Personal branding is a big buzz term. And I totally agree that it's important. How you present yourself across various social media and other online platforms will make a big difference in your work and personal life. We first wrote about being your own Community Manager on threeminds back in May. And ReadWriteWeb recently talked about where a domain fits with personal branding.But we're forgetting a key piece of this: The way you behave in your online life, just like in your offline life, will brand you more authentically than any prime username or great thumbnail photo.
Let's look at some online behaviors and personality types.
1. The Facebook friend who fills your newsfeed with Farmville updates. This person (I'm going to say it, this is probably a woman) also invites you to join causes related to saving puppies.
2. The Facebook friend who constantly invites you to become a fan of his business or the place where he works, even though said business in no way relates to you or your life, and is quite possibly in another state.
3. The person who always has links to interesting political articles and comments on current events on Twitter, and posts something every day.
4. The person who fills you in, via Twitter, of every new location throughout her day (including "Eating lunch at Cosi" and "Going into a meeting").
5. The person who complains about her boss. Often. Seriously. There is someone in my Facebook feed who does this almost daily. Maybe this post is my way of telling her in an anonymous way that this is a BAD IDEA.
6. The couple with matching Facebook profile photos.
I can pretty much guarantee you that the only one of these people that I would want to be friends with in real life would be number three. And, if I were looking to hire someone, this would most likely be the only one of this group that I would seriously consider.
So here's an easy way to solve your Personal Behavioral Branding (I just made that term up, but I'm using it from now on) issues: Before you post anything on a social networking site, ask yourself if anyone cares.
Five photos of your new baby: Lots of people care!And remember, too, that the comments that you leave on blog posts count, too. It's fine to disagree constructively. Conversation is good. But if you're a jerk online, people (including me) will assume that you're a jerk offline, too.
Five hundred photos of your new baby: No!
A funny thought about the state of our government: People will probably care!
A Youtube video you found of a 1984 German workout video: Thank you!
Quoted lyrics from a John Mayer song AGAIN: I will hide you!
Facebook quiz results: I learned more about you by the fact that you're filling up my feed with these stupid quiz results. I will hide you as well!
You can be all up on the latest technology. You can have the coolest picture, the best personal URL. But the way that you behave online determines how many people follow you on Twitter, how many people comment on your Facebook posts, and, quite possibly, if you get a job.
Jordan Miller
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Strategists & Planners
Comments (3)
This is more important than ever, pr online is just the same as real life. Walking down the street and having a discusion with a stranger leaves an imprint on that person of who you are, leaving a comment on a blog is a comparable situation, yet much much more public and historically recorded (thanks to google etc etc.)
Another Good article :D
Posted on December 1, 2009 03:19
The person filling you in on their location on Twitter might not be filling *you* in on that - the eating a sandwich message is just as likely to be directed (or misdirected) at folks who are nearby who might be persuaded to drop in to chat.
You have to look at the spread of things like Foursquare, which formalizes some of that location-based announcing, to have it make more sense. (And before Foursquare there was Plazes and Dodgeball, neither of which got it exactly right; I'm sure there will be more).
Sending out the "I'm here" message is an extremely tricky one to get right if all you are trying to do with your online presence is build a personal brand. On the other hand it can be helpful in doing personal tasks like sorting out what kinds of places you might go to be around friends.
Posted on December 5, 2009 23:23
You have a point, in that different people use Twitter for different purposes.
However, is simply alerting people of your minute-by-minute activities for the sake of information really a best practice use for Twitter? Have you ever checked someone's Twitter for key information on their location? Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I haven't.
And I think it's appropriate to note that none of the location-based platforms have truly taken off. And I wonder how much of that has to do with the fact that, in the real world, showing up somewhere unannounced and uninvited because you know someone else is there, unless that person is a very good friend, is usually a little creepy.
Posted on December 6, 2009 14:17