Little over a year after I wrote Chapter Two, I find myself at the end of another story about to embark on a new journey.

This time it’s quite a big transition I am facing and I will be heading on a whole new adventure.

A Dream

Remind yourself. Nobody built like you, you design yourself.

Not so long ago I was an enthusiastic musician with aspirations of dominating the music industry as a world renowned DJ/Producer. My DJ career however took a nose dive when I attended Music Academy and I couldn’t afford to buy a home computer, so I sold my DJ setup to fund my first mac. What I would soon realise, is that I made the wrong decision, as I was a damn good UK Garage DJ (If you remember Upfront 99.3FM you’ll smile at the good old days).

At University, I understood quickly the importance for networks. Universities are made up of hundreds of small groups of networks and generally the people who can operate in and out of multiple networks are considered the most powerful students; as they can influence the most people.

Ignorant Shit

Having opened my eyes to the possibilities in student business and then setting up my own ventures at University, I quickly changed my direction from being a creative musician to acting in the business side of the entertainment scene. It wasn’t long after finishing my higher education I realised that being just another enterprising student with ambition wasn’t gonna cut it.

I graduated from University with a 2:2 in July 2009. My tutors were proud that I had even achieved that, albeit suprised, because honestly, I never showed signs of passing the course.

Real As It Gets

I’m not afraid of dying. I’m afraid of not trying.

I don’t come from money, I live with my mum who raised three kids on benefits, two of which have their own families now and are successful in their own right. My vision is and has always been to become successful so that my mum doesn’t have to worry any more. However, money has NEVER been my motivation.

After speaking with an array of extremely successful individuals over the years, I found that they all sing from the same hymn sheet in terms of seeking fulfilment. Everyone wants to change the world in their own way, and no matter how much money they make, they generally always crave for more, because finding self fulfilment in money is not possible.

Legacy is what it’s all really about. Making an impact that you leave a positive dent that lives on long after you have vacated the scene. This is what entrepreneurs really crave. It’s the feeling that you have built something unique and there is an underlying need for it, a desire from a mass market for what you offer that gives their lives added value. That’s the art of fulfilment.

Can’t Knock The Hustle

I’m a hustler homey, you a customer crony. Got some dirt on my shoulder, could you brush it off for me?

I’ve never had to prove anything to anyone, but always felt like I had to. When the closest people in your life think you’re gonna be a fuck up like the rest of the council estate you live on, it doesn’t do much for the inner self esteem.

I have always tried to help those around me and even with the Industry Spotlight series I did. I documented the stories of 14 great individuals with an attempt to find out more about my network, my audience and myself. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be but I enjoyed seeing the engagement between those I had interviewed and others find inspiration from someone else’s journey.

I taught myself the skills that make me who I am and I am proud that I have ability in a variety of areas.

I learned my craft by staying on the edge of the latest news, researching the key influencers in the industry and surrounding myself with multiple networks of successful people.

I have excelled in what is considered to be a short period of time. I’m not one to frequently shout about achievements in the the social space, but when I do, I make sure it’s loud and clear, so everyone knows.

Onto The Next One…

Baby i’m a boss, i dunno what they do,
I don’t get dropped, I dropped the label,
World can’t hold me, too much ambition,
Always knew it’d be like this when I was in the kitchen

So here I am; climbing the layer cake of shit on my path to fulfilment and where last time I was announcing the start of a new opportunity with a global brand, this time I’m crossing paths to the other side of the fence.

I Made It

He who does not feel me is not real to me. Therefore he doesn’t exist. So poof… vamoose son of a bitch.

I leave this global Football Club to become Chief Digital Officer at a Central London marketing agency (sure you’ll all find out which soon enough). A board level position with all the trimmings and I’m sticking my middle finger up at anyone that ever doubted.

It’s a chance for me to really see what I am capable of, because honestly, I have no idea. I have developed products, hit targets and built winning strategies for the companies I have worked with and it now looks like my time has come to step up to the challenge.

If I flop, then fuck it. It’s all part of the adventure anyway but I go into each venture prepared for anything that gets thrown at me and what I don’t know, I quickly learn.

Outro

And I cant help the poor if I’m one of them
so I got rich and gave back to me thats the win/win..

No, this isn’t where I build my legacy, but I believe I am growing. I have my long term vision and I know I can’t contribute to society in the volume I would like to, but with every step up the ladder I take, I know I am that little bit closer to making a significant impact.

The world that I am changing, is my world. Once I’ve conquered that, I’ll get to the rest of you.

Having spent the best part of the last year as a Digital Marketing Analyst, it’s easy for me to explain all the areas of an analytical role and the importance of understanding your company data.

