Personal Brand – Praxis Wednesday Reflection

My module group was challenged last night to look at another person’s blog post and try to identify a personal brand that goes with it. Even if the challenge didn’t go as I would’ve wished it was a good challenge and made me think more about how I can better present some of the same ideas.

My hope going forward is that beyond just writing about things that are true to my brands, that my tone and style would match that brand. I want to be careful as I develop my brand in that I’m true to myself, but that I’m also presenting the best content that I can.

Personal branding is an interesting challenge because you should want and strive to present your true self to everyone but people often perceive things differently from how we would like them to.  Branding yourself means expressing you personality authentically, but explicitly while doing it in a way that will be interpreted as you want it to be.

I’ve also heard of people criticizing the concept of personal brands, this is understandable. The problem with this approach that whether or not people like it, everyone has their own personal brand in the age of the internet and social media. Even if you have no online presence that could say something about you. There is an extreme to personal branding, but the average person probably can’t do too much.

Personal branding means curating common themes in how you work, and act, into a package that someone can take at face value for the most part. A personal brand is about making sure you understand how you come across, from your writing to your graphics, to your pictures, and beyond.