I’ve been thinking a lot around community building, marketing and branding over the last year, primarily around AST but also around work and testing at large. Two links crossed my path today which follow that thread of thought nicely.

  1. The Brand You is Dead. Long Live The Brand You Build. – a personal brand was one that provided value pretty much sums up the article. I’ve been working on my own brand for a while now, and according to the article I seem to be doing it the right way. Organizations need to do think along the same lines: Of course the very best of breed, the Seth Godins and Chris Brogans have created very strong personal brands by creating real value for thousands of people every day. Their personal brands are focused on helping others, not on promoting themselves. Not everything needs to be directly tied to revenue; good will in the community context isn’t a balance sheet item but directly affects it. Brand management is important! If you don’t manage it yourself, someone else will for you which is less than ideal.
  2. Rails Activists – Mike Gunderloy announced today he is one of the four Rails Activists which is what the Rails community is calling their community based PR team. One of their missions according to Mike is We also intend for the communication to flow in as many directions as possible – one of our roles is to serve as ombudsmen for the Rails community. If for any reason you’re feeling frustrated in an attempt to talk to the core team (though personally, I’ve found them very approachable), do get in touch to see if we can help.. Is there someone / team in your group / company / project that fills this role? Why isn’t it you?