Getting connected with people who share the same ideas or philosophies and getting involved with groups who share similar missions or goals is critical for a brand or business reaching out into the world. Being connected to your brand’s interest community will give you market insight, market foresight, and market nimbleness.

The fast definition of an interest community is a loosely organized or unorganized group of individuals who share an interest in a particular subject, product, or activity in a common medium.

So why would these loosely or unorganized people matter so much to a brand? Because they talk. They share information and share experiences. The research the finest details and they discuss the smallest points. They do this not out of financial reward, but out of passion. They’re sharing their expertise and insight with others who are equally passionate. They spend lunch breaks and late nights hanging out on discussion boards or post reviews to retail outlet sites and without your business even knowing it—they rule your brand.

Who are they? They are everybody. Young and old, rich and poor, and from every race or culture. They are held together by two of the most overlooked threads of commonality—shared interest and shared medium.

The fifty-something African-American executive from Southfield, Michigan and the twenty-something white trades worker from Princeton, New Jersey both have a passion for all things Harley Davidson. They know details about every model that would make an engineer blush. These two very different individuals share the same passion. They share the same medium and they make a great example of an online community bound by interest.

If you are Harley, how would you reach them? What mediums to these two very different individuals share? Think of the shared interest online. Think how they may share their knowledge and thoughts online. Think of how that community of owners band together both online and offline. Finally, you (Harley, in this instance) and brands in general, must come down from the mountain and engage your brand followers—in short, you must join the community.

Chris Brogan from his article Audience or Community explains, “Community happens when people feel they’re among like-minded others and when they feel their contributions matter.”

Joining or engaging is paramount for interest communities. Communities are just that, groups that exist, communicate, and collaborate. To be a part of a community you (as a brand) must do all three.

Exist

A brand must exist to the interest community. Simply put, you must be visible. You must be real to your community. Your fellow-community members should know you’re there, but the reverse is also true. Acknowledge the people who make up the community by responding and connecting wherever possible. These are the people that will turn from simple consumerism or interest into real brand evangelists.

Here’s a great article on improving brand visibility from Social Media Examiner’s Denise Wakeman: click here

Communicate

Using social media as a broadcast-only platform isn’t communication. Communication is a two way street. A wise man once said to me, “you have two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you speak.” While he had intended it for a leadership lesson, it applies to branding equally well. Brands need to listen and participate in conversations online. Not simply about themselves, but about the industry and the everyday lives of the community. Being engaged doesn’t necessarily mean being business only. Communication is personal. Make sure your brand is, too.

Brian Solis has a great article on this: click here.

Collaborate

The colorful Gary Vaynerchuk has repeatedly made the statement, “you gotta get in the trenches, bitches!” This statement can apply for any of these categories about engaging interest communities, but collaboration is an important point. There are many in your brand’s interest community who will have as much, perhaps even more, knowledge and expertise as anyone inside your business. Being open to opinions, experiences or ideas will give you the valuable position of getting feedback quickly and from relevant sources. Imagine the power a software company might wield with a community of developers that are able to spot the tiniest glitch? While “giving away” proprietary information isn’t recommended, communicating and collaborating ideas will give your brand the edge.

Take a look at Gary Vaynerchuk’s January, 2009 video really bringing this thought home: click here.

This concept is not ours, but it is a culmination of numerous influences. Chris Brogan goes into significant depth in his book, Trust Agents. He describes in riveting detail how relationships and trust is built in these interest communities. Brands must be true to their spirit. Brian Solis devotes an entire book, Engage, to interacting with interest communities. And the ever-colorful Gary Vaynerchuk perpetually reminds brands to “get in the trenches” with their consumer base. Don’t forget to pick up his book, Crush It!

Whether getting a new brand off the round or getting an existing brand out into better light, defining and connecting with your surrounding interest community is critical. Before running out and shouting to anyone who’s there, take the time to look, listen, and as Brian Solis puts it, engage. Becoming a part of your own brand’s interest community will be the best connection you can make.

To most people, branding has fallen squarely into the business camp for quite some time. However, with the rise of the web, interest communities, and social media brands have faced a consumer populous uprising. This transfer of brand power is leading the way for the rise of a “new” type of branding—the personal brand. Much to many people’s surprise, personal branding is nothing new and the rules are strikingly similar to modern business branding.

From Pharaohs building steles, massive spires with their names on it, to the Roman Caesars putting images of their faces on coins, or to a staggering number of other examples—branding a person in one form or another has been with us for thousands of years. With the fall of monarchs and the rise of industry, brand power shifted away from the person and to the business. As businesses grew to global proportions, the idea of brand became firmly ensconced as a business concept.

