Nombray

Nombray shut down April 5, 2010

Chris Lunt — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 21:16:53 -0700

I regret to inform you that Nombray will be shut down Monday April 5th.

I had arranged a buyer for Nombray in November, but after a long delay, they were unable to complete the deal. They could not marshal the necessary resources to run the business, and I find myself in the same position.

To all the people who used the service, you have my sincere thanks. I wish there was a different ending to this story, but all along the way I saw the best of people, and I don't regret a thing.

The New Nombray

Chris Lunt — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:16:53 -0700

Photo by hiddedevries

Personal Business

The largest growing employment space is know as "Personal Business": Consultants, contractors, and solo practitioners who have left the "security" of working for a big firm. "Personal Business" now accounts for 70% of the businesses in the U.S. If you're among them, you know that having to constantly drum up new work can be nerve-wracking and time-consuming. Plus, you need to keep up on the latest ways to drum up new business. There is an opportunity now that is disappearing fast.

Wine upstart

Imagine owning a little property in Manhattan in 1800. Or buying Microsoft stock in 1986 (How to turn $100 into $20,000). Do you know who Robert Parker is? Robert Parker makes and breaks wines. He's the most influential wine critic out there. Some wine producers wait for his rating before setting the price on their wines. Robert has been critiquing wine since 1978. Do you know who Gary Vaynerchuk is? Gary started out as the co-owner of a New Jersey wine shop, and in 2006 he started to produce a video podcast about wine. He's bombastic and irreverent. Wine purists hate him. But he moves cases of wine at will, and he's doubled Robert Parker's reach online. In 3 years, he passed the guy who spent 30 years building his brand.

The Matthew Effect

"For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away."
—Matthew 25:29, New Revised Standard Version.

Look at what successful people have in common. A history of success that runs back to a lucky break. Kottke.org is one of the most popular blogs out there. Go take a look. Wondering why? Look at the top. He's been blogging constantly since 1998. In 1998, you were 5 years from hearing the word Blog. He's got an early start, so he gets added to the list of "featured blogs", and that keeps him at the top of the list of blogs people read. In 2006, you're looking for YouTube content to watch, maybe about wine. Well, the most popular stuff is from Gary Vaynerchuck. A couple of years later, a lot more people are looking for that content, and he's still #1. Why? Because he was #1 before.

Your name is your business

Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn) recently said:

Every individual now has a brand, so all must ask: what is your brand and how is it established? Every individual is becoming a small business, in this sense. The practice of this is in its infancy.

If you're out there on your own, running your own business, you have the opportunity to start using social media now, while the going is still early. What will be the importance of Twitter or Facebook to lead generation in 5 years? When I first saw Google in 1999 (I was at Excite at the time), search was out of favor, and I never would have guessed that they would become the dominant company they are today. For the sake of your career, and for your current job, you know you can't ignore this stuff.

Specialization creates value

Thomas Edison visited Henry Ford's factory, which was having some electrical problems. Ford asked Edison to help find the problem. Edison walked up to a dynamo and made a small X in chalk on the casing, and said "drill here". Ford was thrilled, and told him to send an invoice. The bill was for $10,000. Ford, furious, asked him to itemize it. Edison sent another bill: $1 charge for marking the casing with an X; $9,999 for knowing where to put it.

Think of the thing that you're best at. Think of the skill you have that you could charge the most money for. Every hour of work you're doing something else is an hour wasted. Find ways to outsource the things that aren't your core competency. The more time you spend on your expertise, the more valuable it becomes.

Nombray is personal PR

If you're a big business, you can afford to spend $10,000 a month on a PR person. If you're an independent, that's out of your reach. There's an opportunity in social media right now, but that's a whole other expertise. This is where Nombray comes in; we use social media to bring you affordable brand management.

Using our proprietary reputation management system you provide us with the key elements you want your audience to know.
Our Brand Specialists then create targeted campaigns on 17 social networks including LinkedIn, Facebook, Google and Twitter.
We then aggregate your content on your own domain so when people search for you on Google or other search engines, they’ll find you.

