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Quite a gutsy first proper post on this site given the popularity of this topic – but it is something I have been considering for a while and now I have a forum for it.
I have an issue with the hype of “personal branding” – specifically on the web. Recently there has been an explosion on the topic of self-claimed gurus advising people what to do, or not do, or say, or not say in order to successfully build their own personal brands…but every time I read one of these posts I struggle to find the credibility.
Don’t get me wrong – I do think there is value in personal branding and I have benefited from it. If it was not for my personal branding technique that I apply to myself I don’t think I would be lucky enough to have the job I do and have the success that I have. My techinique is simple and came from a 1 hour presentation from a P&G Director who is certainly successful….very successful.
Personal Branding for me is as easy as P.I.E. You need to concern yourself with only 3 things; Performance, Image and Exposure. Without one of them, the other 2 are useless. Performance is the base – you need to have a history of results and success. To this you need to then spend a little time managing the Image and the Exposure. There is no use Exposing your Performance if you have a bad Image (unfriendly, uncooperative, difficult etc). At the same time, there is no point working hard at Performance and having a good Image if no one sees it. But it is the last mis-match that the web is becoming flooded with – people that have no record of Performance but spend their time only concerned with the Image and the Exposure.
With the rise of social media applications it becomes easy to get carried away with the concept of Personal Branding and as Ryan Jones puts it, “The Cult of Personality (me)”…how many followers do you have on Twitter? how many Facebook friends? how often do you check Google Analytics? But I think that people need to take a step back and look at their credibility. My concern is as people become overly obsessed with Personal Branding, it becomes very hard to separate the authentic from the fake. It is almost a given that part of personal branding is exaggeration but there needs to be something behind it. I echo Lisa Barone’s sentiment that you shouldn’t support personal brands that are built on smoke and mirrors…make people work for it. I am surprised everyday at the blogs that I read following a re-tweet where the post actually says nothing.
Personal Branding is something, ones does need to be conscious of one’s own brand in order to develop themselves and to open the door of opportunities, but it is not everything and fake un-credible personal branding is nothing. It is also as simple as PIE, and does not need to be so overly intellecutalised as it is on the web – even down to Dan Schwabel’s sock recommendation.
Anyway, some people might think that this post is a bit strange coming from someone that has just launched a new blog in their own name…but I promise you this blog is not an excercise in personal branding. I promise to only write on things I think I have some kind of credibility to write on- if I ever overstep the mark then please let me know. Phew…I am glad I have got that off my chest!
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Comments
01.21.10
Hi Sarah,
Just trying to get the crux of what you're trying to say...are you saying that it would be better if the personal branding articles came directly from employers (as they know what they are talking about?).
I am just re-launching my own website (for the UK) with a section on 'Building Brand You' but not intending to over intellectualize, just going to make sure everyone is on the right track and helping them stand out from the crowd.
Steve
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