One day a couple of weeks ago, I started off the morning on Twitter with these questions:
Do you think personal branding can go too far? Is success worth losing your true self?
I got some very interesting responses:
norcross: I think the whole idea of PB is flawed if it involves anything that isnt who you really are. reputation is what counts.
PaughGinney: When everything you do sounds like a sales pitch … That’s a tell-tale sign.
rikin311: I agree I think alot of people especially in this GenY crowd are sacrificing long term reputation for short term gains.
I think there’s so much more to be said on this subject, so I’ll share my take and then open it up to all of you. To answer my own questions: Do I think personal branding can go too far? Yes. Is success worth losing your true self? Definitely not. Everyone has different goals, different reasons for blogging and getting involved in social media. As members of the blogosphere, we have to market ourselves to some degree if we want people to read our blogs. Degree is the key word, and how we go about promoting ourselves and our work can affect both our success, and how others perceive us.
If you’re an entrepreneur, and your blog is part of your business strategy, then personal branding is part of the equation as well. But, if you blog because you love to write, or want to connect with people and become part of a community, then self promotion shouldn’t be your top priority. Let’s be honest, we all want success. It’s human nature to seek approval and crave recognition. Truth is, I was incredibly honored and excited to make Ryan Stephens’ list of Top 10 Gen Y Blogs last month. Being on that list was proof that I’m doing something right over here at Life’s Chocolates. It’s evidence that even those who brand themselves very little still get recognized by the community. It’s so easy to become consumed by creating a name for yourself, that you can lose your true self in the process. Believe it or not, people notice. We may never meet each other in real life, but if I did a complete personality 180, you would know. So, remember that there are many ways our content can affect our readers.
I blog because I love to write. I write candidly and honestly about my life because I want you to be able to learn from my experiences. Sure, I promote my posts on Twitter, but not to excess. I don’t have a Facebook fan page, my number of Twitter followers has been slowly approaching 500 for a while now, and I’ve never had a post receive more than 20 comments. But, that’s okay with me. In fact, that’s great! If a post touches one person, I consider it a success. If I get one RT, I’m excited. It’s not that I’m setting low expectations or goals for myself because I don’t think I can do better. I have complete faith in myself, but I also truly value each one of you and what you have to say. I know some of you are regular readers, but you never leave a comment, and that’s cool. As long as you’re getting something from this blog that keeps you coming back. Here’s the bottom line: When you come to this blog, you get the real me, every time, and you always will. If you ever feel differently, please let me know, because that’s the last thing I want. Read more at Brazen Careerist
Build Your Personal Brand to Become a Celebrity?
Personal branding is more than just a career development concept and practice. Powerful and world recognizable brands, such as Oprah, Michael Jordon, Tiger Woods and Brad Pitt have names that stimulate feelings, emotions and millions (even billions) of dollars.
The role of the celebrity has changed drastically over the past decade. You used to have to get a lot of mainstream attention to be known and respected, but those days are slowly coming to an end.
Of course Hollywood celebrities still have a lot of star power and can command a world of opportunities and fame, but the internet has given rise to a new type of celebrity, the micro-celebrity. If you never thought you could be a celebrity, this is your big chance. Social media has enabled anyone, yes you, to become known in a particular area and have raving fans.
Not everyone desires to be in the spotlight and if you like your privacy, forget about it. The new micro-celebrities are public with everything and can handle the new media paparazzi. In the digital world, your personal brand can be shared, embraced or tossed away. In order to stand out, become known for something and achieve micro-stardom, you need to follow a few basic principles.
- Visibility creates opportunities. People live in their own worlds, whether they like it or not. Every time you meet someone knew, you have the ability to let them into your world. You haven’t heard of most people walking this earth, but you have discovered people through various mediums, such as TV, radio, websites, newspapers, bulletins, magazines, etc. If you aren’t visible you don’t exist in people’s eyes. By getting your name out there, people will learn about you and make a quick and intuitive decision whether they want to do business with you or not. In order to become more visible, you need to become your own PR spokesperson for the brand called you. You need to get your story and messaging right so you can talk to the press, which now includes bloggers, and hopefully, they will write about you.
- Everything is public. As a micro-celebrity, you have to come to terms that everything you say and do is public online. Think about the life and times of Britney Spears. She can’t make a move without having her picture taken. Every morning she wakes up, her faces graces a different magazine cover; sometimes for better and other times for worse. On the web, anything you write or post can be shared to a group and then to a larger network and so on. After you post it, you lose control of it and people can post about you at any time. You need to be smart about what pictures you use and make sure they best represent the brand called you!
- Go to where the people are. Sure starting a website or a blog is a great personal brand strategy, but the people are already located on popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace and Ning. Facebook has over 175 million users, while LinkedIn has over 35 million, Twitter has about 5 million and MySpace supposedly has over 200 million. You need to setup shop on these networks by building your profile and interacting with the users there. Aside from becoming apart of those communities, you are also gaining control over your Google results because each of these services rank high for your name.Read more at Personal Branding Blog
