There’s at least one big craze every year, and 2010 looks like it’s going to be the year of the personal brand.
Everyone’s talking about it. As soon as you mention the phrase on Twitter, you get several self-proclaimed personal branding experts following you, courtesy of their obedient little Twitterbots.
Although it’s a perfectly valid concept, I don’t like the term ‘personal branding’. It makes some of the things we do seem cold and calculated when they’re really not.
It can make otherwise exciting individuals look as controlled and cautious as multi-national corporations, with every word being reviewed, revised, analysed, and cross-checked before being released.
I personally find people like this very difficult to believe.
You can already see it on Twitter. Some people (including some ‘experts’) are so worried about projecting the right image in terms of their personal brand, they lose all trace of their personality. Imagine if we all became like this. What a staid, predictable, monotonous world we’d live in.
We should be aware of the personal brand we’re creating for ourselves online, certainly, but we absolutely shouldn’t neuter ourselves to the point that we all become indistinguishable clones. Where would our personal brands be then? How would we be differentiating ourselves from everyone else?
My hope for 2010 is that we all keep it real.
2 Comments
Brian, good post and I respect your opinion on personal branding. Success brands are authentic and are who you are inside. Depending on how someone builds their own brand, they could be looking to trick people or they could be genuine. It’s your choice!
Dan, your blog is one of the few I do read and enjoy on a regular basis, which is why I follow you on Twitter.
Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for the comment!