Here is an article I found regarding personal branding.
1. Do you believe that you can overdue personal branding?
2. How authentic do you expect people to be when selling themselves?
3. At what level does individual personal branding saturate the
market?
Interesting article.
ReplyDelete1) I do think you can overdo your personal branding- there are several people in my company who have such a strong "brand" it turns many off. I think this could be better controlled by a bit less information available about them so that they control others perceptions.
2) I am glad that the fear is mentioned here. In the world where one wrong step becomes fodder for the news for weeks, I think fear has a true place in establishing your personal brand. Definitly causes folks to monitor what they say- after all, they still want a paycheck right?
3) I will have to think on this a bit- I don't experience it much in my area but certainly see it in other markets.
1) Yes, I think you can over-share for sure. I'm not sure if that is overdoing personal branding or just talking about yourself too much.
ReplyDelete2) This is a tough question -- all the articles on personal branding say you have to be authentic. I would support that since the truth does seem to come out in the end. That said, you can be authentically trying to sell yourself, right?
3) In think in the professional marketing community, the market is saturated with those who call themselves marketing thought leaders. In the Microsoft software development community, there are thought leaders who have to reach certain technical achievements called "Microsoft MVPs", so there is some qualification there.
1) I agree with Faith and Marissa in that you can defintely overdue personal branding. I know people at work who "brand" themselves so much that its to the point of fake and they ended up becoming the "yes man" of the office! Kind of ironic that they wanted to be so branded and now they can't say no!
ReplyDelete2) Tying back into my first example, the optomist in me would hope that people would be mostly authentic with maybe a little embellishment but unfortunately I think people are more fake than they are authentic when it comes to their personal branding. Personally, I would rather be authentic and not reap the full benefits of personal branding and speaking out.
3) The only way I experience it much is with people who overdue it at work. But I work for a small company and I've been there for over 5 years so we all know each other's personality. I will be interested to see if it gets worse or better once I enter a more corporate atmosphere.
1. I think you can overdue personal branding if you make the mistake of 'type casting' your expertise or if you use an elevator pitch that is industry specific. I think when you are speaking in regards to your skills you should leverage them in a generic way so those out side your industry can recognize the value you bring to a company.
ReplyDelete2. The reality is an online profile is not 100% accurate. Our on-line persona is just a self portrayal of how we want to be perceived by others.
3. I am not sure you can saturate the market with personal branding mainly because it is a natural process; however, I do believe that people at the individual level may saturate their market with an over use of their own brand. Esp in cases where indivudals rebrand themselves on a frequent basis.
-Pam Burr