A brief reflection about personal brands.

Photo by Isaac Chou on Unsplash

In the times we live in people define themselves as a brand. They pull every string to best promote themselves, doing what is possible to highlight their expertise and skills. Nowadays, online reputation gets converted into economic and social value through the promotion of a personal brand.

I understand the benefits of humanizing a brand but I am not so convinced that the opposite is also true. Does everyone - even those who are not actively laying an influencer path - need to have a personal brand?

During the research for this article, I encountered no different opinions. It seems pretty much established that there is only one way to go: a personal brand is a must. If you haven’t invested time building one, something is wrong.

When we think about a brand, we think of attributes, a tone of voice and a strategy which guide the entire brand behavior. I like to think that people are much more complex than that. We change our minds, experiment, take risks, evolve, make mistakes, reinvent ourselves.

Brands have labels. People do not. 

Jenny Odell, the author of “How to Do Nothing” - one of the most brilliant books I’ve read recently - explains how social media seems to represent people who are as monolithic and timeless as a brand. She adds that this fact ignores the ambiguities, the contradictions and other processes that make us humans.

In my opinion, when someone becomes a brand, they create an expectation of consistency and more than that, their opinions are constantly being monitored. In the online world, one is not allowed to change their mind or go beyond their pre-established identity. That is the reason why there is such a lack of tolerance in our feeds. It becomes evident that the verb to dialogue is less popular than to cancel or to delete. 

The very same way brands communicate the benefits of a product, people publicize their achievements. Therefore, self-promotion becomes the basis for all communication. As part of this network, vulnerable brands are considered weak. Does the same concept apply to people?

Personal brands don’t make room for conversations about vulnerability, failure and uncertainties. In other words, all the intrinsic components which are part of a successful career are ignored and left aside.

(this article was published in Portuguese here)