YouTube
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
Dan Schawbel is the bestselling author of Me 2.0 and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog. His latest blog, the Student Branding Blog, provides branding and career advice for high school, college and graduate students.
There are thousands of different websites that you can leverage to build your own personal brand, but only a few that will give you both the reach and credibility to make a major impact. Here at Mashable, we’ve provided you with a detailed look at how you can build your personal brand on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Today, we’ll focus in on the largest video sharing site on the planet, more commonly referred to as YouTube.
With over 120 million U.S. viewers, YouTube is used by President Obama for his weekly State of the Union Address, by universities who share lectures from star academics, and by celebrities such as Miley Cyrus who use it as a lifestream. Aside from the popularity of YouTube, the site exploits the most powerful branding medium of them all, video.
The reason why video is so effective in communicating your personal brand is because your audience will already feel like they’ve met you by the time the video is over. With video, you get a sense of who someone really is based on their voice, their face and their body motions. Video can support your branding efforts like no other medium on the web.
1. Brand your profile
In order to build your personal brand on YouTube, you have to decide how you want to position yourself. If you already have a brand (such as “financial expert for baby boomers”), then carry it over onto your YouTube channel to make it consistent with your other web properties. Channels that have multiple faces should be branded under a topic or a company. Channels that only have one face and voice should be branded under a full name. This is extremely important to understand because you can’t change your channel name at a later date.
Choose a channel name: Depending on your branding strategy, you could choose your full name, your company’s name or a unique “show” name for your YouTube channel. For instance, if you want to brand yourself as an expert in your field, you might want to do it under your own name. The URL you will receive in return for a successful registration on YouTube is youtube.com/user/yourfullname.
Profile setup: Just like with Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, filling out your profile is important because it will allow people to locate you on a platform where millions of people are competing for attention. You are able to upload an avatar or use a screenshot that they give you from your latest video. Use the avatar/professional picture that you have everywhere else. You also get to add a single URL, which should be the website that best represents you as a brand, such as your blog or LinkedIn profile.
Channel information: Most people don’t know that there are different types of accounts you can choose on YouTube. If you’re an expert in your field, then I recommend selecting the “Guru” account type because you can use a custom logo and add links. To access this page go here.
Customize your channel: Log into your account and view your channel as it currently stands. On the top right of your screen, select “Switch to Player Mode.” This will change your current display to the newer layout, where people can view your latest video and select any other ones that they want to watch from the sidebar.
Channel title and tags: Where it says “Edit Channel,” you should click on “settings” and then give your channel a title, such as “Mike Smith’s Internet Marketing Show.” On the right, you’ll want to type in tags that reflect your video content, such as “marketing” and “mike smith” because that’s how people will find your material while searching.
Themes and Colors: Under “Themes and Colors,” find the colors and overall look that align with your website, blog, business card, PowerPoints, etc. You can also upload your own background image and change fonts and colors. There are websites that have free YouTube designs that you can use too.
Modules: Now you want to go to “Modules” and check all options because comments, recent activity, and friends are all important if you want to build a community around your YouTube brand.
Latest video: The last thing you want to do is to click on “Edit” on the top right of the screen and where it says “Featured Video,” select “Use the Most Recent.” This way people will be viewing your latest video automatically.
Now that have presented your audience or future audience with a legitimate profile and design on YouTube, you’re ready to start developing videos that will put your brand in the spotlight, while helping you build your business.
2. Create remarkable videos
Content is king and on YouTube, the only true way to be successful is to have content that is worth spreading. Typically, this means it has to be either really funny or extremely interesting. Here are a few examples of remarkable content. Video isn’t for everyone and you shouldn’t fool yourself if you know you’re introverted and shy.
Video equipment: I recommend either using a web camera from Logitech ($99) or a Flip Ultra HD ($200). The flip is higher quality, but the webcam allows you to do video chat or live video in addition to regular videos for YouTube.
