You are not a personal brand – you are a character
Personal branding discussions are making the rounds of the social media, marketing, and PR blogging circles. Some people think “personal branding” is evil, others think it’s necessary, and others still don’t care about it.
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about personal branding:
Personal branding is the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands.[1] It has been noted that while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging.[2] The term is thought to have been first used and discussed in an 1997 article by Tom Peters.[3]
You might say that your personal brand is a collection of attributes that define you as a person and make you distinct from other people.
Thing is, a lot of people don’t want to be thought of as products like cars, MP3 players, foods, cleaning products, or sports teams. It’s demeaning.
On the other hand, anyone who’s ever gone job hunting, bucked for a promotion, or tried to sell ANYTHING knows that branding, which is based on perception and reputation, is real. Perception is reality and perception is everything. On a personal level I’ve spent many, many years fighting this idea, only to be forced to recognize it over and over again.
So, if you don’t want think of yourself in terms of a box with a fancy logo, there may be another way to think about personal branding that feels a little more human.
Don’t think of yourself as a brand – think of yourself as a character in a movie, play, TV show, or novel.
Perhaps you’re a hero like Captain Kirk, Superman, Luke Skywalker, or Aragorn.
Perhaps you’re a villain like Darth Vader, a Romulan, Lex Luthor, or Sauron himself.
Maybe you have the intellect of Mr. Spock, Data, or Sherlock Holmes.
Perhaps you have the surgical skills of Bones or House… and the acerbic personalities to match?
Characters are memorable. They have have attributes: qualities good, bad, or just… interesting.
In the right situations, people will want heroes, or villains. They’ll want a general, a drill sergeant, or America’s sweetheart.
Just remember the following:
Characters are defined in part by their words, in part by their appearance, but mostly by their actions.
If you don’t have actions to back up your words, things will eventually catch up with you. IMHO, of course. But it’s also true that perception is reality for people who don’t take the time to research, learn, and find the truth. But, if you believe, like many other people, that the truth eventually does come out, then if you want to be perceived like the character of your choice, back it up with your actions. It’s better that way.
Recent posts about personal branding
I don’t care about your personal brand
EDIT: Geoff Livingston has a follow-up article about personal branding on Nov. 12/08 that’s also worth checking out
Why you need to care more about your personal brand
How do you feel about personal branding?
Can you list your personal brand attributes?
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Neal "thePuck" Jansons:
I most definitely think of it like this. When I was deciding how I was going to pursue my online career, I made an active choice to use my nickname (Puck) as my starting point and build a whole theme around it, creating a “character”. That was why I used “thePuck”, to give it a feel like “The Batman”, “The Joker”, “The Green Lantern”, etc. The whole jester, Midsummer Night's Dream thing falls out of that.
10 November 2008, 6:23 amAlex Fayle | Someday Syndrome:
I agree. I'm definitely not the character who blogs on Someday Syndrome. That character is me, but I'm much more. In other words, who I write about on my blog is a subset of who I am. I stay authentic, but I don't reveal everything because all characters are slightly flat. Totally real characters are too complicated for fiction and a blog is a sort of fiction.
10 November 2008, 6:24 amMark Dykeman:
Some people would think of “hockey puck”, although your avatar belies that idea.
Did you know there was a comic book superhero named Puck? He was a dwarf with incredible tumbling and gymnastic skills. His specialty was cartwheeling around and knocking people over, rolling around not unlike a hockey puck. It was cooler than it might sound. Tough guy.
10 November 2008, 6:31 amMark Dykeman:
Smart observation, Alex. Yet another example of there being more than meets the eye.
10 November 2008, 6:32 amNeal "thePuck" Jansons:
Yup, he was a member of Alpha Flight, Canada's answer to the X-Men. I prefer the version from Gargoyles, voiced by Brent Spiner. The Puck was also a character in Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. I have some great namesakes :p
10 November 2008, 6:46 amMark Dykeman:
You DO know your stuff…
10 November 2008, 6:54 amNeal "thePuck" Jansons:
It has been my name since I was 18…and I am a huge nerd. :p
10 November 2008, 6:58 amJoseph:
So, why not take the action of making it easy to be found online, do it because usefulness is a huge reason people buy things, and consolidate the links to all your online stuff? That is easy. Then share that site all over the place. Anyone can do this now with a little time.
We are all out there with many usernames and streams of digital content that if packaged well could easily get a person started toward managing their brand. Think about the photos and profiles on facebook and linked in and on and on… stuff that could be recommended.
10 November 2008, 9:21 amMark Dykeman:
I think you might possibly be commenting on the wrong blog.
10 November 2008, 10:52 amTrace Cohen:
Hey Mark,
I wanted to thank you for posting my article as one to read while we are in this heated debate.
You make a very valid point saying that people dont want to be thought of as a product, because when you think of brands, you immediately think of big companies which you have grown up with. For some people it is hard to grasp the concept that people can have their own brands as well, as Tom Peters put it, you need to think of yourself at the CEO of your own company, Me, Inc. No matter how you think of it though, when you meet new people or are promoting a new product, you are more than anything, selling yourself.
More importantly as you mentioned, in the work place personal branding plays a huge part. Even trying to get a job, as I am trying to teach students, requires branding to rise above the competition. Perception is everything.
10 November 2008, 10:59 amMark Dykeman:
Thanks Trace. Your article actually spurred me to write this post.
Look, there's no doubt that a person needs to have ways to market themselves until they've passed some kind of “tipping point” at which they become well known in their field or well known in general, mainly by doing good and/or remarkable things. Personal brand is one way to describe all of the good and noteworthy attributes that we possess. However, you've also surfaced the concern that I mentioned about associating a person with a collection of tangibles and intangibles that we often associate with inanimate objects.
10 November 2008, 12:23 pmAdamSinger:
you certainly are a character, mark !
skywalker ftw
10 November 2008, 12:41 pmMark Dykeman:
Oh, for shame, that was… incredibly awful(ly funny).
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