G111416 personal-brand-sydney-v1910b

Build your personal brand!
Social media tips from an
experienced blogger
Tony Pearson
IBM Master Inventor, Blogger,
Senior IT Management Consultant, and
Content Manager for Technical University
2019 IBM Systems Technical University
15-17 Oct 2019 | Sydney, Australia

Abstract
Your personal brand distinguishes you from
the rest of the crowd.
This session will explain what a personal
brand can be for you, why it is worth the time
and effort to build your brand, and some tips
to creating and sharing Social Media content.
2 © Copyright IBM Corporation 2019

Agenda
3
Who is Tony Pearson?
Brand vs. Reputation
Benefits of a strong personal brand
12 Tips for Blogging and other Social
Media content
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2019

4
Tony Pearson is the “Andy Warhol” of photography,
specializing in portraits of military veterans and the
biker community. Owner of “Pearson Photography
and Design”, he also adds artistic touches to his
photos, such as hand-drawn sketches, watercolor,
and oil painting.
Tony Pearson is the “Michael
Jackson” of Bodybuilding. Mentored
by Arnold Schwarzenegger, he was
the second youngest to win
“ Mr. America” competition and was
inducted to "Muscle Beach
Bodybuilding Hall of Fame"

Tony Pearson – The “Kevin Bacon” of IBM System Storage
5
● Ranked #1 Top Blogger at IBM developerWorks
● Ranked Top 10 IT storage blogger by Networking
World Magazine
● Two Liquid Brand awards for IBM System Storage
marketing campaign
● Have been invited to blog, speak, and sign books
at various conferences and events
● International readership: USA, India, Canada, UK,
Germany, Japan, Australia, France, Russia, China
● Published over 1,100 blog posts, five books, and
three videos
● Received many compliments from readers
● Helped close over $4B in IBM revenue

IBM developerWorks – Top 10 Blogs
Rank Blog Author(s) Views
1 Inside System Storage Tony Pearson, Chris Vollmar,
and Lloyd Dean
70,727,894
2 Notes from Rational Support Kelly Puffs 58,290,641
3 Application Performance Management APM Community 54,762,369
4 Asset Management Maximo Community 54,736,719
5 Application Integration Middleware Support Maryam Ahmed 35,120,243
6 Keep on Learning Susan Visser 24,442,013
7 Thoughts from Support Andrew McCarl 24,177,434
8 Todd “Turbo” Watson Todd Watson 22,749,612
9 Chris’s AIX Blog Chris Gibson 22,236,874
10 Ingolf’s z/VSE Blog Ingolf Salm, Jens Remus 21,135,352
Source: IBM developerWorks, October 3, 2019

I started blogging September 2006
7
eServer
TotalStorage
2000 - 2005
To raise awareness of new
IBM System Storage® brand
Why? What? How?
Start either a
podcast or blog
Initially a joint effort
with Jennifer Jones
Launched on 50th
Anniversary of Disk
Systems
1. Convince management and legal
dept
2. Learn audio-editing tools
3. Read books on blogging
4. Find “hosting” website that
would be externally visible --
IBM developerWorks

My Social Media Presence
8
Blog*:
ibm.co/Pearson
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/az990tony
Books:
www.lulu.com/spotlight/990_tony
IBM Expert Network on Slideshare:
www.slideshare.net/az990tony
Twitter:
twitter.com/az990tony
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/tony.pearson.16121
Instagram:
www.instagram.com/az990tony/
Email:
tpearson@us.ibm.com
* Not a typo. This is short URL for https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/InsideSystemStorage/

Agenda
9
Media content

What is a Brand?
10
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or other
feature that distinguishes one seller’s product
from those of others.
• Coke vs. Pepsi
• Apple vs. Microsoft
The concept of brands have their origin in cattle.
They were used to denote ownership, but evolved
to denote quality.
If a rancher was known to have high quality cattle,
well-fed and groomed, the buyer could feel
confident in purchasing the cattle.
A brand was an indication of not just ownership
but condition.
Source: Keith Lee, Associate’s Mind
The image shows the stylized brand on
a cow, a combined "T" and "H"
representing Treasure Hammock
Ranch.

