If you haven’t seen the video of Susan Boyle, contestant on “Britian’s Got Talent”, you’ve been under a rock. 47+ million hits of her audition video have been recorded on YouTube and the numbers keep climbing. In five days, Susan Boyle has become a global brand. Eat your heart out…she’s accomplished in 5 days what multi-million dollar brands NEVER do – take the world by a storm by connecting deeply with people all over the globe.
Simply amazing. She’s beat out Bush vs Shoes, Obama’s Victory Speech, and Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, as shown in this chart from the Mashable post about it:
Social media is the star here
I submit that social media is also a star here as well. Think of the perfect storm of an already-viral TV show (like American Idol, Britain’s Got Talent is a phenom in terms of ratings, audience fan, branding, and more); the YouTube effect, Twitter going mainstream, Facebook (which has finally hit an international tipping point in terms of numbers) and a global consciousness that’s growing every day, especially among young people. Oh, and don’t forget the mainstream media, who are falling all over themselves because Susan Boyle does NOT fit the “star” model they work so hard to maintain.
What a great story! I’ve heard that people in China, Russia - everywhere – are tuning in to watch her video and smiling and crying and telling all their friends.
THIS is the essence of personal branding
The ability to associate feeling and emotion with a product, service, and/or personality is something corporations pay millions of dollars to achieve. Researchers spend countless hours pouring over the data to find the magic formula. Consultants tell a new client, “I’ve got a special formula to help you break through the noise….” Whatever.
Something that I love about this story is that, true to one of the main tenants of social media, Susan Boyle is nothing if not authentic. This is the new currency that brands have to master. No, she doesn’t look the part, but that doesn’t matter – she’s wonderful just as she is and her singing is as natural and wonderful as she is. People totally believe her and believe IN her. We just met her less than a week ago and we feel like we already know her story. The whole world is pulling for her. You go, girlfriend!
And as Mashable points out, “meanwhile, if and when Boyle decides to jump into social media for herself, she’ll have a built in audience of millions of fans hanging on her every word. It’s a fairly incredible, albeit not completely surprising story.” A personal branding best if there ever was one!
Author:
Beverly Macy is the Managing Partner of Y&M Partners and teaches a social media class at the UCLA Extension. She also co-hosts Gravity Summit events.
Related posts:
- Personal Branding Interview: Susan Gunelius Today, I spoke to Susan Gunelius, who is the...
- Personal Branding Interview: Susan Whitcomb Today, I spoke to Susan Whitcomb, who is the...
- Use Personal Branding to Increase Your Sales A few months ago I did an interview with...
Loading ...
Susan has achieved a great feat. Not many brands can do that within short time. The ability to produce that short video that has become a global appeal needs careful assessment by all. But as good as this may be, overnight success need a lot of heavy support to retain the attention. Whatever we say, susan deserves the right to enjoy her creation anyway.
Susan’s instant success is wonderful and is one of those situations that occurs when the ’stars align’. Her challenge will be to sustain it. To do this she will need to continue to build on the opportunity that has been given to her and to keep her professional progression in the forefront of the public’s awareness. This requires a thorough brand strategy and careful execution.
Thanks for this tribute, Beverly. Like so many millions, I was an instant fan: she’s an un-lacquered lady, she’s the soul of authenticity, she’s the best model for all of us.
HI agree with you:
The ability to associate feeling and emotion with a product, service, and/or personality is the essence of personal branding…
But (IMHO) we cannot say that this is the case yet …
The Brand here seems the Story not the Person.
The personal branding process has to happen during time, from the roots, etc, etc, or there is a high risk of burning it!
Awesome. She is being herself and has been searching for that opportunity. To be successful one has to have some luck to get that opportunity. Finally, this woman was given a chance.
Also, I marvel at her ability to put herself out there, which is vital in personal branding. Take action and see what happens.
I, like so many others, saw Susan’s video within a few hours of it happening. It was incredible! She was open and honest and the world fell in love with her. Because of the emotions she invoked in viewers, the video and her story spread like wildfire! Although it is a little more difficult to do, brands can do something similar. They need to reach the emotional side of their customers and once they do, they will see amazing results.
Great point, Luigi. Many angles to this story, and while it will live on in legend, who knows what will become of its heroine?
[...] Non so se fai parte dei più di centro milioni di utenti che hanno visto il video di Susan Boyle dove la casalinga inglese sbalordisce giudici e platea ad una specia di “Corrida” inglese per le sue qualità canore… E’ una storia per certi versi perfetta, anche troppo forse, tanto che ea me qualche dubbio viene. Guarda la classifica dei video virali fino ad ora (solo qualche hanno fa si parlava di 10 milioni al massimo): Mentre cresceva il numero di visualizzazioni, tutti si sono affrettati a celebrare i Social Media e i Guru del Personal Branding hanno dichiarato: Susan Boyle è l’essenza stessa del Personal Branding, la sua storia una Tempesta Perfetta di Personal Branding. [...]