Our one-of-a-kind system is based on a personal brand questionnaire, best-practices research, and inside information from the big social media sites. It includes over 200 actions we do to ensure both the quality and pervasiveness of your online brand.

Reserve your place now

We've been testing this for a couple of months with a close audience, and we've made good progress. We're now opening it up for a public beta. Feel free to email me any questions.

Nombray in the news

Chris Lunt — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:43:08 -0700

Nombray received a kind word from Dan Schawbel recently in the Mashable article "5 ways to take control of your personal brand today". In turn that article got picked up by CNN (Nombray mentioned at 2:08):

I don't have to outrun the bear...

Chris Lunt — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:56:03 -0700

Photo by marshmallow

Two campers come upon an angry bear. The first says, "I'm glad I wore my running shoes." The second says, "you can't outrun the bear." The first says, "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you."

Having coffee with a friend, we talked about a former co-worker who was a great co-worker, and a lousy employee. Funny, smart, always glad to give you a hand, and never motivated to take care of any of his own responsibilities. I've also worked with the flipside, the employee who always puts the company first, but always eats lunch at their desk, disapproves of other employees, and dampens any company event.

In this job market, you'd better be a good employee and a good co-worker. There are enough candidates for any job that you're not just trying to appear capable of the job, you need to look better than everyone else who is qualified for the job. Part of that is looking like a real person that would be fun to have around the office.

If you had a chance to follow the Apple Corporate Blog, or Steve Job's Blog, which would you follow? The challenge of being spokesperson for a company is that you don't want to offend anybody, but if you don't use your authentic voice, can you produce anything other than bland mush? The same is true of your resume. How are you going to stand out? Whenever I look at a resume I always scan straight to the bottom to look for the interests section. It gives me a way to start talking with them about a passion topic, and get them loosened up before we get into the work questions. Think about this when choosing how to present yourself professionally on the web--there's room for your interests and hobbies there too. Lead with the resume, sure, but you don't need to hide your photo stream.

It goes without saying, if you're into unusual sexual stuff, you can leave that off. But if you worked for the RNC, or raised money for Obama, and that was important to you, put it on there. If someone would reject you for a job because that's on there, would you really want to work there anyway? Companies have cultures, and I know you need a way to make a living, but don't subject yourself to misery every day for the sake of a job.

Personal Brand is human, despite that awful word "brand". Your professional skills and experiences make you a good employee. Your common humanity is what makes you a good coworker. One of my favorite Japanese artworks is a teacup that cracked when it was being fired in the kiln, and rather than throw it out, they filled the crack in with gold.

Get the interview, qualify for the job, and then look like you're more fun to have around than the others.

Mario Sanchez Carrion: Register a domain with your name. Start Now.

Chris Lunt — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:22:22 -0800

Photo by Mario Sanchez Carrion

I met Mario when he left complimentary comments in Dan Schwabel's blog entry about Nombray. We had some conversations, and I became interested in his personal story, and his perspective on developing a personal brand on the web. Here are the highlights, with my favorite quotes in orange.

Why are you putting yourself out there?

I've always had a passion for writing and also for branding and marketing. When I learned how easy it was to set up a Wordpress blog I immediately jumped at opportunity and started writing about marketing and branding. I did it entirely out of passion, writing at nights and weekends since I still hold a pretty demanding corporate job. Now, a little more than a year later, my blogging experience has opened my eyes to the unbelievable power of the Internet and social media to build powerful personal and small business brands, gain influence and assert ourselves as experts.

What has most surprised you about being so visible on the web?

I am still a long way from being very visible. However, one thing that surprised me is how, even with a relatively small blog and in a matter of months, you can put together a list of high quality contacts that a few years ago would have taken decades to build. Also, I am amazed at how approachable the big names on the web really are. For example, my blog was added to Alltop in their first week, when there were only a handful of blogs in just five or six different categories. I was so surprised that I looked up Guy Kawasaki's email and sent him a thank you note. The next day, I got a reply from him, in his trademark sense of humor, thanking me for an Alltop banner I had placed on my sidebar.

