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We should all know by now that every person and every company has a brand.  Whether you like it or not. And whether it’s right or not.

The key is deciding to manage and control your brand. With Web 2.0 managing your online brand and reputation is something that you need to take seriously.  This month the Social Media Club of Madison’s  program was Managing Your Social Media Brand.  We changed up the format of the meeting with a panel session. It was held at the UW Business School building and seemed to attract a few younger generation attendees.  I guess I can say that as I think they certainly were half my age!  Our moderator for the evening Steve Schroeder, Director of the Business Career Center at the Wisconsin School of Business, UW-Madison.

The panel consisted of:

Nate Lustig (Entrustet /UW-Madison grad)

Nate Towne (PR Manager, Shine Advertising)

Deborah Mitchell (Executive Fellow in the Center for Brand and Product Management, Wisconsin School of Business)

Ryan Paugh (Co-Founder, Director of Community,  Brazen Careerist)

My thoughts

The panel of experts shared best practices and personal insight into maintaining a responsible and effective social media brand. The crowd was very engaged by both seasoned veterans and college students alike. The advice, from my perspective, was pretty solid on privacy, cleaning up your image, and the real benefits of using social media and social networking sites to showcase your personal brand

You couldn’t have found a more diverse group to cover the range of experience, from startup/entrepreneur, to academia, and to real world.  Some  of the interesting questions  asked were about profiles, user names and the mixing of social and business on different social media networking sites.

Nate Towne, with his effervescent personality that carries online very well,  represents clients in the social space with his PR Manager role.  He spoke about his choice of user names, how it represents him but not his clients so he doesn’t use his personal accounts for his work.   Nate Lustig spoke about his blogging style and how he keeps his personal blog separate from his company blog perhaps due to his topics.  Deborah Mitchell related stories about students and how she might counsel them to adjust their language and picture inclusion on FaceBook. And Ryan Paugh talked about being honest with yourself about goals while blogging for himself and Brazen Careerist.

Wondering what to wear while sitting on a panel in front a 50 person audience? Yes, Argyle!

I liked this presentation and the panel style. Perhaps a student on the panel (moderator?) talking about the view from their side would have added something to the evening. Although two of the panelist were likely in their mid – late twenties, a real student might have challenged the overall message. That being – maybe they do not have to conform to business standards to succeed.  Would Facebook or Google ever have started up if those students worked with a corporate mindset?

Your thoughts

I interviewed Nate Lustig  after the panel session and had these three tips for personal branding:

Rachel, a UW Madison Student, offered the insights she gained from the meeting:

What’s your personal branding looking like ?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Powering Your Personal Brand With Social Media (slideshare.net)
• Brazen Careerist Launches a Gen-Y Focused Web Site (ybpguide.com)
• The nuts and bolts of building a brand (penelopetrunk.com)
• Establish Your Personal Brand as a Journalist Through Social Media (ricksrss.com)