Last week, I was almost finished getting ready to go out with friends when I had a moment of pure horror. Not the kind from scary movies, the kind of horror that only occurs when you look in the mirror 10 minutes before a friend is supposed to pick you up and realize your hair is purple.
Earlier that day, I’d had a brilliant idea in the shower and dashed out (with purple conditioner in hair) to write it down before rinsing. That (apparently) was a BAD idea.
So, with a friend due to arrive at any moment, I sprinted back to the shower and desperately tried to undo the catastrophe on my head. I only made one stop on the way: to send out a quick tweet about it.
Why did I do that? Not because I document every second of my life on Twitter (I don’t). I did it because accidentally dying my hair purple is pretty darn ridiculous and I thought someone would probably get a kick out of it. (And they did!)
Be real – be you
So many people out there try to be so perfect online. They keep their online profiles clean of any potentially-incriminating details and go over everything 500 times before they hit publish. They airbrush their online persona and keep up the professional veneer at all times.I can understand that. With so much potentially at stake, you want your online presence to be as travel-brochure-perfect as possible. No dirty pools or cloudy skies, right?
Except no one actually is perfect. We all have bad hair days and failures. We all say the wrong thing at times, and create chaos. Everyone knows that perfection is a myth.
Now, I’m not telling you to go wild and hang your dirty laundry all over your website or Facebook profile. We don’t need to see the picture of you chugging beer at a college frat party without your clothes on. And it’s not a good idea to completely eliminate the censure from your writings. You still do have to have respect for your personal brand.
But you should admit you’re human online. Don’t be afraid to put up pictures of yourself out with friends or drenched in sweat after finishing your 1st (or 43rd) triathlon. Talk about your disappointments and celebrate your successes. And definitely laugh at yourself when you do something incredibly ridiculous – such as accidentally coloring your hair purple.
Sharing more is authentic
This won’t destroy your personal brand. In my experiences, sharing more of yourself will actually help it!
From all I post online, I get the best responses when I let people in. They laugh when I accidentally dye my hair, or get confused ordering pizza in a strange land and end up with hot peppers instead of pepperoni. They cheer with me when something great happens, and lend support when I’m having a hard time.
People like what I write… but they love my stories and the glimpses I give them into my life. It’s those personal touches that really draw them into my blog, and get to remember me. And from what I’ve seen with other bloggers who incorporate their lives into their professional blogging, it works for them too.
When you let people in, you don’t necessarily have to share the stupid things you do. Especially if you don’t invoke Murphy’s Law as much as I do. But do share what makes you human. Give your blog some elements of your personality, let people see some more casual photos and let them know that you’re human.
Do this because when people actually hire, they don’t work with your finely-airbrushed resume. They work with you.
So let them know what they can expect.
Author:
Katie Konrath writes about creativity, innovation and “ideas so fresh… they should be slapped!” at www.getFreshMinds.com.
Related posts:
- My Personal Branding Story Part 6: Narrative, Context, and Being a Purple Cow This is the sixth of ten posts where we follow...
- It’s Not About You I hate to tell you this, I really do. The...
- My Personal Branding Journey Part 10 – Reflecting Back and Moving Forward This is the last post in our series where we...
Loading ...
Hello Katie,
Great article! Thanks for posting it. You make a lot of excellent points. I’ve made it my mantra during 50+ years in communications — via telephone, voice, radio, TV and now on the Internet — to open myself and be real. The Internet is still a medium that requires trust for whatever transaction you are trying to promote.
Ask yourself what is the purpose of your transmission/resume/communication/advertisement? What is your place in the transaction? How will you find the customer’s needs so you can fulfill them? If you are selling yourself, how can you stand out from the crowd and differentiate yourself from others?
I started in TV and radio as one of the first women in the media in 1957 on a station that only had one other woman on the air doing a homemaking show. My job was to co-host Popeye Playhouse, a local children’s television show at WTVJ-TV in Miami while I was in college. I did live commercials, ran puppets, did Safety & Manners shows in elementary schools in Dade and Broward County, Florida. I also took care of a live studio children’s audience from 5PM to 6PM Mon.-Fri. You can see photos of me on my blog.
Barbara Walters was and still is my role model. I am 70 years old; Barbara is older. I worked at NBC in the 1960s. I was in the production unit for the “Tonight” show in NYC. Barbara was affiliated with the “Today” show. She is strong, opinionated, fair and self-deprecating. Above all, she is real. Some people don’t like her, I know… but they get treated fairly. Barbara has seen her way through many scrapes along her path. Like Barbara, I was determined to be myself, and to be approachable and natural in my own personality while doing my job. Interact with me. Ask me questions. Tell the truth. Be real.
On talk radio, I broke ground as the first woman in Miami and then Boston to do a daily 4-hour radio call-in show, first on WIOD, then WEEI and WMEX-AM. I continued to tell it like it is, try to make it better, admit mistakes, be inventive, and sparkle with ideas. I always listen for cues as to what the caller/customer wanted or needed. Customers want to like the people who sell to them. Even when there’s a disagreement, I learned to be fair and courteous.
Initially, I had to handle hostile telephone calls from people who wanted to know what happened to the man who used to host the show. He had been arrested for financial problems and I had taken over. One night, people got really rude and told me I wasn’t as good as the guy who got fired. (BTW, that fellow has made a nice comeback. His name is Larry King.)
Later, a babbling male lead-in host insisted that “Ellen should be home making cookies for her children, not in the business world.” (Sound familiar? Hillary Clinton got into some of that much later as Bill Clinton’s wife.) I walked into the studio, sat down at a microphone, and told him that I had talent and he would not be able to intimidate me with his viewpoints. I was divorced, and supporting two tiny children. I was working because I needed the job and I was good at it. Oddly enough, that guy had a working wife, but no children at the time. I wonder what ever happened to him.
It gives me great pleasure to see all of the amazing women who now populate the Internet, as well as television and radio. Consider me your ancestor, and although I am not being paid anymore to sell anything, I still blog and Twitter. I was chiding my 20 year old grandson yesterday that he was falling behind. Get with the program, Michael. It’s 2009!
Come visit my blog if you have a minute.
EK
Be authentic is ensuring that we show our humanity once a while. Like you stated perfection is almost out of this world. Our demonstration of humanity coupled witnreal life stories endear us more than one million cosmetic stories. The clause here is not to over do the trend, balance is key.
This is such a great point. There are so many differing opinions on this, but I think authenticity benefits the employer and employee. In my opinion if an employer took a look at my facebook profile, or my blog, and decided not to hire me because of that, I think it would be an employer I wouldn’t want to work at and probably wouldn’t be a fit for. The more authentic you are, the more people seem to be drawn to you.
[...] Let people know you’re human [...]