With Social Media being the only word on every companies’ tongue this millenium, most have looked to Social Media for a remedy in which they will create new and formiddable revenue streams.

For some this has been successful and businesses have tapped into relationships and built engagement with their consumers, however for most, Social Media is still a confusing area and businesses are constantly asking questions as to how they can utilise their Social audience for monetary value.

This is generally when a guru enters the building assisting you with the ultimate formula for success, which is usually something like this:

(Engagement * interactions) / page impressions + retweets √ your mum = an upward rise in fans from Uzbekistan and spam replies to your marketing messages. One word to that… #WINNING

A Marketing Analyst works on the opposite end of the spectrum to those focusing on engagement. Analysis is a research method and is based primarily on creating an understanding of the consumer using aggregated data.

Stereotyped as Star Trek looking, Mathmatical nerds who write algebra on steamy windows; Analysts have long been categorised as zombies who supply business executives with answers as and when they need them. The stereotype couldn’t be further from the truth; on the contrary Analysts do hold all the answers.

Now before you get all buzz word on me; I’m all for Social Media. Social Media is an integral part of the marketing strategy and as an Analyst, Social Media just presents me with an array of platforms that need analysing. Be that as it may, Social Media is not the be all and end all, data is.

Why are Analytics so important?

Well you see those financials you look at wondering if you can afford your all inclusive holiday to Cancun; those financials will only increase if you know who your customer is.

It was an annoying but extremely successful Duncan Bannatyne who quoted; “If I was to give you one piece of advice in business; it’s to know who your customer is.”

It’s not like we can sit down face to face an interrogate every single one of our online customers, asking them:

But you can ask all these kind of questions into your data analytics platform and yes it will spit out the answers you need.

I define myself as a person who asks questions. I may ask way too many at times, pissing people off and causing myself all kinds of bother, but I’m not easily pleased and I don’t like fluff. I need definitive answers and I need those to be backed up with evidence.

Nowdays most digital companies have analytics measuring their products, whether it be a free offering such as Google Analytics or a premium service like Adobe Omniture; companies are interested in measuring.

The problem is that while companies want to measure and know the importance of the data that backs up their campaign strategies; they don’t have specific members of staff who’s jobs are to crunch this data and provide compelling answers to their demanding questions. This forms a common problem as the priority of the business is to raise awareness and push the products, but companies do so with a lack of understanding and insight into who their customer actually is.

I had a meeting recently where I made it clear how important analytics are in digital business. I was even asked, that if I could set up my own team, what would it comprise of. I replied simply; that I would need staff of expertise in development, project management, marketing and strategy, but I would want each of my staff to have a clear understanding of analytics. I would also expect them to use analytics on a regular basis so that the whole team has a clear interpretation of who our consumer is.

I found the below quote in the Havard Business Review under an article titled ‘Competing on Analytics’ and it pretty much sums up this post.

Employees hired for their expertise with numbers or trained to recognize their importance are armed with the best evidence and the best quantitative tools. As a result, they make the best decisions: big and small, every day, over and over and over.”

An Analyst is trained to recognize problems and come up with solutions. An Analyst is responsible for explaining how the customer/consumer uses the product/service, what their experience with it was like and how the business can improve the product/service.

Our analytics tell us stories and if you don’t have an Analyst, it is imperative that you have people who know how to read data, because if you don’t use analytics to answer the fundamental questions surrounding your products; how can you truly know who your customer is?

With the Smartphone mobile market growing at a rapid rate (300 million Smartphones shipped in 2011) it is clear mobile is the emerging market.

Although Apple are not by any means the Smartphone leader by terms of OS (Android 31%, Symbian 29%, Apple 19%, Blackberry 14%, Microsoft 7%), they are the clear leader in terms of Applications with an App Store that boasts over 350,000 applications.

At a recent conference with Adobe Omniture it was mentioned that Google reported CTR was 8% higher when using a Smartphone for search.

Put two and two together and someone out there would think there was a clear opportunity to develop a combination of search and applications allowing users to find content without having to sift through the results search engines provide.

That’s exactly what Do@ (DoAT) have done.

What DoAT have highlighted with their remarkable application is the need for answers in a quicker and easier to digest fashion than search engines offer.

The app presents curated application based content in a multi-window view based on search queries, removing the whole concept of scanning SERP’s and clicking through to a single web page. This app offers a variety of choices that lead to clear answers for that query. The way in which this app presents that content is simple but brilliant particularly when searching for individual brands as highlighted in the video with Paris Hilton and Eminem.

This is a fantastic position that DoAT are in now, being able analyse their analytics and absorb everything users are searching for. Having the power of a search engine and all that data is an extremely profitable tool.

