Are we so self-obsessed that even our funeral is personal branding?

Written on 16th October 2008                                                                                                              5 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Two weeks ago, Dutch blogger Ridzert Beetstra wrote a post about a life insurance company that challenged all Dutchmen to “pimp” their funeral. After expressing his amazement, he ended the post by mentioning the song he wanted to hear on his funeral. What followed, were ten comments from people saying which song would be the soundtrack of their lives. I was one of them.

When I posted my request to family and friends, it didn’t seem then weird. But when I later thought about it, telling the world how the tunes during my farewell day will sound struck me as kind of odd. Particularly in the sense that I couldn’t imagine myself sharing something like that a few years ago.

Act normal, then you act crazy enough

The baby boomers and Generation X were raised to be modest people. Like the Dutch saying goes: “act normal, then you act crazy enough”. Sure, most western societies were pretty focused on the individual compared to most Asian cultures, yet self-expression was something that wasn’t considered to be decent. Adolescents formed groups and wore certain clothes or hairstyles to distinguish themselves, but that’s about it.

Every kid a brand

But my generation grew up with Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, and other social networks. Every single soul on the face of the planet could start its own brand by creating a page on one of these services. Choose your pictures, make sure you fill in the right favorite movies and books, collect as many friends as possible: every kid starts his or hers own brand.

Funeral great outlet for personal branding

When I see ten young men telling the world about their funeral song, I can’t help but thinking that we’ve become so focused on personal branding that even our burial or cremation forms a great outlet for it. I also recognize this in the marketing message of Richard Derks, co-founder of Respectance.com (a social network for the deceased):

Who dies in two years and doesn’t have a Tribute on Respectance.com, didn’t have a lot of friends

On L1veon1ine, users can, amongst other things, tag themselves to create a “digital” DNA, which floats in cyberspace forever. Gary Vanyerchuk told the Web 2.0 Expo New York audience that his biggest motivation was his online legacy, so that even his great grand children could see what he has done. Mashable’s Stan Schroeder gives four ways to deal with the Google Afterlife. You can also take the online material offline and publish it on your digital tombstone.

Taboo

Maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe personal branding gave us an outlet to tell people something that used to be taboo: “yeah, I can finally share which song defines me”. However, I think it’s an interesting discussion. Did the focus on personal branding took away some of our social barriers?

The soundtrack of your life

To end this article, I’ve made a soundtrack of the funeral wishlist as posted on the Dutch blog. It might inspire you when writing your funeral scenario. Don’t forget to share your choice on Facebook.

death, digital tombstone, eternity, facebook, friendster, funeral, mashable, myspace, personal branding, Respectance.com, richard derks, Ridzert Beetstra, stan schroeder

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Social network for the dead Respectance crosses the ocean

Written on 3rd October 2008                                                                                                              2 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

“Who dies in two years and doesn’t have a Tribute on Respectance.nl, didn’t have a lot of friends”, says Respectance founder Richard Derks in a press release issued today. He sure knows how to get attention, as you simply can’t ignore a statement like this. Let me explain you the situation here.

Richard Derks

Respectance.com is a social tribute network that offers people the opportunity to honor the lives of their deceased loved ones. That sounds more stylish than the no-friends argument and honestly, the site also ousts the loving family sentiment (with flowers, pictures of grandma – while she’s still alive, and clouds – a metaphor for eternity) instead of the “don’t die without friends”-one.

Anyhow, the reason Derks has sent out a press release is because he has launched a Dutch version of Respectance. It’s their first step in conquering Europe. Why Holland, you might ask – since it only has 16 million citizens. Well, it’s Derks’ home country.

Respectance’s launch in Europe is going to highlight some interesting cultural differences. Derks already told me about one when I interviewed him in November 2007:

“Even though we have no marketing activity going on outside the US, 55 percent of the visitors are foreign. Especially in Latin America and Scandinavia, Respectance is really popular. This reveals some pretty interesting cultural differences. For instance, a Norwegian web site for parents who lost their child, advised its visitors to visit Respectance. My American employees were shocked by the pictures of babies, and asked me to remove them. Naturally, I didn’t do that, since our slogan is ’share your memories’. Everybody is allowed to do so”.

Grandma is still alive now, but when she’s dead, I’ll make a tribute on Respectance.com

Europe, respectance, richard derks, Scandinavia, United States

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Respectance.com, putting the ‘emo’ in social media

Written on 5th December 2007                                                                                                              12 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Respectance.com is a social tribute network that offers people the opportunity to honor the lives of their deceased loved ones. Its founders, Todd Wilkinson and Richard Derks, are calling themselves emo-social pioneers. After a fancy diner at Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten’s house in downtown Amsterdam, I had the chance to ask Richard Derks some questions about this new term.

“Emo stands for emotion. We believe that social networks need more emotion in order to gain relevance. In our network that is remembering your loved ones”, Derks explains. He and Wilkinson came up with the idea after the death of Wilkinsons’ mother. Friends and family told him stories he had never heard before, making him realize that he didn’t know his mother that well. Inspired by this event, Derks and Wilkinson started thinking of a way to share memories with others. The result was Respectance.

Derks: “We’ve aimed at the American market, since we consider Americans most ready for emo-social media”. (more…)

interview, respectance, richard derks, social networks

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Respectance raised 1,5 million Series A

Written on 27th July 2007                                                                                                              1 COMMENT
Patrick de Laive, Internet entrepreneur and co-founder of The Next Web Conference. Twitter: @patrick

Respectance just raised 1,5 million euros from Solid Ventures and Big Bang Ventures. Respectance did a showcase at The Next Web 2007 and left a very good impression with the audience and not surprisingly, delegates of Solid Ventures and Big Bang Ventures where in that same audience as well.
It seems like something nice sprouted out of that presentation.

Respectance is a social tribute network to honor the deceased.

TV4B did an interview with Richard Derks of Respectance during The Next Web Conference. check it out. (more…)

nextweb2007, respectance, richard derks, Start-ups, Video Interview

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