Reminiscent of the early days in the battle lines being drawn between the music and movie industry vs. the “free music world”, a war is brewing between the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the media and fans.

The SEC is very worried that fans will become their own broadcast stations for football games through the next generation of Flip HD cameras and so they are introducing rules they hope will stop the loss of their exclusive broadcasting rights before the loss begins. They are imposing new rules to prohibit fans taking pictures during games and posting them on Facebook, YouTube or Flickr. Oh yeah, just in case you wondered, you can’t Tweet about the games either.

If you think the SEC will be the only event organizer who sets new media policies, think again. The billion dollar TV rights buyers will demand the program sellers try and do something to preserve the exclusivity of their broadcast rights. Anyone with half a brain knows this is going to be like putting your finger in a hole in the dike. The over flow will be everywhere. How the SEC thinks they will enforce the new rules will be a question without an answer, although early on we may see some season ticket holders banned and a few lawsuits used to scare people just as in the days of early Napster.

The real answer the SEC and broadcasters are missing is the lesson social media brings us in the first place. More involvement by fans in the entire experience will only improve the interest in what is being broadcast and a rabid fan is more valuable than a fan who thinks big brother is watching his every move.

Trying to fight city hall has always been a losing proposition and the same is true for trying to bridle technology and fans. The more you try, the worse it gets. Transparency should be the new mantra for big institutions, government and yes, even football conferences.

My daughter Jennifer and I just spent our joint birthday celebrations at the Resort of the Brand of Brands…Disney.
Some people may accuse me of picking Disney to visit as a way of writing off the trip since I was both “working by studying brands”, and at the same time having good fun watching the fireworks display while toasting our joint birthdays. No one said you couldn’t enjoy your work and I always do my best to put work and play together whenever possible.

In any event, both the play and the work were of great value and while I might write on my Facebook wall about the fun side of Disney, there is plenty to comment about on the “work” side of things.

Disney is one of the best studies of Personal Branding there is. Starting with the original brother Walt and running to the expanded personal brands of characters such as Mickey, Donald and Goofy, the company has now further extended to rock and television stars such as Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. Just like their cartoon characters, the Disney Company creates, packages and then builds an entire industry around the real life stars as well. Lest anyone think that the characters aren’t treated as people with their own specific brand position and product line you have only to look to Goofy, one of my favorites. Goofy has his own cartoons, hats, t-shirts, and even now a Goofy food company. What Disney does, and is one of the best at it is, “run deep” with every character and personality they have letting the market dictate how far they go.

The lesson to each of us is a reminder that we have an opportunity to do the same with our own personal brands. Don’t stop at offering just one level or one product of your own brand; see how far your brand will take you. If you are a dentist, be all you can be as a dentist but don’t be afraid to spread your wings and stretch out into other areas such as coaching other dentist who may not be as far along in their practice as you are with yours. Take some of your more successful dental marketing ideas and offer to license them out for dentist to use in other areas of the country were your practice isn’t located and won’t compete. In some cases you may find that your license fees become as profitable as your practice just as franchises have discovered franchise fees can be just as profitable as opening a store themselves.

We as individuals marketing our own personal brand have an unusual opportunity to expand in a variety of ways never before available because the internet has given us the ability to do this at minimal cost. The challenge is to take an audit of all the assets you have, determine who might profit from those assets including your knowledge, and reach out across the web to find those people and do business with them. There is a new frontier for growing yourself as a personal brand using all of the elements of online marketing and social media. The opportunities for profit are huge just as Disney has shown us. It’s all pretty exciting!