Personal Branding is its own reward

Each year, Dan Schawbel’s organization recognizes some of the standout brands with Personal Brand Awards. Last year, Rohit Bhargava won the gold award, and this year Jeremiah Owyang was presented the 2008 gold award. An esteemed panel of judges made the selection and people were graded based on a few factors, such as value proposition, differentiation, and marketability.

I’m humbled to tell you that I was one of the 6 people honored with recognition. It’s quite an honor and even more so, when you see the other recipients. I’d like to take a minute and introduce you to each of the honorees (well, except me…you know me!)

Gold Award: Jeremiah Owyang

Jeremiah is probably one of the most trusted and sought after experts in the social media space. As a researcher for Forrester following media trends is his day job. He’s very generous with his time and knowledge and the judges wisely selected him unanimously.

Silver Awards: Daniel Scocco and Laura Fitton

Daniel is certainly a go-to-guy for blogging, people trust him and he constantly rewards his community. He offers up tips and strategies on blogging and currently holds the #29 spot in terms of popular blogs (according to Technorati).

Laura’s focus is on social media consulting, specifically "microsharing" which is all about harnessing the power of tools like Twitter, Pownce, Plurk and Jaiku. She’s often quoted on and offline about where the world of social media is headed.

Bronze Awards: Jim Kukral, Wendy Piersall, and little old me

Jim’s thing is all things affiliate marketing, social media and internet marketing each and every day. He communicates his brand through both video and written entries and is a common face at industry events.

Wendy introduced herself to us as eMoms at Home which has now evolved into SparkPlugCEO. Wendy’s message is about the power and possibilities of working for yourself and from home. Her personal story inspires many to take the leap.

Me. Enough said. If you want to read what Dan and the judges said…(this link is for you, Mom and Dad!)

Congrats to all the recipients. As you can imagine, it’s heady stuff to be among them.

If you’re wondering who made the call, the judges were:

Dan Schwabel, founder of Personal Branding blog
Andy Beal, online marketing expert and owner of Marketing Pilgrim
David Jones, Vice President of Digital for Hill & Knowlton and one of Canada’s top PR bloggers
David V. Lorenzo, Managing Partner of the Executive Development and Organizational Effectiveness for Gallup.
Chris Brown, Marketing consultant and top marketing blogger
Mario Sundar, Community Evangelist at LinkedIn and top marketing blogger
Kevin Dugan, Director of Marketing communications for FRCH Design Worldwide and a leading PR blogger

Read more about the award in the most recent edition of Personal Branding Magazine.