11
Brand
What you say and do, in an
effort to present your image
and identity to the world
Reputation
What others say about you,
the qualities and traits you
are perceived by others
Are you Known?
Credible?
Trusted?
Take strategic
steps to ensure
your brand aligns
with your
reputation

Brands are no longer confined to companies and products
12
Prior to the internet, it was difficult for people to develop
fame or notoriety. There were gatekeepers through which
fame was created:
• Film industry
• Music industry
• Book, Magazine and Newspaper publishers
• Television channels
Famous people took an active role in the manner in which
they were portrayed
With the Internet and social media, everyone now has the
ability to project themselves – publish text, pictures, audio,
video, interactive entertainment, and more – for little to no
cost.
Source: Keith Lee, Associate’s Mind

Personal Brand rests on Authenticity
13
“The foundation of personal branding
rests on authenticity: The ability to
tap into your genuine, humble, and
individual human qualities from
which your identity, personality, and
character stem.”
-- Lida Citroen,
Lida360 Reputation Management
Consistent and Reliable
People in many arenas value
consistency over talent. People are
generally more comfortable
working with someone they can
rely on
Memorable and Quirky
Actors are often reminded to
“Work your Quirk”. Your hobbies,
personal interests, or habits make
you more memorable
Talented and Passionate
The Internet has made it much
easier to showcase your creativity
on a public and accessible
platform

Personal Brand based on your Values
14
— What makes me stand out in a crowd?
— When people smile, what am I talking about?
— What is my expertise? My superpower? My quirk?
— What are my core values?
— What comes easily to me?
— What do I read about until late at night?
— What do I get up early for – eagerly?
— What do I enjoy professionally?
— What gives me energy? What feeds my spirit?
— What do people compliment me on?
Source: Andrea T. Edwards

Agenda
15
Media content

Social Media works to Influence others

Three Ways to Benefit from Social Media – The 1/9/90 Rule
17
Experts – Bloggers, Thought
leaders, and top influencers who
share their knowledge and
expertise, answers to questions,
and solutions to problems
9%
1%
Supporters – Curators,
Aggregators, Reviewers,
People who Comment, Cite
or Link to works of others
Lurkers – The people who
read blogs and product
reviews, watch YouTube
videos, listen to podcasts
Benefits: Build Credibility,
Gain Trust, Get
opportunities to speak at
conferences, Win clients
Benefits: Connect with
peers and experts in your
community, stay ahead of
the “skills curve”, be more
engaged with your work and
your industry
Benefits: Be well-read,
informed, aware of what is
going on in your industry
Source: 2012 IBM Global CEO Study

Why should you build your Personal Brand?
18
• Win more (or better) clients for your
company to increase sales and increase
your earnings
• Grow your professional network and online
community to open more professional
opportunities
• Be more engaged and happy to go to work
every day
• Lay the foundation for future success;
however you define it
Source: QuickSprout

Agenda
19
Media content

Many Ways to Share your Expertise
20
Write blog posts
Make videos
Record podcasts
Take photographsDraw sketches

Choose a Social Media Platform
21
LinkedIn dominates as the
“entry network”
of choice among CEOs
Of CEOs with only
one network, 70% chose LinkedIn

Tip #1 – Read the Book “Naked Conversations”
22
— “Naked Conversations” by Robert Scoble and Shel
Israel, both experienced bloggers from Microsoft
— Each chapter highlights Do’s and Don’ts illustrated with
examples. Consistent with IBM Social Media
Guidelines
— Key Lessons:
1. A blog is the unedited voice of a single person
2. Blogs can provide a “human face” to an otherwise
faceless company
3. Blogs should foster conversations between your
company, business partners, clients, suppliers,
prospects, and other bloggers

Tip #2 – Treat Blog Posts as Works of Art
23
Why? What? How?
1. Entertain, Poke Fun
Smile, Laugh
2. Inform, Educate
Bookmark
3. Warn
Prepare
4. Celebrate
Congratulate
5. Bleg (request advice)
Contribute
1. A single idea
2. A structure
3. Supporting
Details
• Still Life
• Portrait
• Landscape
• Incident
• Vision

Tip #3 – Use Social Bookmarking to save ideas, facts, and links to other
resources for future blog posts
24
Social Bookmarking sites like
“Google Keep” or “Evernote” can be
extremely helpful
Save a website that inspires a future
post
Facts, Graphs and Photos
Links to resources or other blogs
Links to content you want to excerpt

