I'm not the only Brad Coughlin.

Browsing through some Twitter profiles the other day, I came across someone’s which read that they were interested “marketing, social media and personal branding”.

Not very unusual, as an unusually large percentage of Twitter users are “social media experts” according to their user profiles. I think I get why so many people feel they are “experts” at social media. Twitter has a way of making new users feel as though they have discovered something completely new. And in a lot of ways, they probably have. It’s practically impossible to find two people who use Twitter in the exact same way. Not only in who they follow, but also in what content they share.

That’s where “Personal Branding” comes in. What content are people sharing on Twitter, and more importantly, why are they sharing it? Each individual has a motivating reason for being “on” Twitter. As the service becomes more mainstream, it would stand to reason that more people are joining out of a sense of feeling left out. Just like when I turn on the TV just because I want to make sure I’m not missing anything. Do I really care what’s on TV? Or am I just doing it so as not to become “that guy who doesn’t know what happened on American Idol last night” to everyone I meet.

So back to “Personal Branding”. The difference between turning on the TV and joining a social media tool like Twitter, is that Twitter requires participation. Sure you can just read what others are writing or ‘tweeting’, but that doesn’t really open any doors so-to-speak. The pressure is there from the minute you sign-up to send out that “first tweet”. As odd as it may sound, that’s really the reason twitter is so compelling. It’s like water-skiing for the first time, or riding a roller-coaster. It’s thrill seeking on a very small level. “What will happen if I say this?” Or, “what if Oprah actually replies to me?” It’s the thrill of the unknown.

Maybe that sounds very uninteresting to you, but seriously this does relate to “Personal Branding”. Among the motivating factors for joining Twitter, the ethereal concept of “Personal Branding” is probably in the Top 2. Somewhere between the invention of Reality TV and proliferation of Text Messaging, it became socially acceptable to share all kinds of odd information about yourself to the entire universe. But instead of just labeling this behavior as “TMI” (too much information), which sounds a little too derogatory, we’ve somehow collectively decided to give this behavior a more professional moniker. After all, we wouldn’t want other people thinking we’re just wasting our time.

“Personal Branding” is one of those undefinable terms that one day falls out of the sky. Somebody promptly picks it up and starts using it in everyday speech. The funny thing, at least in my view, is that people who try to do personal branding aren’t actually doing anything. They’re just regurgitating information that’s all around them. Whatever it is they think they’re doing, its just adding noise.

“So why is this post was about Personal Branding. So far all you’ve done is ramble on about Twitter!”

Okay, point taken. Now let me get to that.

“Personal Branding” is a fad, a phenomena, a flash in the pan. But YOU are a person. YOU exist in reality without any need for a “brand”. YOU carried on just fine before – just as you will after – the invention of Twitter, or Facebook, or YouTube or whatever. If you are simply you – the same smart, like-able, hard-working person you’ve always been – then you’ll never have to worry yourself about ridiculous, impossible-to-define, buzzworthy terms like “Personal Branding”. You simply won’t.

If everything you do online is a fabrication, a figment of your imagination, then your “Personal Branding” efforts are bound to fail. Building a personal brand is like saying you going to develop your personality. You can’t be something you’re not. You can only reveal something that you are. No matter what platform is ‘ground-breaking’ or ‘the new thing’. You can only fabricate reality for so long. Just look at “The Hills” or “John & Kate Plus 8″. If the heart isn’t there, it can’t last.

So that, my friends is “Personal Branding”. If you ever hear someone say “You really need to develop your personal brand!”, just laugh at them. Be yourself, share it with people who care, and let the “social media experts” waste their own time.

The winning Nebraska license plate design.

Dear Gov. Dave Heineman,

Please consider the following:

1) Online voting is not an accurate way of measuring public opinion. Voting systems are routinely manipulated. In this case, its fairly obvious that this plate was not chosen by popular vote, but as a prank by those who mock the idea.

2) Although a license plate’s primary function is to assist law enforcement, it is by all measures of common sense a reflection of the state of Nebraska. Not only creatively (as a measure of our artistic ability) but economically, agriculturally, historically, and culturally.

3) This plate design indicates to the rest of the country that Nebraska just doesn’t care – and that’s the real misfortune. Above all, we should feel proud of what we do in Nebraska and equally proud of our image.

Of course you can’t “please all of the people, all of the time” but at least you can look like you tried. Nebraskans deserve better.

