As I have become increasingly interested and involved in the world of personal branding, both for myself and for the purpose of helping others in their career search and development, I have read hundreds of articles and encountered many different opinions on the concept.
After boiling them all down, there appear to be three basic positions on personal branding:
- The first strongly advocates online personal branding, placing a much stronger focus on image and reputation building through social media, blogging and other online networking tools.
- The second strongly supports overall personal branding which entails identifying and communicating your true unique and differentiating value and supporting your brand through your actions and achievements both offline and online.
- The third is generally against the entire concept, considering it to be more of a narcissistic fad to over-promote oneself in a tough job market and economy.
While I support overall personal branding and take the second position on personal branding listed above, I most certainly respect those whose positions on the matter differ. However, I am surprised by the number of articles against a concept and process that is aimed to help people better understand their natural strengths and leverage them to take advantage of new opportunities in their career.
Why would anyone ridicule personal branding or argue against it?
There are definitely selfish over-promoters out there “tooting their own horns” and forcing their personal brands in others’ faces, but they wouldn’t generate so much negative press for personal branding overall, just for themselves, right? So, what else could it be?
We all have a personal brand (a.k.a. our own unique and differentiating value) and by identifying it and forming a personal branding strategy, we can more effectively communicate it in everything we do–both when we are looking for a job and when we have already obtained one.
Is it that they don’t fully understand personal branding?
This is definitely possible and was brought up and supported as a plausible explanation in Meg Guiseppi’s article, Some People Hate Personal Branding Because They Just Don’t Get It.
But, how don’t they get it?
Then the answer came to me. They don’t get it and in turn, don’t like it, because it hasn’t been defined correctly. In other words, personal branding hasn’t been branded right.
Based on the specific arguments against personal branding, it becomes increasingly clearer that it is in fact the people and experts taking the first position listed above who have defined personal branding as principally what you do online to create and promote your desired image and who are, for a lack of better words, “tainting” personal branding for the rest of us. By pushing this solely online-focused concept of personal branding under the same name, more and more people are being turned against it when they are actually against the concept of creating an image or personal brand online through blogs and social media without backing it up with an authentic in-person personal brand offline.
Personal branding will always be invaluable for career seekers and developers across all industries and functional areas. While it is a “self-centered” process, it should be only so as to help an individual identify the unique and differentiating value that he or she can then offer and contribute to an organization.
To discover your personal brand, start with Pete’s post Everything You Need to Start Building Your Personal Brand Right Now. Then make things concrete by filling out Meg’s Personal Branding Worksheet. Only now are you ready to take start making people aware of your brand with RJ’s post, How to Brand Yourself.
My advice, while still respecting all opinions and voices on the web, is to filter out the handful of over-promoters and experts who don’t know what personal branding really is. Personal branding is so much more than what you put on your social network pages or write on your blog. It’s who you are inside and out, online and offline. Your personal brand, in essence, encompasses your overall lifestyle.
Chris Perry is a Gen Y Brand and Marketing Generator, a Career Search and Personal Branding Expert and the Founder of Career Rocketeer, the Career Search and Personal Branding Blog.
