The Web has changed everything. Cheap digital tools and internet access, mean anyone can be a publisher. Why not take advantage of what big companies already know – brands command more attention and sales than no-name products. Ever thought of being your own brand for fame, profit or career success? It’s possible using this five-step plan.

First, define your goals.
What are you trying to do? What means success to you? Do you want to develop a personal brand for fun. Or a professional brand for career success? Personal brands can be as fun or as outrageous as you want. Professional brands generally need to be a bit straighter.

Second, develop your image.
How do you want to be perceived? The better to align your goals with your image, the better personal branding works.
Differentiate yourself by having a unique brand identity.

Third, focus your efforts.
Many brands focus on niche markets so they can make big impact. Focus your branding efforts for maximum effect. Carve out a niche from your personal or professional interests. Set-up Google Alerts to scan for content about your interests. This keeps you up on the news and provides great content ideas for your efforts.

Fourth, get a blog now.
Create meaningful content to position yourself as a expert in your niche market. Direct all communications back to your homepage. Spend a bit more and get a hosting account with your name as a URL. Now, is a great time to grab your name in digital space. If you don’t, someone else will.

Five, build community.
Engage your fans in Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or other social networks. Use your blog as a home base. Link your blog to all postings and comments made inside social networks to build cred. This is the hardest part of building a personal brand.  It takes time.  But, stay focused on your niche.

Find out more about personal branding M 11/2 in the MMTH Auditorium at 8:00 pm at Western Kentucky University.

It was really great to see many of you back on campus today. We are excited about the new semester and we have lot’s going on as usual.

 1) We have a Ad+PR student assistant position open for Spring 09 at 10 hours weekly. The Ad+PR assistant will assist faculty on projects and otherwise help to make this a great program for our majors. Some business savvy and great communication skills are essential. Current FAFSA paperwork must be on file at WKU. Please e-mail cliff.shaluta@wku.edu with your current resume by Friday 1/30  at 4:30 pm if you have any interest in this position.

2) We have created a Ad+PR Internship & Job Wiki for our majors. To access the wiki, please visit http://www.wkufusion.com and register at the top right of the main page. Complete the form and you will receive a confirmation e-mail with the URL to the wiki. If you confirm the optional registration, you will be added to our periodic Ad+PR Jobs Update e-mail.

3) We are looking for an Event Manager for Gameathon,  our annual video game competition and expo. Please see the wiki under Other AD+PR Jobs for details or simply e-mail me and I’ll send you the job description. We offer a small cash stipend, but Gameathon can be quite a resume builder for event management or careers in the gaming industry. See what we did last year at http://www.wkugameathon.org. The successful candidate for this position will be a total gamer. Familiarity with console systems and popular games is essential. This unique person should also have a basic appreciation of social media tools, such as Facebook, youtube, etc.  If you are interested in the position, e-mail me a paragraph about you, your gaming experience and why you are the best person no later than Sunday, 2/1 at 5pm.

4) We had our Ad+PR Professional Advisory Committee on campus last Fall to talk about  the marketing, advertising and the PR business. Ken Payne blogged and Mark Simpson shot and produced the video. You can check out the event at http://www.wkupac.ning.com. The second session on careers is particularly relevant. Get some popcorn and take a look.

5) I mentioned Google Alerts in class today. Not many students were familiar with this terrific free service. Simply go to http://www.google.com/alerts to register. Select a couple of topics or businesses you want to track and you’ll get daily reports. This is a perfect example of a “filter.” I also think a new service from Ogilvy 360′ is awesome for Ad+PR majors. See http://www.thedailyinfluence.com/ A super example of aggregating content, but it’s also a fabulous example of Ad+ PR agencies starting to develop their own content and programs. Specialized content is one the new business models we’re now seeing.

Almost done….

6) BrandU is a new initiative in the School of Journalism & Broadcasting to encourage our majors to craft their professional image through their own personal web hosting account and website. We’re “requiring” students enrolled in J232, beginning in Spring 2009, to purchase their own domain name. i.e. smith.com and web hosting space.  Once you have your domain name and a hosting account, you will be able to easily create your own WordPress blog for classes,  another blog for your own ideas and maybe a Joomla website for to show off your great music or designs. You should plan for a “professional” area and a “fun” area. It’s yours. We are “recommending” BrandU to all Ad+PR majors. Select BrandU for details.

As I said, this was a lot of info. Our job is to help you be more successful in your chosen major and career. Please let me or any of our Ad+PR team know how we can improve. We’re glad you’re here.

Best,

cliff

Internships have always been important to Ad+PR majors. But, today’s job market makes it even more critical for students to get as much real-world experience as possible before they graduate. The wiki requires registration on http://www.wkufusion.com. Once registered, users will receive a link to the “Members Only” wiki in  a confirmation e-mail. They will also be added to a mailing list for the new Ad+PR Job Bulletin, a periodic newsletter with internship and job information. Contact Cliff Shaluta cliff.shaluta@wku.edu if you have any questions.

Here are a few things we talked about!

Dues-$65: this is for the whole year. $35 of it goes to Nationals and the rest we are going to put in our account. We are looking to go on a trip this year to ATL! Woohoo! (We need dues by Oct. 20. No exceptions please!)

We are going to meet every other Tuesday at 8pm starting Oct. 7! Please come out and join!

We are going to have some resume building nights, Facebook cleanup nights, and we are currently talking to WKU Alumni about speaking with the club!

We hope to participate in Up Til Dawn Letter writing for St. Jude’s Hospital. You only have to write 10 letters to get into the finale event in spring! What a great (and easy!) thing to do for others!

We also are looking for any creative people to submit ideas for our Tshirt contest! We will get the specifics together on that for you, but for right now.. start thinking!

Lastly, we have the majors fair on October 8 at Garrett and we are so excited about trying to recruit new Ad majors! 

If you all have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact Lizzie or Caroline.
elizabeth.childers@wku.edu or caroline.schroder@wku.edu

We’ll see you October 7th! (8pm, ADLAB!)

And on Wednesday September 3 at 4:30 we are helping with the Ad+PR Kick-off Bash (in which there will be PIZZA!) Who doesn’t love free food?

Today was the first day of classes on the Hill. It was really good to be back and it’s always great to see students! I know that I speak for all faculty in the School of J&B when I say that we’re glad you’re here and we are all looking forward to spending a great semester with you.

Look for updates to Industry news and our student organizations this week. We will also be making some mods to the site. So, stay tuned.

If you’re just looking, welcome.

Best,

cliff

AOL has been in a few of news articles regarding BIG changes! Check out some of these articles concerning their relocation and plans to change. This may be our case study!!

Read about the new AOL headquarters here.

Read about Time Warner’s upcoming plans for AOL here.