Business branding started to show some signs of competition with the development of both modern politics as well as the rise of “celebrities”. Individuals were gaining notoriety over businesses. Businesses sought endorsements from popular celebrities or sports figures as the consumer public began placing more and more stock in what these “important” people thought. They were pushing to associate a very popular personal brand with a business brand.

Flash forward to the Golf Digest cover. You have two of the most profound brands in our culture today. Tiger Woods, one of the most transformational sports figures in history and President Barack Obama, one of the most astounding political success stories in recent history. Each has a common thread, a well-developed personal brand.

For a decade, Tiger Woods had the Midas touch for endorsements. Nike couldn’t have dreamed the association with Tiger would have paid off in everything from shoes to golf ball sales—much less that people would consider Nike a relevant brand in golf equipment. These endorsements gave way to Tiger developing a brand unto himself. A distinctive logo, an authoritative voice and a clear sense of purpose that normally is associated with global businesses. But Tiger is a global business.

President Barack Obama went from junior Senator from Illinois to leader of the free world with a simple premise. Hope and Change. Packaging that message with a sharp logo, groundbreaking social media activism and some solid brand practices lead to the most noteworthy campaign in modern history. The distinctive “O” built on the concept started by his predecessor’s “W” and perfected it. Regardless of your politics, the “O” and the art still draw immediate association with the success of the 2008 campaign.

Both examples are representative to the growing power of personal brands. Both are examples of of how personal brand practices and business brand practices are not too different. Small businesses can learn a lot from these personal brands, too. Almost every business has been built around either a strong person, a strong product or a strong system. More than likely, that business has developed some kind of brand around the system or product, but what about the person?

Personal Branding for the Business Leader

In the age of social media, branding and personal communication a business leader needs to think of themselves as a brand. Whether a founder, a thought leader, or main doer of the business, personal brand comes into play. Not that every business leader needs to run out and have a personal logo designed, it does mean some thought should be given to the role they play in conjunction to their business. So what are some things business leaders should consider about their own personal brand?

Find Your Passion
If you’re not bringing passion to the table, it will show. In this business climate transparency carries down to individuals and those individuals who are only mediocre about their work stand out in a very bad way. Business owners got into business for a reason—find it and let the passion show.

Tiger is a great example of passion. He doesn’t dabble in basketball, or comment on football, he’s focused on his game. Not just golf as a sport, but his game. His famous temper flares if the backspin on a chip isn’t exactly right. His passion for the game shines in everything he does.

Find Your Voice
Voice isn’t so much your vocal talent, but more the style or personality you bring to the table. This glimpse into your personal style of speaking, writing, or even behavior in front of a camera brings you to life. Some people write well, some speak well and others are great in front of a video camera. Some people are animated speakers, some use marker boards well, but no matter what your “voice” is – run with it.

Barack Obama has a distinctive style and approach to speaking. A focused, yet pragmatic pace of speech dovetails with an academic polish to give him a very recognizable “voice”. While speechwriters have captured his “voice” for his campaign stumps, his candid nature still shines through in town hall settings when he engages with people on a personal level.

Be Authentic
Just as transparency is important to show passion, being authentic is just as critical. Don’t make yourself into something you’re not. If your specialty and interest lie in the specifics of plastic injection molding, be up front with it and let the passion you have shine through. The authenticity of being “in your zone” reverberates with the modern consumer. Equally true when wandering in areas of lesser expertise. Acknowledging where your boundaries are give your customers/followers all the more confidence in you.

Tiger had some great stretches when no one could touch him on the golf course. Just as true, he had some stretches where he cold have lost in a ProAm tournament. When speaking to the press, he never hid from poor performances. He embraced them, acknowledged errors, flaws or simple bad judgements. His authenticity, his approach made his personal brand that much more real for consumers and sent his brand value skyrocketing.

Be One Part Talk, Two Parts Do
“Anyone can talk a good game,” my high school baseball coach said flatly, “but until they go out there and get people around the bases it doesn’t mean a thing.” This rings true with personal branding as well. Be sure your practicing what you’re preaching and can point to the specifics of success. If you’re advocating LEEN manufacturing processes, you better be able to speak at length about your own manufacturing success.

Tiger Woods may be a celebrity, albeit a fallen one, but he is still an incredible golfer. For every article in Golf Digest or commentary in Sports Illustrated, he has a birdie to back it up. With as many wins in the Majors as Tiger, he can speak with authority on anything golf related because he can “do”. How much authority would he have with golfers and professional athletes if he’d only won two or three Majors? Every time a personal brand speaks, it needs to have demonstrated actions behind it.

Personal brands need to be developed with the same care and self-examination as business brands. In the social media society where brand news spreads faster than businesses can imagine, personal brand becomes a commodity one cannot take seriously enough. From CEOs of publicly traded companies to the sole proprietor construction contractor, a personal brand can bring incredible value and loyalty to an entire business.