What is the single most valuable web channel for getting in front of the people you care about?

Definitely a blog. A blog can help you establish your brand more than your presence in any social network. I think social networks are useful as "outposts" to drive traffic to your blog. Also, at the beginning, I got a lot of traffic from Stumbleupon and that helped my blog gain traction. Other than that, I've had very good experiences with LinkedIn and now I'm getting more involved with Twitter. The value of Twitter increases with your network. People like Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, or Gary Vaynerchuk, who have thousands of followers, can throw a question out there and in a matter of seconds have the insights of a huge bunch of smart people delivered to their DM Inboxes. Pretty powerful…

What piece of information about your brand, that you don't have, would you most like to have?

I would like to be able to define a more narrow niche. Since I started writing mainly to follow my passion, I approached blogging more like and art or a hobby than a business. Some of the things I write may appeal to corporate employees, others to entrepreneurs, others to social media types, etc. I think I need to narrow down my focus, most likely around personal branding, and blog with a more specific audience in mind.

What would you recommend to someone who is just starting out?

I would recommend them to start a blog about something they really care about. Get familiar with the medium. Then, visit other blogs and leave good comments. Start building your social media profiles and link them to your blog. Reach out to everybody you meet and ask their permission to add them to your network. Also, very important: register a domain with your name. But my number one recommendation is this: start now.

You're about to get fired

Chris Lunt — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:09:55 -0800

You're about to get fired (using the web to get a new job)

View more presentations from Chris Lunt. (tags: linkedin career)

10 steps to get a job in 2009

Chris Lunt — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 14:51:16 -0800

Photo by SOCIALisBETTER

The last time I interviewed someone, I knew whom he'd worked with, and had already talked to some of those people. Not because he told me, but because I Googled him. I had an opinion about him before he knew who I was. Whether or not this is fair, this is the way interviews work now. Here's how to use the web to put your best foot forward. Let's pretend you're new to the web, so we can start at the beginning. And even if you aren't new, review these steps--and do them if you haven't already.

Step 1 Sign up for LinkedIn, because you need to show you're experienced. Fill out your basic work history. Use the tools they have to connect you to people you've worked with in the past, because you need to show that you're connected. Showing the links to other people gives the social proof that you did what you say you did.

Step 2 Sign up for Twitter, to show that you are industrious. Twitter is a great platform for showing that you are busy and thoughtful. You can read my longer 10 Twitter Tips, but here are my top 2 rules:

Don't talk about things that other people can't experience. This is the "don't talk about what you're eating" rule. If you're describing how to make a bacon martini, that's a different story. A restaurant recommendation is also kosher (unlike the bacon martini). But things like "eating toast" will just annoy your followers.
Link to interesting content, but give people a reason to click on the link (don't go: "Cool! http://bit.ly/De45e")

Step 3 You need to be creative, so sign up for a service that's about expression. Don't worry, you needn't be an artist. If you like:

Pictures: Sign up for Flickr and post your photos
Writing: Sign up for Blogger and share your passions
Reading: Sign up for Shelfari and share your favorite books
Browsing the web: Sign up for StumbleUpon to find things, and Tumblr to share them.
Blogs: Sign up for Google Reader and share your favorite posts

Step 4 Sign up for Nombray and buy your domain name--your own website with your name--(such as ChrisLunt.net or SeanCOMalley.com), to show that you are savvy. Pull in your LinkedIn profile, Twitter profile, and the site you picked in Step 3. The site gives people a place to find all these things about you in one place. Plus, having your own name as a domain name helps you to appear at the top of the Google results. It also gives you a short and personal URL you can give to people to find out all about you. Here's another chance to show you're connected: choose some key people to connect with.

Step 5 Show that you are distinctive. People value scarcity. Create a portfolio of your work and post it on Slideshare. Here's a great example from Dave Cortright called Designing with Vision.

