There’s a Welsh proverb that says “Bad news goes about in clogs, good news in stockinged feet.”

Search google UK for the word ‘brand’ and the number 2 hit will be very different than it was 2 weeks ago. In fact, the number 3 hit is also different.

The rest of the top 10 are in pretty much the same position. I know that search rankings change daily so I’ve put a copy of the google listing below in case you’re reading this in the future.

You see, position number 2 and 3 are reserved for Russell Brand. His recent flurry of publicity around the John Sachs voice message scandal has bumped interest in Brand near to the top of a list adorned by people who ply their trade expensively building brands for their customers and presumably, for themselves.

Imagine how much Brand Agencies have spent on search engine optimisation, off-line campaigns, differentiation, emotional awareness and all of the other jargon they know. Only to be knocked down the rankings by an error of judgement and some over-excited journalists.

This got me thinking….

If you can get that level of interest (some would say it’s negative, but in the case of Brand’s brand I’m not too sure) by accident, imagine what you could do if you really tried.

Imagine if you could get yourself talked about and command more attention.

I guess this is where Public Relations fits in from a business perspective but individuals don’t tend to employ PR Agencies. Some of the principles we cover on our Instant Impact Workshop are essentially Personal PR tactics.

After all, it was Bill Gates who said “If I was down to my last dollar, I'd spend it on public relations.”