Thoughts of the reactions after the post “To Hell With Personal Branding.”
- Most people agreed with it. The ones that didn’t were, interestingly enough, personal branders or people who make money with personal branding in some way. Makes sense: if my product was a rip off and someone would called me on it, I would defend it as well. But that wouldn’t make it any less of a rip off.
- Personal branders: if you guys can’t decide on the same definition, how do you expect us to take you seriously? Not one definition was repeated, and they ranged from “how to be authentic” to “how to show others what you are good at,” with many more in between.
Do you think we care about what personal branding really means? We hate the term, period. Whatever it is, we decided that we don’t like it. Are you expecting to change our mind just by saying it means something else? Good luck with that. And even so, there are 15 other “personal branding experts” telling me something different.
I think we are better off just ignoring all of you.
You can ignore us as well but we are the ones making you money, so I would think twice about it.
- Instead of showing up in a defensive stance and telling us how clueless and wrong we are because we don’t really “get it”, how about listening to us, your customers, and making the necessary adjustments? Learn and adapt. Every industry changes eventually, why would Personal Branding be any different?
I remember a post by Seth Godin where he said that Malcolm Gladwell was wrong in disagreeing with Chris Anderson’s idea of “Free.”
Seth’s reply? “Who cares? It’s happening.”
Who cares if you don’t like or don’t agree with what we think about Personal Branding?
It’s happening.
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And the more people get it, the less money they make. As fast as industries can grow in the web, as fast they can disappear. At least, that’s what I hope…
AMEN! This post had me laughing out loud. Loved how you just told it like it is! You can’t hear me clapping right now, but I’m giving you a standing ovation
Your conclusions from the discussion make sense.
I think a lot of us stepped out for a while and didn’t bother with a lot of these GenY buzzwords. I’m about to start writing some posts about conformity, so I’m glad to see someone being non-conformist and calling some of this out. As you said in your last post, a lot of “personal branding” is common sense.
The thing is that people have to make money somehow so kudos to them for picking up on a trend!
Sounds like a trainfull of Clues to me.
Then again, who cares if you don’t like the term or not?
Whether or not you approve, the people with stronger brands are the ones getting attention and making waves.
Miss you buddy. Salud from waaaaay down south: Ashuaia, Tierra del Fuego!
Like I said, branders are free to ignore us. But I don’t think that’s a good idea.
You are right though on the wave statement. And that’s what depresses me. It’s scholar’s marketing again. Hey, I know how to play the game. But that doesn’t make me hate it less.
I miss you too man, I’m just not as interesting without you here! Keep rocking it man, good luck finding a way to get to Antarctica!
You may not like the term, or how it’s playing out today, but personal branding has been around forever.
Take Queen Victoria, whose little hands and large shadow has kept tiny forks present at Britain’s royal tables even today, or the “pioneering image-maker of the Western world: Louis XIV,” who, the New York times reported, “seems to have clicked on the 17th-century version of the ‘manage my image’ long before the most basic of media communications.”
Just because people are talking about something now that hasn’t traditionally been talked about doesn’t mean it’s wrong or a “rip-off.” Some people naturally “get it.” Some people don’t. I don’t get all the hate.
Personal branding has been around forever. How it’s playing out today has not. The examples that you give are not similar to what we are asked to do today online.
I don’t get why people take it so personal, it’s not “hate.” It’s criticism.
Awesome post Carlos – but there are some who can take “personal branding” to new heights. And by that I mean they establish personal brands without trying to make a personal brand. They’re that authentic and down-to-earth and cool that they don’t HAVE to establish a personal brand in order to get more attention. They attract enough attention on their own.. Being them. A personal brand should just be a reflection of your personality, not some bloated ego-like structure that kills the soul and your ability to be authentic. It should showcase who you are – nothing more, nothing less. That’s why it’s PERSONAL.
Nice work, man. I’m clicking that RSS subscription button now
Have a good one!
@Carlos – every word you type is music to my ears! Seriously!
Interestingly, I watched you on MVD and then saw your writing on the new @Untemplatar, and didn’t realize you were the same guy who wrote the “to hell with personal branding part 1″ post!
Love it!!! Keep it up! Seriously.
One question though (and this should guage whether you actually care enough to read these comments since it’s in the middle): What’s the solution to “presenting” yourself well, when you’re not “comfortable” with Social Media.
Ie. I’m comfortable with people. love interacting face to face. But feel fake on social media. Why do I have to tweet that i metup with “so and so”. Why do i have to start worrying about whether or not I should be tweeting/facebooking/blogging about something, instead of actually enjoying what I’m doing!? Boggles my mind. The people that seem to be best at Social Media & Personal Branding seem to be comfortable narcissists.
On a complete aside:
love your font. what is it?
Also, you know the “Notify me of followup comments via email” below this comment box?
It should really read:
“Notify me of followup comments THAT MENTION ME” or “THAT REPLY TO ME” or (smart AI) “discuss the theme of [insert Machine Learned themes of your comment]” #justsayin
You are too nice, thank you for the words.
Not comfortable? Ignore it. There are no have to’s anymore. The fact that you won’t spend time in social media, does not mean that you won’t work hard on other aspects of your life. Face to face interaction is 1000 times more valuable anyway.
The font? No idea :S
Ha, I’ll tell my designer to see if she can help me with that
I disagreed with you in the previous post. I am not in the personal branding business. Therefore, it’s strange that your response was still disappointing to me. I guess I was expecting you to come back with something a little meatier.
Personal branders: if you guys can’t decide on the same definition, how do you expect us to take you seriously?
This is a really fallacious argument. It’s like saying that the automobile industry in the 1970’s should be done away with or ignored because some hack engineers tried to convince the world that the Ford Pinto was the definition of an ‘automobile’. Naturally, Mercedes-Benz would have thought it was silly if people started using Ford’s implied definition of what a car should be to redefine the entire industry.
What you’re essentially saying is that because there are a bunch of hacks who are themselves using weak definitions, the whole industry (and yes, I use that term loosely) should be ignored. While it’s certainly your prerogative to think that, I think it’s a disservice to your readers to take the least-common-denominator definition and impose it as the correct defintion… then decry the entire industry.
In cases in which multiple definitions are suggested, I think it’s the responsibility of the bogger (journalist, writer, etc) to pick the best definition. Arguing against the worst one is easy.
Your follow-up ultimately feels like a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Memes have that tendency… especially within the limited dynamics of the blogosphere feedback loop.
oops… html typo and no ‘edit’ function.