Thinking About Personal Branding

Since posting about personal branding the other day, I've been mulling the subject over. It's easy to see why people are writing about it - there's something seductive about taking communications strategies conceived for big organizations and applying them to our own, individual needs.

If I wanted to be cynical, I'd say this is just another example of marketing-culture creep: We should all be thinking of ways to spin ourselves into the best possible light. But I tend to be more retro than cynical, so I think personal branding isn't about spin so much as it's about communication, in this case having a clear view on what kind of person you are and how you want to be perceived.

Notice that I included "what kind of person you are" in that sentence. If we're going to talk about personal branding then we've to get comfortable with the notion we're the product, and that we want to convey the depth of our product's quality to the people we meet. Or, to remove the product-speak, we want others to perceive us as qualified, talented, decent - the kind of people it's good to do business with, or hire, or promote.

This means there's got to be substance in your product. We're not selling breakfast cereal, after all. If you want to develop your career, you've got to think about doing good work - and pursuing the kind of work you want to do - before you begin planning your communications or job-search strategies. We all know people who think about positioning themselves first and backing up that positioning later. These are the people who convey the impression they've got expertise they don't, in fact, possess. In my experience, they tend to talk fast and brusquely brush back anyone who questions them. Some of them flame out - at some point their technical ignorance, or their inability to get actual work done, catches up with them.

My point: Thinking about personal branding is all to the good. But be sure to build your brand on a record of solid work.