- Author of the book “Personality not Included” interviewed by Network Solutions and Our Friends from Small Businesses Across the DC Area.

Rohit Bhargava is rising star in the PR and Social Media world. Rohit is a founding member of the pioneering 360 Digital Influence Group at Ogilvy – a leading group in helping clients around the world navigate the social media universe. He publishes the award winning Influential Marketing blog which listed as one of the top 50 marketing blogs in the world by AdAge magazine. Rohit is frequently featured in media worldwide including The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Marketing China (China) and AdWeek (Australia).

The last event with Rohit that was hosted by Network Solutions was very well attended despite the massive storms. Tonight looks like it is going to be a scene from Monsoon Wedding as well. Rohit must be someone who can “bring the rain” instead of “bring the pain”, but I digress. There was some great coverage from two previous posts. The first post covered all the different blogs and interviews from attendees and the second post was of Johnny Goldstein’s podcast “Johnny’s Par-tay”.

Here is the play-by-play of the event…

Tonight we are at the Network Solutions HQ here in wild and exciting Herndon, VA. There are about 75 people here and the room is standing room only. We started the evening with an intro by Frank Gruber, Product Manager of Social Platforms for AOL. Frank is a very prolific blogger and social media junkie. His blog, SomewhatFrank.com is about all the bright and shiny technology things that he comes across. He and Rohit were talking about their first time meeting where Frank had a camera attached to his head.

The idea of this book is about setting yourself apart as a company through the personality of your brand. One of his first ideas was to create a “choose your own adventure” marketing book but that was revealed to be a VERY BAD idea. He wanted to make the book so that it was relevant to how you operate in business every day. He spent time putting in real stories because that is what people really connect and relate to instead of a marketing “expert” telling them how to operate their business.

The other key is the advice section that makes the book useful all the time. He provides some very useful lists…

One powerful thing in companies are the “accidental spokesperson” who become the impromptu go-to person for all things related to “your company”. Frank goes on to ask about big versus small companies – does size matter? It is a myth that all big companies are faceless and all small companies are quirky and hip. In a big company there are more challenging because of “slios” – web dept, marketing dept, product dept. etc. They are a located in different places, lead by different people and paid differently with different missions.

Karmic Marketing is Powerful, but fuzzy. Look at Zappos, their customer service team is empowered to make the decisions (like send a client flowers) and really affect brand loyalty for the positive.

Frank takes the devil’s advocate position as a product person and asks about what happens when you have a great product.
- Twitter is a great example. Twitter is failing alot lately and user experience is suffering greatly. So what do you do when it comes to personality? It is alot like being in an abusive relationship, but who is the enabler – twitter or us?

Rohit brings up the first generation iPhone and when they dropped the price so quickly. Apple is a great case study in good brand marketing, however, they don’t let their employees blog, talk, or communicate with the press unless they tightly control it.

Frank decides to move away from technology companies and ask about how this approach works in other industries. Rohit talks about the time he went to a restaurant called “WD50” which uses a technique called molecular gastronomy to create food. Then, there is a restaurant called “mini-bar” which is inside of Cafe Atlantico in Washington, DC. – which is also one that focuses on serving six, that’s right SIX (6) people per dinner every evening in two hour blocks and twice a night. This creates an experience that is UAT (Unique, Authentic and Talkable.

Lastly, you need to take on the approach that is what he calls “Curiosity Marketing” that is really described as more of a viral marketing strategy, but could definitely relate to social media as well. One of the things that intrigues people is when you give them a secret to hold.

Now we go to the audience:

Q: Does this apply to Non-profits
Rohit: Definitely. This really fits the “passionate enthusasts” model. We used Kiva as a great example in the book.

Q: Does social media allow us to share our stories and more of our personality?
Rohit: Absolutely. I didn’t want to write another “Blog book” and I wanted to go broad enough but it is where something like social media these days, versus five years ago, you have to have incorporated into their strategy.

There are some more great questions and Rohit answers them for the audience. Check out the video below for the full presentation and Q&A.

On an evening with storms right out of the movie Monsoon Wedding, Network Solutions hosted its first networking meet-up featuring author and speaker Rohit Bhargava. This was the event that sold out in less than one hour after invitations were sent out. More than 40 attendees made it through heavy traffic, tornadoes and a torrential downpour. In addition, the event was broadcast live online.
The evening featured networking and Rohit’s enlightening and educational discussion about his new hit book “Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Brands Get it Back.

Rohit’s talk covered a wide range of issues from stories out of his book to fun facts he learned while he put together his book. Throughout the evening the in-person and online audience was super engaging and peppered Rohit with questions dealing with a variety of topics including the need today for not only large businesses and non-profits but also small businesses to create an engaging brand while also having a unique personality.

During the presentation, Rohit covered examples of companies that have effectively engaged the online community and ways for marketing and differentiating yourself as a small business.

In response to one question from the audience, Rohit provided a roadmap for small businesses that are just starting out on how to begin the process of building a brand, a unique personality and most importantly a relationship with the community.

Missed the evening for some reason ? Watch it here. http://blip.tv/file/965449/

Also do not worry, Network Solutions is planning more of these events so please say tuned. Add your name here to be notified of future events http://solutionsarepower.com/event-registration/. We want to see you at the next event.

Photos credit : Nahum Gershon

Special thanks to Jonny Goldstein for being a great moderator on Wednesday evening, Scott Stead for doing a fantastic job for coordinating the live stream on the web, Jill Foster for her super hard work pulling together all of the details of the event and finally Busboys and Poets for the wonderful set-up and food.

For those of you out there who have never been to Busboys and Poets, check it out. It is really a great place in the U Street corridor. Also thanks to all of the attendees. We know you could have easily gone home and skipped this event and stayed out of the pouring rain.
Thanks for making the event a success. Last of all, please feel free to send us any suggestions about this event or suggestions for future events.

We can’t wait to hear from you.

Blogs and buzz about the event.