Personal Branding Reviled…Oops…Revisited

Personal Branding Reviled…Oops…Revisited

The rumination du jour on the Twitterverse is Personal Branding.  Endless links to blog posts about how to pimp your personal brand, monetize it or sell it to the highest bidder seem to appear by the minute.  Today, I tweet:

Personal Branding is an artificial edifice that is antithetical to the transparency and authenticity expected in Social Media Marketing.

That’s it.  You pimp the brand you, and you’re going against all that we seem to say is important in Social Media Marketing.  Phil Sheard presciently asked what my thoughts were on where the line really is (understanding that deep down, I don’t think all personal branding is bad…).   My answer:

As Popeye said, “I ams who I ams…” I’d draw the line at trying to create a persona that isn’t genuine for financial gain.

I’m a New England Yankee.  That means I expect to be able to take people at face value.  It also means that I realize that for the most part, I’m going to be disappointed.  So perhaps I tend to draw the line a little too far to the conservative side.

Okay, I’ll admit it. We don’t need full “transparency” into your life.  I don’t need to see pics on your blog of you doing body shots off an asian hooker in Vegas right next to your latest masceration on marketing.  By the same token, it is unrealistic to be using all possible avenues simply to tell the world you’re the greatest.

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