Looking again at the cover of Golf Digest and the strong personal brands demonstrated there—is there any doubt brands are fully in the hands of consumers and the people at large? From sport celebrities to politicians, 2010 will be all about the execution personal branding. Good or bad.

Foursquare is a combination of a game and a social media network that utilizes locations as venues in which points are awarded when you “check in” on mobile devices. Venues can be a restaurant, a store, or any other set location. While Foursquare has been address based, the system recently advanced to a pure GPS-based system for determining the venue’s location.

One of the most rapidly growing themes in social media is location-based interaction. Even though you may be in a crowded bar, you can immediately discover who in your network (friends) is there or see where they have checked in recently. Points are awarded for each check-in. Badges, or awards for frequent check-ins, adding new venues, or checking in with numerous people are given as the user gains points. Some cities or large events (CES in Las Vegas and the upcoming SXSW in Austin) even have custom badges for the savvy tech travelers.

Such games or networks have traditionally been viewed as purely recreational and not seen as having any business potential. However, like we’ve seen with many other aspects of social media, most anything can be used for smart business. In some of the more experienced Foursquare markets, we’ve seen the uprise of bars, restaurants and retail locations using Foursquare as a powerful networking and rewards tool. How?

A Foursquare Evening

To better understand how a business can maximize Foursquare, lets walk through a semi-typical example of how consumers use Foursquare. Steve is out for an evening with his best friend John and several friends. To kick off the night, they attend a basketball game at the local sport arena. Using their mobile devices, Steve and John “check-in” at the well-frequented arena. Steve sees Foursquare notify other “friends” he is at the game with John. Both receive points for checking in. Steve also has Foursquare publish his location and who he checked in with on Facebook and Twitter.

At the conclusion of the basketball game, the group decides to hit a nearby bar. Again, both check in and again, both see their networks and other social media accounts get notification. Because the establishment is “social media friendly”, a “tip” shows up on Steve and John’s mobile devices that the bar is offering “2 for 1 rail drinks with arena stub”. After some time, the group decides to call it a night. Steve and John go their separate ways. Steve heads for home, but receives a check-in notification that John went to another bar and met up with several others. Feeling hungary, Steve decides to stop at a local take out restaurant.

At the local take-out restaurant, Steve attempts to check in only to find the venue not in the Foursquare system. Using his mobile device, Steve is able to add the venue and check in. In addition to gaining points for checking in, Steve receives additional points for adding a new venue. Taking his food, Steve ends his evening back at his apartment.

While this whole escapade may seem like “over sharing” to some and a breakdown of interpersonal communication to others, there is opportunity for a business to capitalize on this location-based interaction. As we mentioned at the bar near the arena, Foursquare allows users to add tips or to-do items associated with venues. This can range from specials to menu suggestions, or even reviews on service. Simply put, this is a forum where consumers are talking about your business (your brand). Being part of that conversation would be a good idea.

Benefiting Business

Being part of the Foursquare conversation is a lot like participating in other social media. It will take time. It will take some open-mindedness. It will take a bit of hands-on research about your individual market. Depending on your individual market, you may already have a presence on Foursquare. The question is then, how does a business make the most of it?

Here is an Example of a Bar/Pub—

One bar uses Foursquare tips to announce specials to users “checking-in” at their location. This “exclusive” special gives the bar the ability to see in real life the effects of Foursquare check-ins. By showing the bartender you’ve checked in, simply flashing the status screen, the business owner can keep a relatively accurate tally sheet of the number of specials versus the number of actual check-ins.

This particular establishment goes one step further. The individual who has the most numerous check-ins over time (referred to by Foursquare as the “Mayor”), receives free tap beer when he or she arrives with more than two others. Why? First, to reach the status of Mayor a user has to check-in a significant number of times. In all likelihood, that means they have made numerous purchases. Further, when coming in with others, it is far more likely the others will spend even more when one of their members are perceived as “drinking for free”.

Is the system foolproof? No. Neither are most promotions. However, rather than focus on the Mayor, for example, look at the number of people competing to become the Mayor. Looking at the tally of drink specials, you have an excellent source of feedback of a low-cost marketing effort. This example may be unique, but think of your own business’ situation.

Many will agree Foursquare is just one of many location-based social networking apps currently in use. Participating in more than one may be beneficial. A word of warning—don’t fall into the “if you build it they will come” trap. If you have Foursquare specials, be sure you advertise it in the entrance. Bring it up on your Facebook Fan Page or Twitter. Have fliers out in the customer areas. One of the best examples we’ve seen is a sign in the front door of a bar “We are a social media friendly establishment: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare — Check in or check them out for specials”.

With all of the advances in mobile devices, the changes to the way consumers or customers interact with a business, and the ever-more entwined we are with social media, the more businesses have to look at developments like Foursquare. Just imagine what you could do with your business?