I've been considering all the advice of how to build your brand with social media, then hearing about how a slip of the typing fingers belying one's true self can destroy one's good name. Being safely past the risk of posing for drunken-bikini photos even though I am within spitting distance of a top 10 "party school" (so disappointing, I know. And it wouldn't be the bikini who was drunk, either, you grammar queen types), I digress.
I got to wondering about more subtle consequences of participating on-line. My brilliantly funny or insightful facebook or blog comments could pop up on a google search and impact my "on-line reputation". My post on "Shut Up and Dance" yielded an email from a friend, rather that a comment on the public blog, as the she did not want her comment to be searchable. I didn't even think about the fact that comments are searchable! Fair call.
I got to wondering about more subtle consequences of participating on-line. My brilliantly funny or insightful facebook or blog comments could pop up on a google search and impact my "on-line reputation". My post on "Shut Up and Dance" yielded an email from a friend, rather that a comment on the public blog, as the she did not want her comment to be searchable. I didn't even think about the fact that comments are searchable! Fair call.
Question 1: How are we supposed to build our personal brand?
Is that a whole-person brand? Is it two brands? The professional persona, and the unprofessional (of course, ahem, I mean outside-of-work) persona? Do you have one brand or two? Are you using a pseudonym for your privately fun side, so it doesn't impact your professional brand? Should you? Why can't you have a sense of humour, or a fun-side to your work persona? Should we be all that we can be? Do we risk multiple personality disorder on top of fewer job offers?Question 2: If we are too private on-line, what do we miss out on?
The personal branding guru Dan Schawbel says I'm missing out! If we don't want to take the risk of sharing too much, are we missing out on things that we could find, read, participate in, etc. if we just shared a little more? (...and I don't think I mean sharing what you had for lunch, unless that starts a lunch club... and that would be fun! Okay. I take it back.) Are we missing out on business opportunities and collaborations because we are too closed? We know a little about the nasty privacy problems (like ID theft and stalking) but what about the missed opportunities?- Preserving the 'right to be left alone'
- Tips on safe-sharing
- 9 Tips for Establishing Your Own Marketing Method as a Freelancer
- Facebook and other Social Media for Business @ Madison College West
I'd love to hear what you think - take a risk and comment below (or anonymously). If you'd prefer it NOT to be searchable, let's get together and verbalize.... here are some dates to choose from.
See you soon.... from...what's my pen name...hmmmm... I'd better change the name of this blog.
very interesting questions...i think the mckinsey thing was more from a company standpoint, but it's interesting to consider the personal.
ReplyDeletei keep my blog persona separate - mostly because my blog is my form of therapy, so i have a (at this point probably rather traceable) pseudonym. but that's mostly because i started my blog when i was mad at being wrongfully fired from microsoft. (yes, i said that out loud). however, i keep my facebook and linked-in circles rather separate. and twitter is something else entirely. google+, i was pissed that they made me use my full real name. so i haven't linked the blog portion of my google self to it (dang, this is getting confusing).
i would love to come to your circle. can you have one in july? me and S are likely going to be in the US for a few weeks then (no tickets in hand yet). it would be awesome to talk about all this with you in person. too bad we can't do it over that awesome bread at the Purple Chair Café. :-)
p.s. i SO need an idea circle where i live. do you franchise?
All interesting thoughts. I would throw into the mix this article, which seems timely to the discussion of how sharing/not sharing impacts our personal relationships and growth:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/8930/
I have a few quibbles with the article, not the least of which is that the author doesn't interrogate the fact that men and women undoubtedly use social media in different ways and to different ends. Still, there are compelling arguments and correlations (I'll call them that as I don't know about how causality has/hasn't been established).
Interesting interesting interesting...