The Danger of Personal Branding
Aug 24th, 2010 by David Svet
The concept of promoting a personal brand has gained a lot of traction as social media have grown. In many respects it’s good for everyone involved. But it’s something I’ve never been comfortable with adopting. I’ve given it a lot of thought and now I think I understand my reluctance.
My friend Autom Tagsa wrote a fantastic piece on personal branding that’s posted on his blog — The Dynamics of a Personal Brand. He hits all the right reasons and all the good that can come from personal branding. I highly recommend that you read it. Autom makes a great case for how to develop and maintain a personal brand with transparency, integrity and cooperative behavior. Great stuff. Autom nailed it.
My angst over the idea of personal branding stems from my understanding of branding. I live in Kansas City, so let’s take it back to a basic cowboy level. Ranchers began branding cattle on the open range in order to identify their own herd. They did so by burning a unique symbol on bovine buttocks. It quickly became a selling feature. If you consistently provided quality livestock at the point of sale the symbol began to have meaning and value – brand promise was born. Brands also helped keep cattle rustlers away from your herd. This worked because the brand came with the promise of shooting, hanging or ass whuppin’ by the rancher if the rustler got caught. Without delivery of that brand promise though, the cattle weren’t safe and the brand had no value. Ultimately, the brand became a symbolic representation of the ranch emblematic of quality and security. It could transcend generations and owners. Now brands are built because they have value and can be bought and sold.
That’s my rub with personal branding. Brett Favre cannot sell the Brett Favre brand to Tim Tebow, no matter how much they both might benefit. In my mind that means that personal brands live and die with the person. I think that involves something much bigger and more important than personal branding. It involves character, personality and behavior. Calling this personal branding seems contrived to me. It cheapens the core tenets that define each of us as a person. The very essence that makes me unique is too important to toss off as the latest marketing fad.
I freely admit that I could be all wet on this one. It wouldn’t be the first time. Personal branding is an easy way to summarize a wide range of human qualities making it possible to speak clearly about social media. That’s important. As Autom Tagsa eloquently points out, the core of your humanity is on full display in social channels and should be treated accordingly. But I worry that tagging my humanity with a marketing term somehow lessens it and makes it too easy too change for the sake of convenience. It strikes me as a very slippery slope. What do you think?
Photo: Cowboys branding a calf in fenced area. South Dakota, 1888.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, John C.H. Grabill collection
David, I agree with you. “Personal branding” has always bothered me too but I was too lazy to figure out why and too inarticulate to say why even if I did figure it out. I think I’ve just felt it was a faddish way of saying, at least in the voiceover community, to be yourself and make sure every bit of the experience you give to your customers is beyond reproach.
Well, I feel you are overthinking this one. Personal Brand building has always happened with those seeking to rise through the ranks in their chosen profession - it just wasn’t labelled with such a marketing tag.
Thanks Mary. I know what you mean. It’s always bothered me but not enough to give it much thought. I think it finally all built up for me and came together when I read Autom’s blog.
Thanks chiming in Craig. That’s what I was wondering. It may be much ado about nothing. Perhaps it’s just another way of labeling self promotion. I certainly hope it’s nothing more.
Dave - as I noted in my response to your input on my post, the marketing label is a valid concern, with the potential to diminish the more valuable and often unseen nuances that truly characterize a person, who they are, what they stand for etc. I also noted that I have long avoided writing on the topic as it seemed self-evident to me what personal branding is about (never mind the plethora of posts harping on similar themes and familiar variations of that theme). Yet the term *does* exist and at times employed and referred to like a fad gone out of hand. In my view, perhaps one of the clear dangers of the *concept* of personal branding is not being to sensibly define its context within the dynamics of social networking with a perspective that portrays the phenomenon for what it is. Admittedly the term itself is somewhat of a misnomer but its being bandied about like sliced bread. I appreciate you raising this concern — it makes for a more fulsome effort to giving context to this seemingly limited, trendy term. Point well taken!
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Autom, yes! I guess that’s what scares me. It’s a term that’s been co-opted to summarize a lot of complex human traits for a new type of communication channel. It doesn’t quite fit and I’m afraid it will take on a life of its own with people glossing over the substantial differences in branding and personal branding. Heck, truth be told, I’ve never been that comfortable with brand becoming a verb!
Personal branding has never been my thing for I value privacy; which is coming more and more preciuos these day. Plus, I just drafted a piece on company branding. It focuses on partnering with other companies to build both brands. This presents a question: Does personal branding counteract teamwork?
Thought about this for a few hours Dave, and maybe it isn’t that associating “character, personality, and behavior” with personal branding necessarily cheapens them. If someone has character, an outstanding personality, and positive, beneficial behaviors toward others, it makes them attractive as a person. In personal relationships, it may identify them as a mentor, confidant, or true friend. In business, that attractiveness may be identified as a strong personal brand. What cheapens things is when someone purports to be all those wonderful things, but really isn’t. It’s not the terminology which cheapens them; it’s the lie they’re trying to live that does it.
The ability to maintain a distinctive meaning of a word or phrase is directly proportional to the distinctiveness and substance behind it. Think of the devolution of the phrase “Gold Card” or even “marketing” and you’ll get my point. My arguable muddied point is that I’m much more concerned about developing the substance behind branding and other professional skill areas than I am about lamenting something that’s already happened. At the end of the day, either phrase is an entry point to the answering the questions that really matter: Who are you? What are you doing? What difference does either make? If I have to spend extra time educating, so be it. If they at least have a notion of what it means and they’re interested in something more, I can show them the substance that makes a real difference.
Mike and Kevin, thank you. You both make great points. It’s the lack of substance in some people’s personal brands and their hiding behind the phrase that seems to be bugging me. It’s not the phrase. That could be anything. Thanks for your help and clarity!
I’m one of those who has dipped his toe in social media and found it not so essential as all that. Perhaps we are indeed the next evolutionary dead end. Perhaps not. Either way, my thought is that the concept of personal brand is inherently dehumanizing. Online communities and their social media drivers have enabled anyone and everyone to become “famous”—at least in their own minds and perhaps in the minds of a relatively small circle of followers. If you are famous, or aspire to fame, it makes perfect sense to be concerned about your brand because all those people out there will (hopefully) never be able to know the actual you. Thus the need for a brand that does everything David and Autom claim. When fame and its trappings become your chief concern in life, you and your brand get all mixed up. We see it when sports stars and entertainment celebrities publicly refer to themselves in the third person. And again, when they blame others for the trouble they get into. Ultimately, it becomes nearly impossible for such as these to derive pleasure and satisfaction from fundamental human interaction. Whether or not you enjoy true fame, I believe the idea of developing your own personal brand to stand in for what you are in fact is not a healthy thing. Generally speaking, people are no match for their own egos. You don’t want to be feeding that thing raw steak every day. Obviously, to be successful as a true “star” you have to somehow manage your public image. What’s bothersome is that most of us are beginning to think that being akin to a “star” is the only way to succeed.
Thanks Tom! It sounds like it’s an opportunity to extend our 15 minutes. Most of us are probably better off without the first 15.
Love the idea of feeding an ego raw steak everyday. Gotta remember that one.