Here are two posts that caught my eye this week. Neither was about personal branding, but both raised questions about personal branding that are worth discussing. What do you think?
If you want to be successful, be worth sharing by Jamie Varon
Do we damage our personal brands by overdoing the self-promotion? Jamie Varon writes, “… we don’t trust you to be a good enough gauge of how great you are. You can lie and tell me you’re the best, but are you? I need other people to crowdsource your greatness. And, if other people do this crowdsourcing, you won’t need to scream to me that you are worth my time. You’ll be shared, if you’re worth sharing.”
Pushing your personal brand too much comes off fake; like a marketing ploy. How much promotion is too much?
Gen Y needs boundaries for action by Rebecca Thorman
Is Gen Y ready to declare their personal brand? Rebecca Thorman writes, “… unbridled choice has us delaying marriage, children, and 
permanent employment – accomplishments that have traditionally defined adulthood. Not for Gen Y though. Brooks reports that fewer than 40 percent of 30-year olds have achieved these things versus 70 percent forty years ago.”
A personal brand requires a consistent message, but research shows that Gen Y is still evolving. We don’t know where we’ll be 5 or 10 years from now, so how can we define our personal brands?
What do you think?
Author:
Monica O’Brien writes career advice for young professionals at her blog, Twenty Set. You can also follow her on Twitter (@monicaobrien).
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I absolutely agree that overdoing self promotion is very negative. There are people on Twitter (no names) who spend all day Tweeting basically how good they are – I’m not listening!
With Jamie Varon’s point on self promotion vs. viral awareness – I think there is a process (not the same for all) that we go through as bloggers and entrepreneurs. It starts with self-promotion. A point she made in her post was that excellence will draw a crowd – and I think this is correct, to an extent, and eventually.
Being great does draw a crowd, it builds a community, raises awareness. But where does it all begin? WIth you. You could have a ton to offer but if you never take the initiative to get the word out, no one will know about it. Self-promotion is a STEP in the process – but you still have to be great through it all – what your promoting has to reflect on who you are and the image you want established of yourself.
Over time – the focus on self-promotion becomes less and less – as you build a community around your ‘brand’ – they invest in you, believe in you, and will create the buzz for you – meanwhile, you can sit back and focus on what matters the most, being excellent.
Also, in short, yes, there is a fine line between self-promotion and obnoxious shameless plugging. Be tasteful and tactical when it comes to promoting yourself – very important.
Speaking to your second question, I think there are a few points to make:
1. Personal brands can change over time, just as one’s interests and values change over time. But, it’s probably somewhat rare for them to change in hyper-dramatic ways. So, it may be more about repositioning than completely rebranding.
2. I think the best one can do is to make decisions with the information you have at hand. Meaning, even if a particular Gen Y’er doesn’t know where s/he will be in 5 or 10 years, hopefully that person knows their current strengths, interests and values and build the brand around that. While interests and industries may change, strengths and values are likely to be more stable over time.
In the end, I wouldn’t get too caught up in trying to maintain a fully static brand message over that kind of time line. The personal brand of the 25 year old you may not look like the brand of the 35 year old you, and those changes are likely to be fluid. So, you can shift (metaphorically) from this to this over time and it will be okay.
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