We’ve been working with Rusty Weston on the MyGlobalCareer.com project for the past few months at RD2. It’s been a real treat working again with someone who is passionate enough to leave the safe harbor of a real job and go into business for himself as a blogger with a great mission. If you read his “about” section, you will see Rusty’s view of how to make the world even smaller by connecting people and careers globally.

Rusty is off to a great start and he is contributing some really great content. As a professional writer, Rusty has a natural and easy to follow voice. Today I enjoyed reading Rusty’s post on “How a Pro Uses Social Media,” where he connects a real life experience and how it is intersected with social media to enable one to extend his career.

On MyGlobalCareer.com, From “About” MyGlobalCareer.com (By: Rusty Weston):

“Welcome to My Global Career, a blog–based information resource by Third Set Media in Lafayette, Calif. There are 300 million career links available on the net, according to Google, but we believe the world needs one more, a category–leading site for those interested in exploring — or engaged in — global careers.

My Global Career features reader–generated content by a burgeoning community of global workers, hiring managers and recruiters among others.”

Today I with some friends talking about the big picture of blogs, wikis and many other things social media. I hope to be doing more work there soon. One of the many things we talked about was in creating a unique and authentic voice…on being yourself. On the drive home I was thinking again about this thing we call voice. And I was trying to recollect who out there has some very unique and authentic voices. Then, into my mind came the Incredible Hulk blog. This used to be a blog that I regularly visited and will be watching him closely now from my feedreader. As far as voice is concerned, this is brilliant.

The long and the short of it is that this is a great example of authentic voice. The Hulk documents his daily adventures and mishaps in life. He is very funny as he talks about crushing things and arguing with “puny spider man.” Hulk always refers to himself in a second person sort of way. Hulk is very consistent. Chris like hulk very much. Chris especially like it when Hulk talks about smashing things.

I will cut to the chase and say that I am all for it. Sure, it’s risky. Is it random static, white noise, buck shot? While being for it I seem to contradict myself, as I could see such a metaphor; suddenly you realize the pin is no longer in the grenade…and panic sets in.

The reason I am pro-Micro-blogging is simple. It offers another extension of voice. It’s another avenue offered. Sure it seems like Microblogging is more of a fit for individuals and I can certainly understand why it would be just flat wrong for many brands. But some brands need room to grow and need a medium with an even more free form extension of voice. Maybe they will never even find voice if they stay in what they feel is the social media template.

When I think of hand-in-glove fits for Micro-blogging, I think of analysts, travel & leisure industry, media, technology, trade shows, events and I am sure there are others that will come to me by morning.

To be clear, I am seeing Micro-blogging as a mindset. The idea is to surround a personality with quick, simple and in some cases, “hands-off” contribution to blog content. Ever know anyone who was the type to ask four different questions in one sentence? Or someone who had enough going on at any given time that you had to wonder if they were consuming coffee intravenously? With the right tools, understanding and rapid focus even within a certain structure, this can be a perfect extension of brand and voice given the right approach.

1. Twitter posts
2. flickr feeds
3. del.icio.us feeds
4. 43 things
5. Digg

Furthermore, I think of all of the simple and fast methods for getting your point of view across. The methods themselves become tools for enabling Micro-blogging. Some common methods are:

1. “Press it” (WordPress bookmarklet)
2. Firefox extensions (del.icio.us extensions)
3. “Blog this” (from flickr photos)

By no means am I covering it all here. But this is a subject I feel we should be able to address. I will make it a point to learn more about how this needs to be addressed in the business environment because from a brand extension and voice point of view, it seems worthy.

If I could, I would love to get some feedback on the subject for the purpose of rounding out the rough edges and filling in some of the empty spaces. The following are areas that would be great to expand upon:

1. What brands or markets would be a fit for using Micro-blogging as a tool?
2. What mediums are available and/or potential fits? We should not only think of the obvious (Twitter) but also of mediums that with a little help from programmers would extend logically as suitable Micro-blog utilities.
3. What methods are available or should be available to make Micro-blogging easy for those with little time and an attention capacity? In other words, what practices can be taught to those who could not fathom spending more than a minute at a time creating blog content?

*Finally, am I even spelling Micro-blogging the right way?

Jeremiah pointed me to his web strategy section tonight. As I was cruising through, I saw this pic of Angela holding a print of the “Nuts About Southwest” site. Andy Lark, Angela Vargo and our team worked together on the launch of the Nuts About Southwest site. It’s been a really great community effort. Out team stays up with all of the posts and comments…..it’s a wonder they get any work done, there’s so much to keep up with!

While some people I talk to still want to know about the technologies and mechanisms that will differentiate and extend their brands, we work to focus the discussion on “discovering voice” before and within extension. And for those who are just dipping their toe into the pool, it can get very confusing, very fast. I recently bookmarked a link to a post by Jeremiah Owyang where he wrote a great article on the many forms of web marketing. The list is daunting and I cannot help but think of the marketing manager, C-level executive or business owner touching their toe into the icy waters of opportunity. What’s more, Jeremiah gave a quick reply to a comment I made about how he’s hitting us with “both barrels.” His comment: “reloading barrels ;).” He’s absolutely right, the blasts will just keep coming. The web geek in me loves this, but the brand geek in me realizes the need to embrace our clients and advise them on where to start and how.

I love the way the web is now bringing us so many different opportunities grow our share of voice. There used to be just a few templates to choose from, but now brands can custom tailor their online marketing vehicle and every fine detail along the way.

For so many, the web is a breeding ground for Brand Schizophrenia. Companies have master brands, sub brands, product brands, and so on… They run these all through filters of different target audiences across different regions with different languages in different continents. Merging these factors against the various extensions and one single message focused on millions runs the risk of performing exactly the opposite of what they wanted in the first place. A one to many communication becomes a very confusing dialog of one to one. In doing it right, we can achieve a many to many form of communication, but we find ourselves coaching on narrowing the long list down….and picking one or two. Do the one or two right. Make those your Killer App. Use that to build your platform on which you can establish your voice. Then extend…