7 comments

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  Chris Brogan

  9 months ago

  Ten years ago, I started blogging (then called journaling) to share my short stories. Then a few years after that, I started writing about fitness and nutrition (when I lost 65 pounds and ran a marathon). A year or so later, I wrote about self-improvement, and then productivity. Last few years, I've written about how the Internet impacts communication and relationships. Who knows what I'll cover in the years to follow, but the whole notion of branding is just one aspect in the pile. In my mind, Madonna was the act to follow. Something new every year.
  
  Still thinking that way.
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  Stephen Pierzchala

  9 months ago

  Exactly. My blog started as discussion of politics, life, and my travels. It morphed into a discussion of my Web performance service, my battle to get a Green card, and bipolar. Now I talk about Web performance strategy and advertising/marketing/branding/conversations/community.
  
  Who knows where this will go? Who knows who will read what I write?
  
  You write because you have something to say, and then you respond to those who read what you write and have something to say.
  
  In the end, it's the conversation within whatever community you participate in that defines your online reputation.
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  Dan Schawbel

  9 months ago

  Good thought provoking post. A lot of people confuse personal branding with reputation management, when that is only one piece of the puzzle. In order to take your posts seriously, it helps to have the credentials to back you up.
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  April

  9 months ago

  What a great post!
  As a marketer I am increasingly uncomfortable with the use of the term "branding" to mean anything and everything that a company (or people) do in public.
  While ultimately for a company, "brand" is measured externally - i.e. by what people think the brand is, I agree that it's a bit silly to think about a brand participating in a conversation.
  I'm much more comfortable using the term reputation when it comes to people.
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  Stephen Pierzchala

  9 months ago

  Exactly. I mean, I don't see myself talking to "april dunford" ™ when we are having an active and engaged conversation. I am talking to a person, whose reputation I know and trust, or whose reputation grows through the act of having the conversation.
  
  I wanted to stir the pot a little because personal branding is not what social media is about.
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  Trace Cohen

  6 months ago

  I never really thought about it that way, but it makes sense. A brand is something that we create and shape our-selves, hence closed source. Your reputation is the feedback you get from society based on your brand and how well you where able to perform and act on your word. This is what makes personal branding so difficult.
  
  People can brand themselves as anyone or anything, but it holds no weight it if doesnt get accepted by everyone as a whole. But in response to your first comment you made, i believe that social media IS now about personal branding. Before web 2.0 the regular Joe never had a voice and now has the opportunity to be heard and put their brands out there. With such a massive blogosphere, where everyone can speak their mind, reputations are created and destroyed every day. This I feel is the TRUE power behind social media.
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  Stephen Pierzchala

  6 months ago

  The power of social media lies in the connections that it fosters between people. Between people attempting to create a brand, and those who interact with the brand/person and create the reputation that person has.
  
  The conversation is still in charge. Branding is an attempt to control the conversation. Just watch what people are saying when you aren't listening.
  
  Thanks for stopping by.
  reply