Maybe I’m stupid, but maybe I’m not the only one. I do not “get” personal branding. I don’t understand what it is, and I don’t understand why it’s important. And I really really don’t understand what it means. In his blog about personal branding, Dan Schawbel, says it is “how we market ourselves to others.” Market ourselves to others? I don’t want to market myself to anyone. I just want to BE myself.
Schawbel also describes how important personal branding is if you are a corporate employee (which I am). He says, “If you work for a company, and enjoy doing so, then personal branding becomes the cornerstone for how you move up the hierarchy and become recognized as a leader.”
But I do not see the connection between marketing myself to others at work and getting promoted. In fact, the path I see to promotion at my job isn’t branding, it’s hard work. Sure I could follow all of the personal branding advice out there that tells you to discover what you want, create your brand and communicate it to others. But I think I would rather follow my own personal branding mantra, which I borrowed from Eckharte Tolle’s book “A New Earth.”
“Nothing you can find out about yourself is you. Nothing you can know about you is you. Knowing yourself is being yourself.”
And so that is how I am going to give myself a “personal brand.” I am going to be myself.
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I’m so glad you wrote a post on this because I agree with you- hard work will get you a promotion, not your “personal brand.” Your personal brand may get you noticed or hired, but then it’s up to you to do the hard work. But it gets confusing- is being hard working part of your personal brand? And the way I understand personal branding, isn’t it just your professional self? It would differ from from the way you acted around family or friends. Then again, I could be totally wrong. Can’t wait to see what other people think!
Blake,
Like Sheema, I’m glad you wrote on this topic. When I first began exploring the social media space, I was also confused by this “personal brand” that people like Dan Schawbel wrote about.
I think the point of a personal brand IS to be yourself, but also market that self along with the results garnered from your hard work. I’m not sure if “promote” or “market” is the right word here, but with your Twitter page, LinkedIn account, and blog; with each tweet or comment; and with each professional and personal interaction in the office, you are creating your personal brand with a consistent message about who you are, what you value, and how you work.
I’m really interested to see what others have to say on this. Thanks for writing!
Tom O’Keefe
@TomOKeefe1
Hey Tom,
Thanks for your comment! I agree that personal branding has less to do with “marketing” yourself than it does with realizing that everything you create is a part of yourself.
Glad you stopped by!
I’m so glad you wrote on this! In the whole new age of PR and marketing, isn’t the goal to get rid of all the fluff and crap marketing talk? Aren’t we trying to get away from broadcasting “messages” to “audiences,” since we are all simultaneously the broadcasters and the audience now?
I understand the concept of personal branding at a conceptual level, but totally agree with you in that — I’ve thought about it, I’ve worried about consistency, and then I decided– ya know what? Screw it, I’m going to be myself. And that means I’m going to talk about all aspects of who I am and what I care about, and not all of it is going to be relevant to every person. Take it or leave it.
Great points.
I personally don’t feel like hard work is the only way to success. And often that is the optimist’s view that hard work will get you noticed and move up within. That can happen if the people above you are observant and take notice. If you are one worker among many, then being noticed becomes much harder. I think it’s also possible to view someone who only works hard as implying that they are happy where they are at and should stay there and keep working along. I think marketing yourself is expressing yourself, but also tailoring that to fit where you want to go.
Blake said:
“Knowing yourself is being yourself.”
“The path I see to promotion at my job isn’t branding, it’s hard work. ”
OK, Being, Trust, Believe, Knowing yourself > all you need to have strong personal brand.
Marketing yourself is about being different and recognized in your niche to become a remarkable brand and then get noticed for promotion. Whatever the term you chose for the hard work process, its all lead to yourself = Personal Brand.
I don’t know if your confusion about the term personal branding or about the whole process of PB?
Thank You!
Excellent post – I completely agree!
Blake,
Great question and I guarantee you, you’re not alone. I’m going to quote a paragraph that I wrote in a post (I’ll link to at the end of this comment) because I think the problem you’re having isn’t understanding personal branding, but understanding how many have been using the concept.
“Ultimately, your actions will determine how your personal brand is viewed by your community. To determine your personal brand before you participate in a community is to assume you can manipulate the community’s perception of you to be something other than a representation of your actions. If you provide value, isn’t your only goal with personal branding to make your community aware of your actions?
It’s not your personal brand that makes you valuable. It’s you that makes your personal brand valuable.”
I don’t like to put links in comments, but if you read my whole post, I think you’ll relate very much to my problem with personal branding: http://davidspinks.com/2009/07/14/personal-branding-problem/
If it doesn’t help, yell at me (=
David
Hi David,
I think the blog post you linked to is spot on, so thank you for sharing that. It really bothers me that people think they can manipulate their person brand to be someone other than who they actually are, which I guess is what I was trying to explain in my post.
Thanks for your comment and for stopping by!
Blake,
I believe you can have a personal brand and be yourself. To me, having a personal brand is knowing who you are, what you stand for, what you believe in. It’s finding your passion, your element, and positioning yourself within it.
I think it’s just another way to say: find something you are passionate about, and reflect that, inside and out. And, passions can change. You can find your natural element to be different at different stages of your life. These environments where you are yourself are what shape you, and determine what your brand is.
In a nutshell, I would interchange the word “brand” here with “identity”. Brands are how we identify products and services. Therefore, I would suggest not getting intimidated, discouraged, or thrown off by the term “personal brand”. You have nothing to worry about because being who you are, and being comfortable with who you are is what your personal brand is all about–and that’s why people read your blog!
Excellent Say