Sebastien Provencher from The Praized Blog has a great post titled, Robert Scoble Is Media.
Here’s a snippet:
“It made me wonder: why would Robert Scoble accept ‘friends’ invitation from people he does not know? Why do you want to be connected to people you don’t know and alert them to stuff you’re doing? And then it hit me! Robert Scoble is media. He’s building his own broadcast network. He understands that media is completely fragmented and, by participating in all these new social communication vehicles (blogging, Twitter, Pownce, Facebook), he’s aggregating readers and viewers,
thereby increasing his penetration and his worth as a media. I’m convinced Robert reaches close to 100% of all early adopters in Silicon Valley (and a good chunk in North America). He now has tremendous influence on ‘influencers’.”
Shortly thereafter. Robert Scoble posts this Blog posting: My Facebook Secret Is Out_
Here’s a snippet:
“Facebook makes my blog seem very one-way. I can’t see anytime one of you writes something, or puts some media up, even when you do it on your own blogs. Facebook makes our media a lot more two-way.”
This is where the learning and Marketing kicks in. There are two prime pieces of content that I’m constantly unraveling here at the Twist Image Blog and in my Podcast, Six Pixels Of Separation.
1. Content is media. Scoble, Sebastien, you, me and anyone else who creates content is creating media. That is the advertising. Everyone keeps searching for the ad model in Blogs and Podcasts not realizing that the content and the individual producing it are the media.
2. Personal brand. Steve Rubel over at Micro Persuasion had a killer post last week called, The Golden Age Of Individualism, where he states: “Individualism is as old as American ideals, though it’s certainly not a global phenomenon. However with the Net Gen taking over the work force, the value of personal brands will continue rise and perhaps be a prickly force to be reckoned with. This means big changes in the workplace and a critical importance for everyone to be team players even as their stars rise online. It also means that personal brands will become unofficial spoksepeople at times (perhaps involuntarily).”
So, we have the idea coming full circle: individuals are creating content, the individuals are the media. The media they are creating is also a form of advertising. What is the advertising selling? Their personal brand. Who’s buying their personal brand? Lots of people who, prior to tools like Facebook, Blogging and Podcasting, were relegated to trying to find people in their city who, hopefully, had similar interests.
I’m hoping that Blog postings by the likes of Robert Scoble, Sebastien Provencher, Steve Rubel and the thoughts you get here will further the concepts of my upcoming business book, Six Pixels Of Separation, that individual personal brands will see meteoric rise because individuals are the media.