Branding and Loan
PR Squared
In a thoughtful, excellent post, Todd Defren lays out the guidelines for hiring a social media "rock star." That is, when you have people on your staff who are well-known within a community, what are the responsibilities of the company, and what are the responsibilities of the "personal brand"? As a public person myself who is active on many social networks and keeps a personal blog, I found this post especially compelling, but it is useful for all who wonder how to navigate the waters of our personal and professional online persona. "While their brand is on-loan to the Company, it is the responsbility of the Personality to ensure that the Company derives substantial and long-lasting business benefits from the affiliation.  Yes, the Company is thrilled to be working with the Personality - and the Personality should be equally delighted for the stable income."

From the Brand's POV
Doug Haslam
As one of the social media rock stars working with Todd, Doug Haslam responds from the personal brand's perspective. He notes that humility is definitely job #1, and that most who are well-known in the social media community play that part well. The responsibility of the personal brand in boosting the company's brand, however, is a bit trickier. "Boosting the company's brand- to me, I do that through my positive association. It's not always overt- I hate being overly promotional of anything (yup, I'm in public relations). But I'm not going to cover up my affiliations, and I'm going to wave the SHIFT flag on occasion, without inflicting damage on others (unless they are being egotistical asshats)."

Social Media and the G8
Strategic Public Relations
With the Olympics and the G8 Summit on the horizon, many are beginning to discuss the roles that social media will play in these major international events. Kevin Dugan discusses the tactics that members of both teams are using to inform their audiences through new and different channels. "Prime Minister Gordon Brown has had a Twitter Twitter account set up for some time now. Brown recently built on this for the G8 Summit to bring voters, er, British citizens inside access via Flickr and a G8 blog. Lenovo is taking a similar approach for Beijing with its "Voices of the Olympic Games." Ogilvy's Rohit Bhargava is part of a team encouraging 100 athletes from more than 30 sports and 25 countries to use their Lenovo laptops and Flip cameras to detail their experiences."