Sarah Palin’s Online Personal Branding

Image by AlaskaHDTV.com via Flickr

Today it was announced that Sarah Palin will resign as Governor of Alaska within weeks, handing over the reigns of the state to her Lt. Governor and taking time to help the country from outside the government.  This doesn’t seem like a preview of a 2012 run (why resign immediately, now?) but rather an acknowledgement that she probably will not.

So the really interesting question is, what will she do now?  Putting aside boring things like spending more time with her family, I think the answer is clear – video blogging.  Sure, why not?  She’s already famous, has interesting ideas, and is very attractive – all the things necessary to become a dominant YouTube star, and who knows, maybe even help people as well.

Here’s my advice to Sarah Palin.  One, change your Twitter name from @AKGovSarahPalin to something that gives you more wiggle room.  Two, keep a close eye on @FakeSarahPalin.  Three, start claiming YouTube channels, website domains, Facebook fan pages, and other obvious online locations as your own.  (Check out with T. Boone Pickens did with the Pickens Plan, perhaps.)  Four, go to Best Buy and pick up some equipment – a high end desktop computer, a video camera, some extra storage drives, and some video editing software.   Five, get your voice out there – start writing for True/Slant or The Daily Beast, put up 5 minute videos with your raw opinions about news or issues on YouTube, and start experimenting more with things like Twitter, Seesmic, and 12 Seconds when you’re mobile.  And six, get who ever makes your eyeglasses to endorse all of this – now that you’ll be in the private sector, no more free rides!!