Personal Branding Blanding Blog

Social media has become the equivalent of commercial hippiewear: it's much more convenient to buy a prefab tie-dye shirt than make one yourself, and while it may appear great, there's not an interesting story behind it. (That changes if you wear the shirt and get into some strange counterculture misadventures, but that's another… story.)

Some people get afraid with all these 21st-century buzzwords passing by them like spinners after replicants. I feel your fear, dudes. And I'm here to tell you so much of it ultimately results in nothing. Just like the 1,000 archetypical fake MySpace friends you don't really know, those numbers… don't add up. But that's been brought up too many times. So let me move on!

There are way too many copycats parroting the same words. Talking about "personal branding", yet ironically having no personality themselves. They're as boring as boredom being bored. Tsk tsk if you're biting Rohit Bhargava, Andy Sernovitz, Tom Peters, or Dan Schnabel: it's one thing to be influenced by their inspirational teaching, it's another — and a lousy other at that — to have nothing to add to the conversation.

You want proof? I'll substantiate. Do a Google blog search on some of these buzzwords. Heck, might as well start with "personal branding". Notice how many look like they were written by the same person? The same phrases get rearranged into slightly different orders, time after time. It's like a bizarre web of tolerated plagiarism, or at the very best, ideological incest. In cases like that, I find it more useful (and polite) to quote the author without ripping it off buzz-verbatim. (DIMINISHING RETURNS!)

The Emperor's filthy old clothes: none of the fundamentals of being a self-promotional human are new, just marketed that way. Yes, the tools at our disposal are fresh. But there was a time before the modern corporation where the local mason or what-have-you-handyman would need to ply his wares and get the word out on the street. The real street, not a virtual representation of it. And I think it's delightful and fantastic to be able to connect personally all across the world.

But don't buy into the hokum bunk. Social media lowlifes, stop smelling and copying others' droppings; they've already digested the good parts, and what you're left with is rancid feces. Brutal, I know. But that's how it is. I can't domesticate poo by dressing it in post-Xmas-bargain reindeer antlers and a bow tie. Hunt for your own material — as every ethical comedian does — and also on the comedy tip, here's a simple rule for personal branding: if it can't be easily parodied (e.g., on The Simpsons), then it's not exceptional.*

Here is a picture of Christopher Walken. He epitomizes personal branding without calling it that. Each of us can learn a lot about personal branding, a little at a time, from Christopher Walken.

* It may have its own merits, but personal branding isn't one of them. More often than you might think, it's better to fit in than stand out. And we need all kinds of fruits in our horn of plenty.

Tagged as: General