"Personal Brand" or "Personal BS"
Yesterday I read a post by Andrew Swenson which lead me to write this. His post was talking about all the hype around personal branding. I commented on his post and was then contacted by Carlos Miceli who wrote this raw and bashing post on personal branding as well.After reading their posts here is what I think.
If you haven't heard people talking about personal branding lately then you probably haven't been listening. All this talk of creating a brand for yourself and all the "experts" who tell us how we should look, act, and communicate online. It seems to me like what many thought of as Corporate America not so long ago is exactly what we are preaching for our personal brand. It seems as if the experts are saying we should paint a false perception of who you truly are. I agree you need to be careful not to offend, harm, and be disrespectful online, but isn't that true in all aspects of life? You shouldn't be afraid to be different, unique, or stand up for what you believe in. If doing those things get you in trouble with your "brand" well then find a new sponsor that believes in what you do.
As far as I can tell, the Personal Branding talk that I hear about today seems to be all about "fitting in," and "creating a perception, rather than a reality of who you truly are." As Dan Schwabel, the Gen Y personal branding expert states in one of his videos,
"If one person is connected to 10,000 people on twitter and another only 50, who are you going to hire?"
He also argues that,
"Although a person may not be friends with the 10,000 people, nobody knows that. Perception is more important than reality, online."
What Dan just stated is exactly the reason I believe "personal branding," is pretty much B.S and any employer who hires someone based on the two credentials he states would be ignorant. Dan does say that it takes a lot more than just these 2 examples and he offers a lot of other good advice on his blog for building your career, but I just don't understand why someone should paint a perception online that differs from their perception offline. It shouldn't be a game of painting some online "perception" of yourself, rather a window for others to see in. What they see through that window is what you should be more focused on. As far as the number of followers you have and who a company will hire, I believe it is not about "who" or "how many" people you know, rather, as my friend Matt Sage says, "it is about HOW you know them." So think about your brand and maybe it isn't about changing your brand's perception rather changing what your brand does.
-Shane Mac