Tip #4: Use Mind Mapping to prepare blog posts like a presentation – single
idea, appropriate structure, and F.L.O.W.
25
Mind mapping software is available
for Windows, Linux, Mac, Android,
iOS and online
Many are free to use:
• Freemind
• View your Mind
• Xmind
• Mind42
Online versions can be used with
collaboration tools:
• Bubbl.us
• Coggle.it
• WiseMapping.com

Tip #5 – Choose an appropriate structure for your Blog post
Follow the AIDA formula
A – Attention
Grab attention in title and first
paragraph
I – Interest
Identify who should be interested in
this
D – Desire
The benefits of buying this product,
attending this conference, using this
approach, etc.
A – Action
Next steps – call your sales rep,
schedule meeting with your boss, etc.
A story includes the following elements:
Setting
When and where does the story take
place
Character
Who is involved in this story
Conflict
What challenges do the characters
face
Resolution
What did we learn from this?
A list should have an opening to introduce
the items on the list, and how they are all
related
• People to know
• Products to buy
• Timeline of events
• Step-by-Step instructions
• Sessions of a conference
• Resources
• Question and Answers
Close your blog post with final thoughts,
your perspective and opinions
Product/Solution Story List

Tip #6 – Use Snowclones for Titles, Catch Phrases for Introductions
Snowclones are templates based on popular
culture
• If Eskimos have N words for snow, X surely
have Y words for Z.
• X is the new Y
• The X to End All Xs
• To X or not to X?
• We’re going to need a bigger X
• X, X Everywhere
• The X is Too Damn High!
• A few X short of a Y
However, ensure your post slug is appropriate
— I have adopted some catch phrases of my
own, that I repeatedly use:
— “It’s Tuesday again, and you know what that
means? IBM Announcements!”
• I use this to introduce blog posts that
summarize IBM announcements
— “I am still wiping the coffee off my computer
screen after reading …”
• I use this to introduce blog posts when I have
read something so outrageous that it requires a
response
— “We are still picking up confetti off the floor
from the time when …”
• Reminiscing about a fond event
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/InsideSystemStorage/entry/aperi_is_viagra_for_smi

Tip #7 -- Write what you know, in a conversational tone
28
— Blogs are the unedited voice of a single person
• Do not go through rounds of reviews like a
Press Release
• Are not written by a committee
• No deadlines
— Imagine you are sitting next to one of your target
readers, explaining a concept, showing how to
do something, or retelling a sequence of events
— This is how your blog should read, or podcast
should sound
"The murals in restaurants are on par with
the food in museums.“
--- Peter De Vries

Tip #8 – Blogging is like jogging, blog on a regular frequency
29
Do it often enough to make it count
If you quit for a while, it is hard to get back into it.
Stretch yourself, read other blogs before you write
Try new routes, explore adjacent spaces
• 70% Focus topic
• 20% Adjacent spaces
• 10% Personal
Pace yourself – Limit yourself to so many words per week or less
• 10 tweets on Twitter
• 2-3 medium posts
• 1 long post
Make time for it – a 700-word post takes me about 4-6 hours to write,
edit, format and post

Tip #9 – As with any conversation, if you cannot add value with something
new and different, contribute with your silence
30
Is it TRUE?
Don’t gossip or spread rumors.
Fact-check your work, and if you
see something wrong in
someone, set the record straight.
Be the first to admit being wrong,
apologize and correct your own
mistakes
T
H
I
N
K
Is it HELPFUL?
Remember your audience. Is
your information actionable?
Provide links and hashtags to
help your readers.
Is it INSPIRING or INSIGHTFUL?
Don’t just bore them with facts, motivate
your readers to take action
or have new perspective.
Is it NECESSARY?
Avoid the echo chamber. Read
the blogs of others in your
industry. Don’t waste your time
declaring your agreement with
everyone else.
Is it KIND?
Avoid posting anything while you
are drunk or angry. Reconsider
anything hurtful or unfair.

