Social Media Citizens

Posts Tagged ‘Branding’

Personal branding

October 2nd, 2008

Everyone wants to be unique. Someone likes a particular music style, someone enjoys being “green”, someone likes Apple – someone doesn’t. I guess it is very natural that we all make “statements” about ourselves to show who we are and what we stand for. In a way, we are all marketers, branding ourselves to our teachers, employers, even families and friends. The problem is that in the age where employers Google you before recruiting you and where parents give their children names according to their searchability, these personal branding skills are becoming very important. It is becoming a very hot topic in blogosphere as more and more people realize the transparency of the web and the opportunities it has to offer. I do agree with David Armano and Noah Brier that much of this process is related to self-actualization and looking for like-minded people on the web as Personal Brands help to identify the people who want to “listen” and “understand” you. Moreover, I think, people will have to obey the rules of Web 2.0 space and be as transparent as they can because otherwise they will have to deal with consequences of being unknown and unsearchable. In my opinion, The Web 2.0 citizens will have two options:

1. Do nothing and hear the stories about their selves created by others which sometimes may not be true.

Or

2. Invest some time , as they used to do before school discos in front of the mirrors in “making it look good”, and open themselves to the Web, with clear and credible statements about themselves.

The most credible statement is your behavior. I loved this video about personal leadership brand (HBR) and the main theme – You’re what you do.

As they say, You are the story and its your choice how you will develop and participate in it.

Of course, there always will be privacy and authenticity issues, but as web evolves and adopts video platforms, it’s going to be more difficult to create the false content what hopefully will increase the trust and will convince more people to experience the benefits of personal branding.