I should not comment too much on personal branding, since it’s the province of my co-author Thomas Gad, but if you are a beauty queen, the sensible thing would be to have your own blog, as Miss Singa­pore, Shenise Wong, does.
   When my good friend Amber Peebles (pic­tured at left, in a photo taken by yours truly) went to Sanya in Red China as New Zealand’s represen­tative last year, there was an online compet­ition where the global public could vote for their favour­ite. A special award was given to the contes­tant who polled the best.
   It’s one of those “if onlys”. If she had a blog, and it were market­ed success­fully, people would get to know her. It’s the old idea of forming a connec­tion with your public. Natur­ally, she should have someone filter the strang­er comments out, but posting the daily life of a beauty queen, as Miss Singa­pore did, would have had plenty of support. When the votes were needed, she could have had a public to mobilize.
   After the competi­tion was over, and the crown handed to her succes­sor, the blog could serve to launch her career in whatever field she wanted.
   The blog world has changed things—but it is still “just a tool” that creates that old-fashioned connec­tion between two parties. Once upon a time, in the village, the vendor and the customer would have that very link. Today, tech­nology acts as the bridge, killing the concept of distance. But the idea goes a bit further than that. It makes each of us our own public rela­tions’ agent, and it can even create a career for our­selves.
   We might next see politi­cians blog next, to win votes—and to allow for real account­ability. posted by Jack Yan, 12:04 PM  permalink