By now you’ve had to of heard about BIG Omaha coming this Thursday night and Friday. If you haven’t, then you must not be paying ANY attention.

I found out about the event in February just after attending Affiliate Summit West ‘09. Gary Vaynerchuk was the official keynote at the event. Being that it was held in Las Vegas, the late nights added up to some very tired conference attendees. Nobody was too excited about being up a 9am to listen to the keynote. But that changed just minutes after Gary took the stage.

“Why is this Gary guy such a big deal?” you ask. Well, there’s a few reasons.

Number one, he is extremely energetic. I mean this guy has a schedule like no other, a brick-and-mortar wine business, an online wine store and web TV show. On top of this he takes time to reply to tons of E-mail from fans and followers, offering insight and advice on business in the “social media” age.

Two, he’s intense, but at the same time approachable. Being a 1.5 generation immigrant from Russia, Gary learned hard work from an early age. He seems to relate well to anyone who understands the value of putting your nose to the grindstone. That’s the real draw that he possesses as a speaker – making that core connection.

So why should we be excited to have him in Omaha, Nebraska at a entrepreneur/tech conference? Because we here in Nebraska could use a bit more THUNDER. Don’t get me wrong – we work hard. But when you think of the plains of the midwest, you typically don’t get really excited (unless you’re a farmer). When it comes to building a new generation of businesses in our state, we need some prodding. So that’s what Gary is here to do. Bring some excitement, some energy and some much needed attention to what’s going on in the Big O.

I’m personally looking forward to a great event – and hopefully this is just the beginning.

So as I’m searching Twitter (using http://search.twitter.com) for the trending top #swineflu, I notice something pretty obvious. Twitter users are popping up with names like @AboutSwineFlum, @swinefluh1n1, @swineflualerts and @swineflucast. Apparently these users are creating accounts to directly relate to a trending topic – very clever. But how will this affect Twitter as a news source in the future?

Right now when a hot new topic comes up it rapidly becomes a trend on twitter. Searching the topic returns primarily relevant data from real people. If ‘trendbots’ take over every new trend, will it drown out the tweets from human users? Can Twitter prevent users from essentially spamming a trending topic by tweeting the same message and hashtag over and over? Will this tactic ultimately dilute the relevance of Twitter search?

I don’t know. But I’m guessing it will cause some backlash from Twitter users. I’m already finding it irritating only minutes from noticing the trend.

Examples of the spammy user accounts:

This is just a question for the internet community at large. Has anyone seen this issue before when creating animated GIFs? Firefox plays the animation in ‘real-time’ without delay, but Internet Explorer (6, 7, haven’t tried 8 ) plays the file considerably slower. The video below demonstrates what I’m talking about.

This is a extremely simple but effective user-interface design for a local IT company I used to work for.

Met some very cool people at Omaha Tweetup #4 downtown at the Nomad. Thanks to Dusty and Jeff from BIGOmaha for sponsoring the tweetup. Very distinctive bar establishment with huge wooden pillars, open industrial ceilings and very swank-looking drapes everywhere adding to the moodiness and overall cool factor.

Several people were bemoaning the fact that they had to re-print their business cards to include their @whoever name on twitter. I of course did not plan for this either, but fortunately mine is just a predictable @bradcoughlin.

With BIGOmaha only a few weeks away, it was a great oppurtunity to put faces to at-names prior to the event. A couple of folks like @pingpongin and @88improv had only been on Twitter for a matter of days! Props to them for getting out into the twitterverse so early in their Twitter-ing careers.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, go check out Anne Good’s Daily Dog Blog over at www.agOutLoud.com. (It was great to meet you guys. Look forward to seeing you in a few weeks! Go Gary V!)

P.S. Please excuse my very un-personalized blog theme. At least it’s getting some content : )

Please check back soon, as I will be adding articles, a brand new website portfolio and more. Thank you!

You can visit http://www.bradpc.com for more information and to reach me via my contact form.

Here’s a nifty animated .gif design I created for a Twitter contest. I believe the contest was one of the first of its kind, and spawned many clone contests thereafter. Animated GIFs are easier for analytics programs to track. Building a relatively smooth one under 150 kilobytes takes some practice. This one features the Flip MinoHD camera, and weighs in at only 75 KB. It’s pretty much no-nonsense but is high-contrast to attract attention.