Step 6 Be informed. What are the forums used by people in your profession? Search for groups you might be interested in on Yahoo Groups and Google Groups. You don't need to contribute, but it doesn't hurt--on a couple of occasions, I've hired engineers who answered a question we posted in a forum.

Step 7 Come recommended. Ask one person from each job you had to write you a recommendation on LinkedIn. Offer to write them a recommendation in return. When you can, ask for a recommendation from the person with the biggest title, but only if they can really comment on your work. I've given damning-with-soft-praise references for people who begged me to give them a reference when I didn't really know their work.

Step 8 Be visible. Get out there--check on your college's alumni site for local events. Search on Meetup for things you're interested in. Be aware that conferences are an industry that puts their own need for revenue above your well being, and you should be reluctant to spend money to go--do the free networking events first.

Step 9 Be consistent with your message. Add your Nombray domain to your email signature. (You don't want to do too much in your signature--if you put things like personal mottoes in, you'll come across as smarmy or self-obsessed.) Link back to your domain from your other profiles. This boosts your position in search results.

Step 10 Be discreet. You don't want to look perverse or promiscuous. Don't use your real name if signing up for an adult sites. Limit your Facebook connections to real friends, and act like every photo you post is public. (For that matter, everything you ever do is public now that everyone's phone has a camera. Consider Michael Phelps' bong photo.) Be aware that putting your resume up on some sites (HotJobs) will draw a cloud of recruiters.

10 Twitter Tips

Chris Lunt — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:43:57 -0800

Photo by carrotcreative

Here it is as a tweet, ready for you to retweet! Just copy and paste...

RT @chrislunt 10 Twitter Tips 1) Make it experienceable. 2) Link. 3) Spark. 4) Observe. 5) Ask Qs... Read the details: http://bit.ly/3Y0ZNi

Tip 1 Offer experiences and ideas people can be a part of: participatory experiences. Don't talk about things that others can't take part in. This is the "don't talk about what you're eating" rule. If you're describing how to make a bacon martini, that's good. A restaurant recommendation is also kosher (unlike the bacon martini). But things like "eating toast" will just annoy your followers.

Tip 2 Link to interesting content, but give people a reason to click on the link.

Don't go: Cool! http://bit.ly/De45e.

Do go: Pretty great. And totally random. Hamburger bed!! http://tinyurl.com/ckuvkj (@Andrew_Chen)

Tip 3 Be thought-provoking; spark discussion, don't just parrot the things you hear in the mass media. Good: Amazing second day at TED. Lots of scary stuff about the state of environment, but reason for optimism as well. Kite energy is the future! (@surferdad)

Tip 4 If you do want to contribute to the discussion of the mass media, offer personal observations. I own a $20 million startup. Make that $2 million. Make that $2,000. #recession #nerdpickuplines (@mcritz)

Tip 5 Ask questions. It's a good way to get responses and to create a dialog, instead of a monologue. It's good form to follow up after people respond. Need to work on playlist for college-themed party this weekend. Here come the 80s, baby! Requests? (@dpakm)

Tip 6 Use tags. It gives some context to what you're writing, and may attract followers. It's a convenient way to explore what people are talking about by using Twitter Search. Here are some popular tags (more at HashTags.org):

#tcot: Top Conservatives on Twitter. It's an example of how people are building communities of interest. Recent tweet: Reid calls a Senate all-nighter. Images of him, Franks and Boxer in a pillow fight. Ick. #TCOT #stimulus (@jamesdickey)
#mumbai : A tag created to give real-time information about the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai (Bombay). Also see #gaza
#jobfeedr : A company that tweets about job openings, Jobfeedr.

Tip 7 Respond to people. You do this by using "@" in front of their twitter name. You give people a reason to keep making the effort to write good Tweets! Consider @StoweBoyd's feeling: I dislike when people join twitter, broadcast all sorts of info about their work and personal lives, and don't respond to tweets.

Tip 8 Retweet! When you like something, pass it on, by sticking an RT on the front of the tweet. It has been proposed that the number of retweets be the measure of someone's influence.

