Personal Branding
The two main reasons I set up this blog are first so that I can connect with other people in the lifestyle-design community and second in order to help motivate myself to follow through on my plans. This meant that I started to think about whom I wanted to connect with and how I wanted to do that. Should I try to get as many readers and subscribers as possible or should I focus on getting a small group of dedicated fans? Should I market myself in a particular manner or should I strive to be as authentic as possible? Thinking about these things led me to think about what people refer to as personal branding.
Personal branding seems to involve creating or cultivating your image or the content of the awareness that people have of you. Often this is in the context of work and business. The premise is that customers and consumers have instant access to millions of businesses, service providers and varieties of entertainment through the internet and in order to grab their attention we need to create a strong personal brand that stands out from the crowd.
Now I understand that people form impressions very quickly both in real life and online and that this often determines how people behave towards each other. But it concerns me that it’s yet another part of our lives that is being defined by marketing and consumerism. Do we really want to reduce ourselves to a brand? The problem with brands is that they have to be simple and concise, easily recognizable and consistent. However in real life people change their opinions, beliefs and careers all the time. Does this tarnish their personal brand or enhance it? People have enough trouble as it is breaking free from restrictive roles given to them by society, it seems silly to create yet another one for yourself. For example I feel sorry for someone like Michael Phelps. He won 8 gold medals at the 2008 Olympics but has to pretend to regret smoking pot because he would otherwise lose advertising deals. Who’s in charge Michael or his personal brand?
Since the purpose of this blog isn’t to make money (though I’m open to it happening as a side benefit) I don’t feel the pressure to present myself in any particular way. Although saying that, the title of my blog and my online name, NomadicNeil, use alliteration and is memorable. I’ve used photos of myself doing cool things in interesting places around the world. Why did I not put up a picture of myself wearing a suit sitting in front of a computer as that’s how I currently spend 8 ½ hours of my day? Is it because I want people to think I’m a cool adventurous guy? Or is it because I’m creating an image for myself to live up to, to remind me of what I’ve done and keep me going in the right direction?
Do you consciously create a personal brand? How do you do it what do you intend to convey? Do you think I have a personal brand? What do you think it says?
October 4th, 2009 at 8:14 am
As you go on with this blog, you will learn more about what your path will be. Just pick the lessons as you go through.
October 7th, 2009 at 1:39 am
Thanks for the encouragement Walter!
November 11th, 2009 at 3:59 am
Marketing and consumerism didn’t invent branding. They basically just branded branding. The underlying concept, which you touched on above, is that people form impressions of essentially everything they come in contact with. All marketing did was recognize that it was already happening and ask what to do with that knowledge.
Personal or otherwise, branding is merely an attempt to make sure the impression that people will inevitably form is congruent with the impression we have of ourselves and our companies. The ethical debate gets whipped up because this sounds like manipulation.
The problem with assuming branding is nefarious is that the impressions people make in the absence of branding are often made with incomplete or incorrect information. Preventing that misconception is branding’s more noble counterpoint.
The problem with brands is that they have to be simple and concise, easily recognizable and consistent.
Some definitions of branding do claim that. However, the brand message I got from your site in the first few seconds is that you’re not cool with being defined by others’ definitions. I’d say throw out the “simple and concise” part of the definition and stick with authentically communicating what you think you’re about. If you do that, you’ll be actively engaged in branding without having to worry about the ethical quandaries.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:11 am
Andrew, sorry for taking a while to get back to you. Great insights.