There’s a lot been written on the Internet about building a ‘personal brand’. Advocates of strong personal branding trumpet how important it is to be consistent online, and warn how every blog post, every tweet, every delicious bookmark, every flickr photo, adds up to shape your digital persona.
It sounds very scary, and I suppose it’s true. The problem is, we’re human beings. We’re fallible. We change our minds. We don’t always know the direction we want to take, long-term.
I’m one of those people who likes to try lots of different things, and while I’m doing so, I like to share what I’m up to with similar people online. My personal feeling is that life’s too short to limit yourself – unless of course you’ve found a true passion you’re able to dedicate your life to.
So I ask this: what happens if we start blogs, or start tweeting when we’re interested in one subject, only to change our minds a few months down the line? Aren’t we allowed to be a little bit random, a little unpredictable?
A little bit human?
What if you’re interested in technology for a while (done that), then you get interested in art (done that), then you’re interested in web design (doing that)? Is being actively interested in lots of different things really muddying up your ‘personal brand’ to the extent that everyone’s totally confused who you are?
If everything that’s been written so far about branding yourself online is true, then the answer is YES!
So what’s the solution? Is there a solution? Should those of us who like a bit of variety in our online lives just say “stuff it!” to having a consistent personal brand?
I wish I was well-known enough to ask a few top bloggers these questions, to get their opinion. However, this is my first post, so let’s face it, that’s probably not going to happen.
Instead, a few bits and pieces to worry about:
Manage personal brand like a porn star
If you don’t clean up your name now, you’ll hate yourself later
Personal branding and blogging
3 Comments
I suppose we’d have to begin by trying to figure who you’re trying to impress (upon), which is all personal branding really amounts to.
Personally speaking, I expect those things you mentioned from you, given what I know about your likes and dislikes.
It’s not like you’re the head of marketing for some stuffy and staid Fortune 500 company, so flexibility is fine.
Of course, there are some basic rules to personal branding (thou shalt not litter and pepper every missive with expletives etc), but in broader terms, it’s just a set of rules defining how you wish to present your persona.
Interesting post.
I personally find people who are always ‘on message’ on Twitter a real turn off, lacking genuine personality, so I’m pleased to see this question raised.
Firstly, I think it’s fine to have different and varying interests as long as you make it clear what you’re purporting to be an expert in (if anything), and what you’re merely interested in.
It would be a real shame if people only joined conversations that furthered their professional images, and my goodness what boring places social networks would be. Of course, there are those that go too far and tweet random nonsense at all times, but they’re probably not concerned about personal branding in the least.
It’s my belief that being consistent in your personal branding is less about _what_ you talk about and more to do with _how_ you talk about it. Like Wayne mentioned, f-ing and blinding about a football match in between professional tweets about your industry could make you seem volatile and inconsistent. But would I think your personal branding was all over the place if I saw a pattern of changing interests? No.
If you categorised all my tweets, I’d say the biggest pile would probably relate to marketing and PR – no surprise there. But there’d be lots of other piles too, about technology, current affairs, books I’m reading, and indeed some about my family and the town I live in.
For me (a person using Twitter for business as well as socially) I guess it’s comparable to the sort of conversations I’d have at the office. It’s mostly business, but I’m still a human being!
Hope that helps.
Interesting comments from both of you. Thanks so much for taking the time!
So, to recap, it’s not so much what you write about on a blog, or on Twitter, but more how you go about writing it that impacts your personal brand.
Emily, I agree with what you say about people who are always ‘on message’. When I come across somebody’s feed on Twitter, and see that all they ever talk about is their work, I seldom follow them. In fact, I’ve recently been unfollowing a few people who were doing that. I was beginning to feel Twitter had turned into some sort of free-for-all sales convention!
Well, thanks again, you’ve both given me a bit of reassurance as I take a nervous step back into the ‘blogosphere’ with a different approach to last time.