Advanced video equipment: If you’re really serious about creating a video show on YouTube, then you may want to invest in a sounds system, amplifier, lighting, and other professional tools that will make it look professional.
Produce content: The best part about taking videos of yourself is that if you don’t like the end product, you can delete it very easily. I recommend that you shoot multiple videos at once and then cut the ones that don’t work well. Make sure all of your videos fall under the theme of your YouTube channel and that you fill out the title, description and tags for each. In the description of each of your videos, there should be a link back to your blog or website because the people that watch your video might have never heard of your brand before.
Once you have about five or six videos, you will want to start promoting both your channel and each video to your audience.
3. Promote your videos
When promoting your channel and your videos, you’ll want to use the network that you already have before you start to get creative. In the past year, YouTube has streamlined the sharing process through various social networks.
Facebook Application: Using the YouTube Video Box Application on Facebook, you can add your videos automatically on your profile page or your Facebook Fan Page. This is a great way to give each of your videos additional visibility without additional labor.
Autoshare on Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader: Go to your YouTube account settings and click on “Sharing.” In this menu, you can automatically syndicate your YouTube updates (such as when you upload a new video) through Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader. Before you check all three off, please understand who your audience is on each social network. For example, if you share your professional videos on Facebook, where only your college friends are, then it might be awkward.
Add your blog: Go back under YouTube account setting and click on “Blog Setup.” This will allow you to link your blog (Wordpress.com/org, TypePad, Blogger, etc) with your account. This feature will enable you to post your videos on your blog directly in just a few simple clicks.
Embed your videos: If you have a blog or traditional website (corporate or personal), you can embed one or more videos from YouTube on it. YouTube embedded videos give you options, such as a border, different size arrangements and a variety of colors.
Link to your channel or videos everywhere you can: The more links you have to a video, the higher it will rank when keywords are searching in YouTube or in Google. Also, more links typically means more traffic to your videos, which helps build your brand. Link to your channel and videos from your resume, from your social networking profiles (possibly as a graphic icon), from your email signature, from your presentations and everywhere else.
YouTube isn’t going anywhere. It’s one of the most trafficked websites in the world and it’s a great place to get started with online video. Even though many of your videos might not get 100,000 views, the important thing is that you can leverage that video content and share it on all of your branded properties. Your YouTube channel can become a very important asset to your brand, one that provides your authentic voice and appearance like nothing else can.
More personal branding resources from Mashable:
- Personal Branding 101: How to Discover and Create Your Brand
- Personal Branding 102: How to Communicate and Maintain Your Brand
- HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Facebook
- HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter
- HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn
- HOW TO: Leverage Social Media for Career Success
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, kkgas
Reviews: Facebook, Google, Google Reader, LinkedIn, Logitech Z523, Mashable, Twitter, TypePad, WordPress, YouTube, blogger, iStockphoto, video
Tags: how to, personal brand, video, youtube
HOW TO: Use Twitter Lists
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
UPDATE: you can get started with Twitter Lists by following the Mashable Team Twitter List at Twitter.com/mashable/mashable
The just-launched Twitter Lists feature is a new way to organize the people you’re following on Twitter, or find new people. In actuality, though, Twitter Lists are Twitter’s long awaited “groups” feature. They offer a way for you to bunch together other users on Twitter into groups so that you can get an overview of what they’re up to. That’s because Lists aren’t just static listings of users, but rather curated Twitter streams of the latest tweets from a specified set of users.
In other words, you can create a list that groups together people for whatever reason (the members of your family, for example), and then you can get a snapshot of the things those users are saying by viewing that list’s page, which includes a complete tweet stream for everyone on the list. Lists allow you to organize the people you’re following into groups, and they even allow you to include people you’re not following.
Why Would You Use Lists?
There are many reasons for creating lists, but here are a handful of ways that you could use the Twitter Lists feature. What other ways are you using Twitter Lists? Let us know in the comments.
