Cult of Personality (me); Personal branding getting weird?
May 5, 2009
Published in 
Look in my eyes, what do you see?
Cult of Personality
I know your anger, I know your dreams. I’ve been everything you want to be
Cult of Personality
Only you can set me free, I sell the things you need to be, I’m the smiling face on your T.V. I’m the Cult of Personality
You gave me fortune
You gave me fame
You gave me power in your God’s name
I’m every person you need to be
I’m the Cult of Personality
Gen X’er rock fans fondly remember this landmark song by Living Colour. Indeed, the headbanging dreads of Corey Glover and Vernon Reid flying throughout the politically charged video on MTV bring back fond memories. Side Note: These guys are one of my favorite rock bands of all time…thoughtful lyrics, incredible guitars, amazing vocals.
What does this have to do with the intersection of marketing, causes, social business, life in Europe etc.–stuff that I usually write about on m-cause? Well, today the cult of personality lyrics from Living Colour made me think about where personal online branding is going.
When you look at m-cause through the lens of online personal branding, I’m probably not doing everything right. The conventional wisdom of online personal branding in this brave new world of niches would likely advise me to focus on 1 clear topic area and write about it exclusively. So, while I know I’m probably not following the clearest path at the moment…I enjoy discovering a broader range of topics and sharing some of my experiences overseas. I could break m-cause into 2 or 3 different blogs, but right now I’m making a clear choice to stay broad–this helps my motivation. Thanks to all you guys out there who have joined me on this journey. Feel free to let me know your thoughts.
Right now, however, I’m admittedly feeling overwhelmed by the current wave of personal branding info across blogosphere & Twitter.
Sure, I’m interested in personal brand building online…the tools for personal brand building and broadcasting yourself today are simply phenomenal (Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). And, I’m a big advocate for many of these new tools. Those who know me will agree that I’m particularly passionate about the 1 to many Global communication power of blogs. “Living out loud” is scary at first, but I’ve discovered that blogging helps you learn and synthesize the things that you’ve read throughout the day. I also believe you can really sharpen your writing by disciplining yourself to write 2-3 times per week. And, it is great to have an audience throwing you a few comments from time to time–this keeps you going and creates some global community around shared interests. Very cool stuff.
But, when these new tools start to assert control over you and, in a strange way, you almost start to worship them…or, when people start believing the hype around their personal brand based on # of Twitter followers…then things are starting to get weird.
Do we all really need to heed the call of the personal branding experts and turn ourselves into corporatist brand-like icons?
I already work at a corporation during the day…do I really need to continue to operate with that same type of mindset when I go home? Or, is hyper personal branding more suited to people working in the social media space or authors and speakers who are required to make a personal name for themselves in order to generate a livelihood? Guys like Douglas Rushkoff would probably surmise that the rise in hyper personal branding online is just another indicator that we have given in fully to corporatism. As he recently wrote on Boing Boing: As individuals we are surrender(ing) to the logic of corporatism–we assume the posture and behaviors of corporations in the hope of restoring our lost agency and security…We need to understand how this happened-how we came to live for and through a business scheme. We must recount the story of how life itself became corporatized, and figure out what-if anything-we are to do about it.
4 ways to know you are obsessing and getting pulled into the cult of personality (me) trap.
i) You really start believing that you need to “Google” yourself constantly.
ii) You reach for your iPhone first thing in the morning to check Twitter @replies before you pet your dog, kiss your wife, meditate on your day, or eat a bowl of fruit loops.
iii) Check Google Analytics incessantly & feel like your self worth is tied up in how many unique visitors you received from your last blog post
iv) You find yourself fishing for (virtual) comments at every turn
Maybe we should concentrate a bit more on the message…
As I started this blog, my objective was to learn more about cause marketing, social media, CSR, socially responsible investing, and to let people know a little bit about what I was learning as a Brand Manager. However, I must admit that along the way there were times when I got a little bit too caught up in checking Google Analytics and the whole game of “growing the audience”. I guess this is only human…especially if (like me) you are interested in marketing and the new world of social media. Google analytics provides you with incredible access to real-time data (for free). It’s a drug worse than heroin for a passionate digital marketer.
In the end, the purpose of this blog is not to glorify the cult of personality (me)…its purpose is to contribute meaningfully to the community and to amplify the message of “Good” and the heroes out there driving the change. So, I’ll go on an analytics diet and give myself some rules. I’ll continue to focus on getting the Good word out + providing useful marketing tidbits…
As Lisa Barone recently put it in a refreshing rant in this area: Building the Brand of You should not be your end goal. Succeeding at your craft should. Your goal is to learn and to be the best. Not to work your way into Twitter’s Suggested Users list.
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- Rushkoff is Back (boingboing.net)
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3 Comments
Hey,
Stumbled upon your blog. Am happy to hear your blog echo my unconsolidated thoughts on this same matter.
Have been on FB and TWitter for a few months, and just launched a website. I’m a writer and web consultant.
Am guilty as charged on all these sins mentioned above, and only recently started to understand the forces at work in my quest to build reputation and do online networking.
It started seeming like this huge popularity contest — who is smarter, wittier, has more followers, etc. — and one that I was constantly “behind” in, due to the fact I had to spend my time producing Actual Work.
And when an ungainly balance of my time started going to social networking instead of actually producing good content, I knew something was wrong.
Stumbled upon the Cult of Personality description of current online branding (can’t recall the originator’s name) and things began to click!
Hey, how about if I spend less time worrying about my stats and witticisms and more time making good content (or loving my family!).
So, anyway, thanks for the suggestion that we all stay on target.
Laura
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