Hate “Personal Branding”? Try These 25 Alternatives.

Great post, Ryan. You do such a nice job involving your network! I love this discussion and have decided to feature it and my pitch on the term “social brand” in a guest post next week on MENG Blend (a new community blog for the Marketing Executives Networking Group). You will get at least a few links in there. :-) Thanks for pushing us all to keep thinking!

I love

Tim – “Networking” praise coming from you is not to be taken lightly. I
appreciate the kind words! Look forward to reading your MENG post.

I totally agree, Mark. Thanks for chiming in with such a well thought-out
response. A pretty logo and well designed website are great…but if they
aren’t backed up by something of substance they are utterly worthless.

Appreciate your comment – look forward to hearing more from you!

Tim – “Networking” praise coming from you is not to be taken lightly. I
appreciate the kind words! Look forward to reading your MENG post.

@Mark: Yes, that’s exactly the point I was getting at with my mouthful of a suggestion :) Personal branding isn’t about slick packaging — it’s about embracing the authentic self and then clearly articulating one’s true strengths based on an honest assessment. Thank you for your great commentary!

@Ryan: Thanks so much for the opportunity to be a part of your post! It’s very interesting to see all of the different suggestions that came about. Hopefully, people will get over the name and will come to see that personal branding is an important part of career management.

Interesting article.

I was reminded of something I saw on X-Factor last week. One of the girls said, “All I hope is that they recall the girl with the flower in her hair and think – I remember her, she can really sing”. That’s exactly what personal branding seems to me to be; It’s a small subtle way of ensuring that one person gently remains risen out of the fog of the hundreds of candidates an interviewer sees.

So if what you’re really doing is attempting to manipulate how memorable a candidate is for the interviewer as he or she retires to consider which of the 100 cv’s should further be considered, can’t one describe that act as “The art of First Impressionism”?

Max Lewis.

Thanks for the anecdote Max…not easy to stand out from the crowd these
days, that’s for sure. Appreciate the comment!

I prefer Personal Branding (although I am liking “Personal Positioning” as well) mainly because to an outsider or someone not familiar with the general concept of personal branding, the term is pretty self-explanatory? Folks get the “Personal” part and although people may not know entirely what “branding” could stand for, they get the gist of it? It’s not a cryptic term, it’s not some long “super” medical-like” term, its straight forward, self explanatory and gets the idea across – in other words….you don’t have to sell it…it sells itself…

No offense to Ryan, but I think this post proves that “personal branding” people have gotten so wrapped up in their own agenda that they’ve lost site of what “branding” actually is about. A simple name change won’t improve the negative sentiments that personal branding is starting to evoke. It’s like calling a democrat a “progressive” instead of a “democrat.” People aren’t stupid – they’ll see through that.

Where any faltering brand needs to be changed is at the core, meaning that there needs to be a real understanding of the problem. In this case, the problem isn’t the name. The problem is that “personal branding,” which should be about people becoming individuals in their own right, and allowing their true selves to shine, has instead created a seemingly mindless community of robots that, rather than think for themselves, simply repeat and retweet anything that anybody has to say on the issue without giving it any real thought. Dan Schawbel writes some inane post about how musicians need to personally brand themselves, and suddenly Tweetdeck lights up with the minion of sheep who dutifully retweet it over and over again to show how “in the know” they are.

Over time, it starts to look more like a cult than a serious topic.

The best way to improve the declining reputation of “personal branding” is to blend it into a real conversation of branding, and an understanding of what branding really is: the sum total of all consumer experiences with a company, product, service or person, so that they can create an expectation of future benefit. So for people who are interested in improving themselves, their station in life, the way people react and interact to them – be yourself, provide value in what you do, and make sure that the people you interact with walk away with a positive experience. It’s no different than branding anything else – a company, product or service. “Personal branding” doesn’t need to be a cottage industry. People should start doing and thinking more and repeating less.

You’re totally right – if people are in search of advice on something, then they Google it and get their answer. But at some point, there’s only so much advice you really need. I can’t seem to figure out how to get to ketchup to come out of the bottle faster. Let me Google that….ah – hit the bottle on the side while tilting it slightly downward. Perfect. Done. Move on.

Granted, maybe the “personal branding” thing is a bit more complex than my ketchup bottle example, but it’s also a far cry from trying to find the universal theory of everything. At a certain point, the very topic becomes so over-saturated that it’s tough to take seriously anymore. The words “personal branding” come up (or whatever it ends up being called), and real students of branding will roll their eyes, and put it in a category with MLM marketers, hoodia salesmen, Scientologists and the nutty people that hold up signs at rallies for local politicians – so into your own thing that it becomes easier to brush off. And, ironically, it’s made worse by the very community you speak to – where “personal branding” should, if nothing else, invoke a spirit or individualism, the audience somehow comes across like mindless followers, not just taking some good advice and running with it to make their lives better, but hanging around to be part of the personal branding “movement” so to speak. It’s just….weird.

As a smaller subset of a larger branding umbrella, I think personal branding has a place. I just think it’s closer to the ketchup bottle than the theory of everything.

Jay and Liisi – Thank you both for the well thought-out comments. I’m all
for expressing my own unique ideas whenever/wherever possible – and I
certainly welcome the unique ideas of others here on my site. Thanks for
making this blog a better place!

Well it’s settled then – if Suzanne likes the name, we are keeping it! OK,
I don’t think it was really changing anyway, but still…thanks as always
for adding your insights Suzanne.

Appreciate the feedback, Ginger!

Thanks for adding to the conversation, Sharon. Best of luck to you!