When Curran isn’t cracking open a fresh deck, he employs his collecting prowess to help John Sviokla, Managing Director of Innovation and Research for Diamond, select who becomes a member of the “Diamond Fellows,” an eye-popping list of 10 intellectual powerhouses that Diamond keeps on contract like Gordon Bell and Alan Kay. To gain a competitive edge, the firm hosts cozy events for clients with the Diamond Fellows through the program, DiamondExchange.

“Through Diamond Exchange small groups of clients come to interact with the greatest business and technology minds in the world,” said Sviokla. “It’s like intellectual fantasy camp.”

And, when there is a special client problem that calls for a paradigm shift in thinking, Diamond hand selects the perfect player from its star lineup.

“While one client’s challenge might be better suited for Chunka Mui, a former Diamond consultant and co-author of ‘Unleashing the Killer App,’ another client could thrive in a brainstorming session with the inventor of the spreadsheet, Dan Bricklin,” said Sviokla.

In this viral economy, delicately arranging partnerships with high profile personal brands with people power can be potent PR for brands that want to expand their online presence. Innovative media outlets understand this. To move beyond its print magazine, Harvard Business Press is selecting big brains like Sviokla to blog, so now Sviokla, the collector, has become the collected.

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I ran across an Ezine article that was supposedly written by one of my client’s employees. Not only was the article poorly penned, the firm’s name was spelled wrong. To top it off, it was so basic that it brought the firm down to the level of a kindergartner. In reality, the firm had won award after award for industry innovation.

The SEO Firm Didn’t Bother to Get Client Approval!

I brought the article to the attention of my client. He admitted that it was the first time he had seen it. He guessed his SEO firm must have been responsible and said that he would put a stop to it immediately. Unfortunately, another article reared its ugly head not too long after he confronted them. So, for the second time, the SEO firm hadn’t even bothered to get the client’s approval before they published a piece that would forever linger on the web!

Spraying the Web with Keywords without a Strategy

What was abundantly clear was that the SEO firm didn’t care about the firm’s strategic positioning. They didn’t take the time to learn the client’s industry, how the client differed from its competitors and how best to showcase the brand in a thoughtfully crafted article. All that mattered to them was spraying the web with the client’s keywords and propelling them to the top of search engines at a break neck pace, even if it broke the client’s brand in the process.

It was this experience that inspired me to create Keyword Communication, the strategic process of developing and distributing compelling keyword-driven content consistently across an array of communication channels, using SEO as the driving force to deliver measurable results.

PR and SEO: The Art and Science of 21st Century Communications

The best SEO firms will admit that they are not PR experts. In fact, the smart ones, like Pete Hollier, President of SEO Wizardry, strike strategic partnerships with PR firms to deliver both the art and science of communications in the 21st Century. He understands that it’s not enough to simply drive traffic to a client’s site. You have to keep potential customers engaged with compelling content that positions the company in a positive light. In turn, I understand that tapping the power of SEO is a golden opportunity for public relations to make a deep impact on the bottomline like never before.

In my experience, SEO firms are not communicators and PR people are not techies. In this new media environment where people use keywords like smoke signals to connect in this ocean of information and interactivity, PR and SEO are destined to merge. We need each other in the worst way. I’m thankful that SEO experts like Pete get it.

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I took Kaplan’s advice. Unfortunately, right after I chose T.I. and Rihanna’s “Live Your Life,” as my theme song she chose to get back together with her abusive boyfriend, Chris Brown. Rather than choosing to live by Rihanna’s real-life example, I hope her fans—mostly preteen girls—listen to the song itself for guidance. In the song, Rihanna imbues a strong sense of self who wouldn’t dare let a bully boss her around.

It is Women’s History Month and bullying, whether by a boyfriend, in cyberspace or on the playground, is a big issue facing young girls. Add to the mix “Frenemies,” girls who are your friend one minute and your enemy the next and you can see why parents are facing a challenging set of circumstances. Often, conversations about solutions center on fixing the bad behavior of the bully.

But, why do girls let themselves be bullied? If I remember correctly from the hardest years of my life, it was because I didn’t have a strong sense of myself. That wouldn’t come until my late 20s.

I think young girls could benefit by leaps and bounds from the personal brand building tools that Kaplan has to offer beginning with “Know Thyself”. If you are a parent of a preteen girl, ask her what her theme song would be. It could be a great way to help her cultivate a sense of self-awareness and worth or at least get the conversation started.

Consider sharing the 10Ks with a young girl in your life. It’s available in their favorite form, itunes.com.

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Kaplan Mobray, author of “The 10Ks of Personal Branding,” the Diversity leader for Deloitte, and a black, salsa-dancing, saxophone playing motivational speaker, says that young black men tell him how emboldened they feel to see another black man in a prominent position. He encourages them to see their diversity as an asset and broaden their horizons beyond sports and entertainment. He contends that corporations need diverse talent to compete.

Corporations, associations and universities are increasingly booking speakers who reflect the faces of the constituents they serve and the employees they seek, according to Lawrence Watkins, founder of Great Black Speakers. Due to an increased demand for diverse speakers since Obama was inaugurated, Watkins is adding Kaplan to his prestigious, robust roster of prominent black speakers such as movie director Spike Lee, CNN anchor, Don Lemonn and Gloria Jackson, the great-granddaughter of Dr. Booker T. Washington.

“We are getting requests from people who wouldn’t have considered a black speaker in the past,” said Watkins. “It’s a great time to be in the business of booking great black speakers!”

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