Tip 9 If you're at a loss, quote. It's a way to be funny or inspirational without having to be original. If it's something you overheard, start your tweet with OH. For example: OH: "i posted a comment on sfgate that said the $50 million bridge money should be used to make a plank for people jump off, and got banned" (@mhalligan)

Tip 10 Be funny. Easier said than done. It's good to try. When I was a kid, our footie pajamas weren't flame retardant. GodDAMN, we were hardcore.(@wilw)

Lisa Brewster: "find the people who you think will care and establish their trust"

Chris Lunt — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:11:25 -0800

Photo by Lisa Brewster

I had a chance to interview Lisa Brewster about her thoughts on personal brand. Here are the highlights, with my favorite quotes in orange.

Why are you putting yourself out there?

There are several reasons, all with completely different motivations. The most important reason is because I have a bad memory, and I'll forget details both large and small if I don't record them somewhere. It means a lot to me to go back months or years to reflect on where I was as a person during that period. I also have challenges that other people share, and by recording my explorations I can both keep track of my own progress and educate others at the same time. But as inspirational as I like to think I can be sometimes, I get shy when meeting people in real life. By using online tools, I can feel like I'm being myself without worrying about forgetting someone's name or taking too long to come up with something interesting to say.

What is the single most valuable web channel for getting in front of the people you care about?

Based on how I communicate, the most valuable channel is Twitter...but it really depends on what the message is. My thoughts typically come in small snippets suitable for starting conversations or aggregating in my wiki, but others' styles may get better results using a different combination of tools. There's no formula that you can apply to everyone.

What piece of information about your brand, that you don't have, would you most like to have?

More analysis of how my life is going, commonly referred to as lifetracking. I want to publish a reflection on successes, challenges, and insights to provide context for the data I'm generating every day. Lifetracking can combine any metric you can record about yourself...location, diet, exercise, weather, mood, and so on. With the appropriate data points, one can start to identify patterns, such as optimal configurations for productivity or a food ingredient that always makes you ill. The act of lifetracking is generating metadata for your life, and when you combine this with a social network you're creating a semantic web of people, not just machines.

What really distinguishes your brand?

As you can probably tell by twitter this afternoon, this was the hardest question for me to answer! According to all the marketing blogs, I've clearly established a brand...but I'm not entirely sure what that branding message is. I've identified some of the aspects of it: empowering and supporting local communities, open licensing (like creative commons and open source software), skepticism of marketers, having full knowledge and control over what goes into my body, protecting personal freedoms...I feel like the mix is the distinguishing factor, but I can't define what the theme is. I'm just me.

What would you recommend to someone who is just starting out?

Identify something you're passionate about, identify your target audience (not just "the Internet"), and ease yourself into the conversations they're already having. Even if you want your brand to eventually stand on its own, nobody is going to be there to listen if you're shouting in an empty room. You have to find the people who you think will care and establish their trust.

10 Creative tabs by Nombray users

Chris Lunt — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:35:02 -0800

Here are some really interesting tabs:

Swurl: This is an interesting way to aggregate all your status messages, tweets, and micro-blog messages.
RockBand & Xboxlive Profile: Video games are increasingly a big portion of social interactions. I have a couple of friends who wouldn't interact with anyone if it wasn't for World of Warcraft. These tabs are a cool way to bring that part of your identity in.
Google profile: Very easy to set up, and a great way to give a generic introduction of yourself.
CD Collection: I use Shelfari to show the books I'm reading--this is a good way to show the music
Google Page "About Me": Good use of Google page to do a simple intro. Since she made this, we added our tab editor, so you can do it directly on Nombray as well.
Testimonials: If you're using Nombray to further your career, what a great way to offer some social proof!
GoogleReader Shared Content: When I saw this, I was excite to add one myself to show people my collection of "Best of Fail Blog"
Resume: I'd mentioned Emurse before--here's another pretty example of that service.
Apple Photo Gallery: A pretty presentation--another good way to put up some photos.
IMDB: Hey, someone with a legitimate reason to include their IMDB profile, cool!