Create a Group – Because Twitter Lists create grouped tweet streams of the people that are on them, you can use Lists to organize your tweeps into groups based on anything you want. For example, we’ve created a list of everyone at Mashable. By viewing or following this list, you easily see what all of Mashable’s employees are tweeting about. You could do the same thing with your co-workers, family, or friends, or just group Twitter users based on location, subject, or anything else you can think of.
Recommend Cool Tweeps – One of the other intended purposes of Twitter Lists is to allow people to recommend other users to follow. You can create a public list of people you think other Twitter users should follow, then anyone else can visit that list and follow the people on it (or follow the list).
Follow People You Aren’t Following – When you follow a Twitter List, you’re not actually following every user on the list, but following the entire list — those users’ tweets aren’t added to your main stream. You can then visit that list and view its tweet stream. That’s why you can also use Lists to follow people without really following them. For example, if there are users whose tweets you’d like to follow, but whom you don’t necessarily want in your main Twitter stream (perhaps they tweet too often for your liking), you can add them to a list and then check up on their latest tweets every once in a while by viewing your list.
Creating a List
Creating a new Twitter List is a simple process. When logged into Twitter you’ll see a new “Lists” section right below the search box in the right side navigation, simply click on the “New list” link to begin creating a new list. After you click on that link, a window will pop up asking you two questions.
First, you’ll be asked to provide a name for your list (i.e., Family, Web Tech Tweeple, etc.). The name is also used for your list’s URL, which will be “twitter.com/username/list-name.” You’ll also be asked if you want your list to be public or private.
Public Lists – These lists can be seen by anyone, and anyone can follow them. Public lists are ideal for lists of recommended follows.
Private Lists – When Twitter says private, they mean private. Only the creator of private lists will be able to see or subscribe to them — not even those on the list can see private lists. That means, for example, you could create a list of your competitors and keep an eye on them without them being any the wiser.
Once you’ve clicked the “Create list” button, you’re ready to add users. After you create a new list, you’ll be prompted to search for people to add to your list, but there are really two ways to add users to lists. First, you can add users from their profile page, by clicking the lists button and checking off the lists you want to add them to from the drop down menu. You can add a single user to multiple lists.
The other way to add people, is from any “following” page (i.e., by clicking on either the “Followers” or “Following” links from any profile). You’ll also see the lists button next to users that appear on these pages, and can add anyone to your lists by clicking on it.
You can add yourself to your lists by visiting your profile page. Keep in mind that each list is currently limited to 500 people, and users may create a maximum of 20 lists. These limitations could change in the future.
Managing Lists
Both the lists you’ve created and the lists you’re following will appear in the “Lists” section in the right-hand navigation of Twitter. Private lists will be denoted by a small “closed lock” icon. When you click on you a list, Twitter will load up the tweet stream of those on the list in the main body of the Twitter page — this is similar to how Twitter displays search results.
You’ll also see a link to “View list page.” Clicking on that link will bring you to your list’s dedicated page. This is what other people will see when they visit the page if your list is public, with one major exception: in the top right corner you’ll see links to “Edit” or “Delete” your list. The delete link is self explanatory, while the edit link allows you to change the title of your list, or change its public/private status.
To remove users from your list, follow the same procedure you used to add them, but this time uncheck the box next to the list you want to remove that user from.
Finding & Following Lists
When you follow a list, it will show up in the “Lists” section in the right-hand navigation of Twitter. Following lists is a great way to keep tabs on tweets from a large group of people without needing to add those people’s tweets to your main stream. Here are some of the ways you can find lists to follow.
People You Follow – When you visit the profile page of anyone on Twitter, you’ll be able to see any of the public lists they have created, or any of the lists they follow. (NOTE: you may have to click “View all” to see every list if the person has created or is following a large number of lists.) You can also see any of the lists that person appears on. Checking out the lists that your friends have created, follow, or appear on, is a great way to locate lists you might be interested in.
