Brian Solis's Engage (12-17)

Brian Solis puts an emphasis on the internet giving people their own personal identities.  There has been a shift of power from corporations to online communities simply composed of humble individual people.  We have all been given the chance to create an online persona.  Our identities online give us a brand for our lives on the internet.  The ability to create an identity will help us express ourselves by emphasizing our beliefs and core values.  Many communities are brought together by the fact that they share the same values.  Everyday people can now break news to the world by simple active discussion and word of mouth.  Twitter promotes two way discussions and the trending hashtag system really encourages the word of mouth as a form of communication in terms of social media.  I remember I found about the Earthquake in Japan when I was browsing the forum I post on.  I then went to Twitter and joined in on the breaking news discussion.  I was given a voice because I am part of a community.  Managing your brand reflects how you act, what you like, and everyone has to do it if they want to have a presence in a community on the internet.

Solis also speaks about the future of community generated branding and word of mouth marketing in Chapter  13.  Electronic Arts just launched a facebook marketing campaign to promote the hyped video game Battlefield 3, encouraging 1 million people to like the official page in order to release the first full trailer for the game.  As of now it has 500,000 likes after one day.  It's a great way to spawn viral word of mouth and marketing simply through social media.  If there is a demand for it, people will want to discuss it.