Will this application change the way in which we search for answers? I think so. You only have to go to the app store page for this app to see what users are already saying about it.

One user wrote, “The potential is nearly endless. I am beginning to replace google with this. I find myself searching for answers on my phone using this app instead my computer.”

Anyone that has read previous content on this site or follows me on Twitter will be aware that I am big on individual branding (the ‘me’ brand so to speak). I am 100% confident that individual brands are the future and that a merge between applications and individual brands will also arise in the next few years.

This application has opened a door to a new opportunity combining search and mobile. You can only expect Google will be ready to release something similar for Android in the near future, however, they’re already playing catch up.

To try and get an idea of where the space is heading it’s important to take a step away from the details, the platforms, the tools and all the blogs/sites we are reading to inform us and to look at the current situation from an overview.

Fundamentally, the way in which we communicate has been enhanced. It’s not a revolution as such but an evolution.

When William Gibson coined the phrase ‘cyberspace’, he described the evolution of technology and the vision he saw of an online world developing. In Gibson’s 1984 novel “Neuromancer”, the author first presented his vision of an entire global computing network which operated like an actual cyber world. It was supposed to be a whole separate universe with constantly updated content, a virtual marketplace of ideas where people from every corner of the globe could connect in a meaningful way, pretty much what we see today.

At present we are seeing is a shift in command from the original gatekeepers and keyholders being employers, advertisers and media to a world where the people hold the keys to not only their own destiny, but also to those around them.

When Seth Godin spoke about the ‘tribes’ we create, he spoke of leading, connecting and spreading ideas. He spoke of the ability to have a market that you actually believe in. The shift from where manipulated content governed the decisions we made and the products we purchased; now it’s all about choice and asking questions of yourself.

So there I am, away from the noise and I’m reading Gary Vaynerchuk’s book ‘Crush It!’ Towards the end of the book I found a passage that validated the direction of the way the space is evolving and tweeted it.

What then followed was a variety of opinions and comments. Some people agreed and retweeted, while others replied feeling the complete opposite to that statement.

That’s a valid point, however…

For those of us that set up online profiles and blogs so that we can express our opinion to our audience, we are doing so with the understanding that we need to build brand equity.
While a brand in it’s traditional sense may be based around the product that we purchase from a store; this in essence is the same thing when we create websites, develop content and market the material to our target audience. We develop ourselves as the product and look for our audience to convert by commenting and sharing.

As I explained my theory on this subject via twitter and across the office at work, I was met with a barrage of opposite view points, some of which highlighted this video of one Stuart Baggs from the Apprentice (feature image).

It appeared to me that traditional marketers and those that may not use the internet and all it’s glory to build their own profiles believe that people are not brands and should not be described as such.

I then thought it would only be right if I contacted Gary Vaynerchuk himself for his thoughts seeing as it was his quote that sparked off this whole subject.

I then responded to his tweet..

and added my 140 character summary..

You see Gary agrees so it’s unanimous. The way the landscape has evolved means there are opportunities for anyone to create brand equity for themselves. We are seeing celebrities and those with media profiles in the public domain learn the importance of building brand awareness and working out how they can monetize it.

Take for example Robbie Savage. With no disrespect to Mr Savage, but who is he really? Yet on Twitter he boasts over 250,000 followers. What Robbie has in abundance is a marketable personality and he fully appreciates the power of building personal brand equity. He isn’t a world class footballer like Rio Ferdinand, but Robbie Savage has created opportunities from building brand equity.

Rio Ferdinand has done exactly the same, hence why he has his own magazine, television shows and shares in various companies.

Yes these are sports stars so what about the rest of us?

Each of us who develop content and distribute our voice across the variety of social platforms have brand equity. We just have to work out who our core audience is. By understanding your audience or ‘stigma’ you can develop your brand accordingly, build your network and develop your content knowing that your target market is fully engaged.

Here are a few key pointers that I think can assist you in the early stages. Make a list of:

Once you have jotted down the above details, create a mind map using all of the above outlining out all the key influencers, link them to the key words and which networks they use the most. There’s a really cool application for Mac, iPad and iPhone called Mind Node which I use to do these.

The tipping point is to find ‘critical mass’ which is a term that describes the small tweaks in your marketing campaign that shift the boat in your favour, where the reaction is then made ‘viral’. This can be achieved through a variety of ways, but ultimately comes down to understanding who, where, what and why your audience is talking about the relevant topics.

Robbie Savage found critical mass by making jokes and banter with both his core influencers and the general public on twitter, Gary Vaynerchuk found it by video blogging about wine and being generally very loud and different with his speaking.

People are becoming brands and it’s only a matter of time before everyone realises it. For those that don’t agree; see you in 2015.