Listorious – Listorious is a third-party site that maintains a categorized directory of Twitter lists. You can search or browse through lists by category, and find the most popular lists.
TweetMeme Lists – Readers of Mashable will be familiar with TweetMeme, which exposes the most tweeted links on Twitter and powers the “retweet” buttons on all of our articles. Just like it does for links, TweetMeme also finds the most tweeted about Twitter Lists.
Once you find a list you want to follow, click the “Follow this list” button to follow the list. You can unfollow a list from the same page by clicking on the “Unfollow” link.
Lists You’re On & Blocking Lists
Twitter shows you how many public lists you appear on. Clicking on the “Listed” link on your profile, which appears next to your follower and following numbers, will bring you to a page that shows you every list on which you appear. Your lists page has two tabs: one that shows the lists that are following you, and one that shows the lists you’re following/have made.
If you find yourself on any lists you don’t particularly want to be on (like a list titled, “Jerks,” for example), you can remove yourself from that list by blocking its creator. Just be aware that blocking a person on Twitter means that person can also no longer follow you. Blocking is not permanent, however, and can be undone.
You can block someone directly from the list page, by clicking on the “Block [username]” link, which is located on the right navigation menu in the “Actions” section.
How are you using lists? Let us know in the comments.
More Twitter resources from Mashable:
- 6 Incredible Twitter Powered Art Projects
- HOW TO: Do Good on Twitter
- 10 Most Extraordinary Twitter Updates
- 6 Gorgeous Twitter Visualizations
- 10 Ways to Find People on Twitter
Reviews: Mashable, Tweetmeme, Twitter
Tags: how to, List, Lists, trending, twitter, Twitter Lists
The Top Internet Memes of 2009
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
The instantaneous and shareable nature of the Internet is one of the things that separates it from other mediums. Viral videos and Internet memes can take hold and spread quickly. Thanks to social networking, the speed in which the latest phenomena can spread is lightning fast. More and more frequently, Internet memes are making appearances in other more traditional media like TV and film.
With only two months left of 2009, we thought we would look back at some of the biggest Internet memes of the year. Most — if not all — of these memes have inspired spin-offs and secondary memes, and in the process, become a part of our Internet cultural history.
Did we miss any of your favorites? Let us know in the comments!
#1 David After Dentist
One of the first big memes of 2009 was the YouTube video “David After Dentist.” The story is exactly like it sounds. Young David went to the dentist to get a tooth pulled and was treated with some pretty heavy sedatives. Armed with a Flip Cam and a good sense of humor, David’s Dad decided to videotape the aftermath.
Watch here:
#2 Susan Boyle
In April 2009, 47-year old Susan Boyle appeared on “Britain’s Got Talent” and mesmerized the audience (and the judges) with her jaw-droppingly awesome voice.
Once the video hit YouTube, the rest of the world took notice and a true phenomenon was born. With an estimated 100 million views in the first few weeks, Boyle’s performance is one of the top Internet video phenomena of all time.
Sadly, we can’t embed her fantastic debut performance from Les Miserables, but you can watch it here.
#3 United Breaks Guitars
In 2008, United Airlines broke Dave Carroll’s Taylor Guitar. After battling with the airline for months and making no progress, Carroll decided to take action. He wrote the song and shot the video “United Breaks Guitars” and released it on YouTube in mid 2009. The video earned more than 3 million views in just 10 days.
In August, Carroll released “United Breaks Guitars 2,” but it failed to generate the same buzz as the original.
#4 Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt
At the beginning of Summer 2009, an interesting t-shirt appeared on Amazon.com. Called “Three Wolf Moon,” the shirt featured an awesomely awful emblem of three wolves howling at the moon, the shirt garnered over-the-top reviews on Amazon.com, rating it as the best shirt ever and making outrageous claims about its power.
The shirt became a best-seller and the creators of the shirt are even shopping around a book based on the topic.