Tip #10 -- Identify who you are and your relationship to the people,
products and companies mentioned in your blog post
31
— Identify if people you mention in your post are related to you, in your management
chain, or have similar job title. Example “Fellow blogger Barry Whyte (IBM)
writes…”
— The U.S. Federal Trade Commission require bloggers in the United States to
disclose who they are and if they were paid or compensated in any manner.
Example FTC disclosure:
• (FTC Disclosure: I am both an employee and shareholder of IBM, so the U.S. Federal Trade
Commission may consider this post a paid, celebrity endorsement of IBM Systems offerings. IBM has
working relationships with Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft mentioned in this blog post. This
blog post is based on my interpretation and opinions of publicly-available information, observations
and personal experience. My friends at ENC Security Systems provided me an evaluation license for
their latest software release so that I could confirm the use cases mentioned in this post. I do not
have any financial interest in Dell EMC, Hitachi or HP mentioned on this blog post, do not endorse any
of their products, nor has anyone paid me to mention their company names, brands or offerings.)

Tip #11 – Live a life worth writing about!
Incorporate Rich Media
32
— Photos
• Use a professional head shot of yourself to help with identify
• Avoid copyright issues: Post pictures you take yourself, or have
someone take picture of you with others
• Get permission -- “May I take a photo for my blog?”
• Do NOT link to photos on other people’s websites, instead store
photos on your own account, such as Flickr.com for example
• First photo left-justified, then alternating right and left
• Use GIMP tool to crop, fix photos
— Presentations – Use Slideshare.net
— Video -- Use YouTube or Vimeo

Tip #12 – Well-behaved bloggers seldom make history
33
Pink it and Shrink it
The new SVC Entry Edition, available in
Flamingo Pink* or traditional Raven Black.
(*RPQ required. Default color is Raven Black.)
IBM Watson - How to build your own
“Watson Jr.” in your basement
Over 273,000 downloads!
EMC Electrocutes the Elephant
If you thought fear mongering like this was unique to the IT industry,
consider that 105 years ago, [Edison electrocuted an elephant]. In an effort
to show that A/C was too dangerous to have in homes and businesses,
Thomas Edison held a press conference in front of 1500 witnesses,
electrocuting an elephant named Topsy with 6600 volts.
These are all actual blog posts on: ibm.co/Pearson

Summary
34
Your personal brand is what you project to the
world, either by design, or by default
The Internet enables everyone to publish
blogs, podcasts, videos and other content
A strong personal brand can help you build
credibility, gain trust, win clients, attract
talented employees, and earn more money

Thank you!
Please complete the Session
Evaluation!
Speaker: Tony Pearson

About the Speaker
36
Tony Pearson is a Content Manager, Blogger and Senior IT Management Consultant
focused on the IBM Systems product line. Tony joined IBM Corporation in 1986 in Tucson,
Arizona, USA, and has lived there ever since. In his current role, Tony organizes the
content of IBM Systems Technical University (TechU) events.
Tony writes the “Inside System Storage” blog, which is read by thousands of clients, IBM
sales reps and IBM Business Partners every week. This blog was rated one of the top 10
blogs for the IT storage industry by “Networking World” magazine, and #1 most read IBM
blog on IBM’s developerWorks. The blog has been published in series of books, Inside
System Storage: Volume I through V.
Over the past years, Tony has worked in development, marketing and consulting for various
storage hardware and software products. Tony has a Bachelor of Science degree in
Software Engineering, and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, both from
the University of Arizona. Tony is an inventor or co-inventor of 19 patents in the field of
electronic data storage, systems and software.
9000 S. Rita Road
Bldg 9032 Floor 1
Tucson, AZ 85744
+1 520-799-4309 (Office)
tpearson@us.ibm.com
Tony Pearson
Content Manager,
Blogger, and
Senior IT Management
Consultant
IBM Systems

This presentation uses the IBM Plex™ font
IBM Plex™ is our new typeface. It’s global, it’s versatile and it’s
distinctly IBM.
IBM Plex
Sans
The IBM company is freeing itself from the cold, modernist cliché
and replacing Helvetica with a new corporate typeface. Also
replaces Arial, Calibri, Lucida Grande, Trebuchet, etc.
IBM Plex
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A little something for developers. Replaces
Courier New, Letter Gothic, Lucida Console, etc.
IBM Plex
Serif
A hybrid of the third kind (combining the best of Plex, Bodoni,
and Janson into a contemporary serif). Replaces Cambria,
Garamond, Lucida Bright, Times New Roman, etc.
IBM Plex is freely available as TrueType and OpenType at: https://github.com/IBM/plex/releases

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