When your brand and your job conflict

American University graduate student Michael Flynn, also a reporter at NBC 4, asked Bell how journalists working for news organizations could make independent names for themselves, saying some employers place limits on what journalists can do.

Professor Amy Eisman said in the world of objectivity that journalism is based upon, displaying your opinion is where things could become challenging.

Bell suggested writing about passions that journalists aren't addressing during the day, but Eisman said you also can't speak out about things that might conflict with your job. The issue sparked debate among students, many of whom argued that when you walk out your door, you are your company.

Branding yourself

There are a lot of lessons to be learned between marketing and journalism, Bell said.

He doesn't understand why more journalists aren't jumping at the chance to build their own brand. One student asked if Bell thought more journalists would jump at creating their own brands with the layoffs occurring across the country.

Bell said he believes if journalist expect to make a living out of this business in the future, he thinks creating your own brand will be a necessity.

Measuring success

KPI, or key performance indicators, is important, Bell said. Know how you're going to measure success for your company.

"The bottom line is...that you are of course working in a highly measurable environment," he said.

Ogilvy measures by search reach, search visibility, conversion and engagement, Bell said.

Engagement is "the new thing," he said. It looks at word of mouth and site activity.

(Side note: He doesn't want to draw a chart on the blackboard. It involves chalk. Chalk is "weird.")

Five simple rules

Bell discussed marketing blogger Rohit Bhargava's rules of social media optimization:

1. Increase your linkability.
2. Make tagging and bookmarking easy.
3. Reward inbound links.
4. Help your content travel.
5. Encourage the mashup. (Don't be afraid for people to take your content.)

Creating your digital footprint

Don't drive people to one experience, drive them to many.

Bell's social graph is vast. He's got his blogs (his "homebase"), his Twitter account (a "staple" of the industry) and his Facebook page (good "fuel" for the social graph). He syndicates content to BusinessWeek - which aggregates content - and womma. He creates lists on Amazon.com, like reading for creative directors.

"If you are building yourself as a personal brand, doing this self-consciously is probably a good thing to do," Bell said.

Focusing on SEO

Ogilvy worked with Select Comfort, which makes sleep number beds, to optimize its site's search engine optimization.

It needed more third-party corroboration. People were talking about the product, but they weren't very influential.

So Ogilvy aggregated mentions of the bed, pulling them in to beds.com, which allowed people to talk about their experience with the bed. It reached out to people with issues to address their problems, and allowed people with interesting stories ("This bed saved my marriage!") to post their anecdotes.

Eventually, the site became much higher ranked on Google and other search engines, Bell said.

An example of outreach

Ogilvy assisted Lenovo, which sells computer products, in helping athletes tell their stories leading up to the Olympics, Bell said.

"It became a really interesting way to get involved in the story...," he said, adding it was also a way for Lenovo to have a global reach.