In an October episode of NBC’s “The Office,” Dwight K. Schrute wears the shirt and ends up getting pretty lucky with the ladies.
#5 Baby Dancing to Beyonce
This is one of our favorite memes of the year. Featuring baby Cory from New Zealand (then just 13 months old), this video became viral after the VMAs. Little Cory dances to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” with such a level of engrossment and with so much obvious enjoyment, how could it not be a huge hit?
Watch:
#6 JK Wedding Dance
Jill and Kevin’s wedding dance is the rare Internet meme that has two waves of popularity. When the video first hit the web in late July, the awesomely choreographed dance by the wedding party down the aisle during Jill and Kevin’s wedding became a huge hit, especially after being featured on the Today Show.
Then in October, NBC’s “The Office” paid homage to the dance by re-creating it with cast members for Jim and Pam’s fictional TV wedding. The result? The original video had a huge uptick in popularity (probably aided by people who missed it the first time).
Another winner in this meme, embattled R&B star Chris Brown, who saw sales for his single “Forever” (which is featured in both videos) climb the charts after the video’s release.
#7 Christian Bale (Strong Language)
Even before February 2009, there were rumors that all had not gone well on the set of “Terminator: Salvation.” Then in February, someone leaked an audio recording of actor Christian Bale going off on a crew-member. The audio took off online and in the mainstream press.
DJ RevoLucian created “Bale Out – RevoLucian’s Christian Bale Remix” from the audio and a NSFW meme within a meme was born. Not to take anything away from Bale, but he still has nothing on David O. Russell (link has very explicit language).
#8 Balloon Boy
Two weeks ago, a helium filled weather balloon was launched in Colorado, supposedly with a 6-year old boy trapped inside. In under 24-hours, the Internet went from shared bafflement, to fear for the boy’s safety, to relief that he was OK (and hiding in a box the whole time), to questioning if the whole event was a hoax to full-blown Internet meme.
That’s breaking news to Internet in-joke in under 10 hours. Amazing.
(Photo courtesy of ImaLetYouFinish.com)
A week later, the meme came full-Internet circle with the video “I’m in a Box” (a riff of “I’m on a Boat”), which you can watch below (note NSFW language):
#9 Kanye West at the VMAs
We can all thank Kanye West for providing us so much endless entertainment. After pulling an ODB and hijacking Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 VMAs, a full-on meme was born. The outburst gave MTV.com a record number of unique video views.
The barrage of parodies and jokes started almost instantaneously. Even President Obama opined on Kanye’s behavior, calling him a “Jackass.”
We won’t lie, we were a little obsessed with the Kanye-meme here at Mashable. Unless something REALLY spectacular happens, this is sure to be the meme of 2009.
If you missed the clip that started it all, watch it below:
Your Favorites
So what did we miss? What memetastic event is your favorite? What do you think the next big meme will be about (I’d put money on puppies, kittens or babies — but that’s just me)? Let us know!
Reviews: Mashable, YouTube
Tags: balloon boy, internet memes, kanye west, Meme, memes, susan boyle, viral video
Free Photoshop Shapes: Download Custom Shapes Sets
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
Photoshop shapes are different than Photoshop brushes, although some people use the terms interchangeably, they refer to completely different tools. Both tools will allow you to easily add custom elements that be stamped out over and over again, used to create patterns, transferred from one design to another, and stored in your Photoshop library for use on your next project.
The big difference between custom brushes and custom shapes is that brushes create a bitmapped element that is permanently painted onto a layer. Custom Photoshop shapes will add an editable vector shape on it’s own layer. This is especially useful because it makes it easy to change the color or size of your custom item should you change your mind while working on the design.
Adding custom brushes and custom shapes to your Photoshop presets is an invaluable timesaver. Today, we’ll help you start your collection with this list of 10 Places to Download Free Custom Shape sets for Photoshop. (...)
Read the rest of Free Photoshop Shapes: Download Custom Shapes Sets
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