The Paradox of Personal Branding

I just found this interesting blog about "Personal Branding" from a techie named Jeff Atwood ironically. I say ironically because most techies are not known for wanting to market and hype anything, let alone themselves. But in this competitive "look at me" generation where anyone can now publicly display themselves for the whole world to see, with the most gratuitous examples being celebrities such as Paris Hilton and the like getting an inordinate amount of media attention for being nothing but vapid celebrities gone bad, it has become very hard and almost imperative to distinguish yourself from the pack. Hell, isn't that what I'm doing now?

I do though love the fictional dialog in the blog used as an example of the process:

Jack meets Janet and they start talking. Jack explains who he is and what he does for a living and Janet does the same. While Jack is speaking, Janet is very busy trying to "box" Jack.

She's looking for some tag-- "software engineer", "technical architect", "project manager"-- something that will make it easy for her to remember. Of course, Jack is doing the same thing. It's a "boxing" contest.

There's nothing wrong with this approach. We all do it. Here's why: When Janet finishes her meeting with Jack and later meets an old friend Paul, Janet needs an easy way to explain who she met. She'll say, "I met Jack for coffee and he's a software engineer" rather than repeating the whole spiel she just heard from Jack.

There is hope, though. If Jack made a compelling introduction, something memorable and remarkable, Janet would be compelled to say a few more words about Jack. Jack won the "boxing" game.

This requires more than communication skills. You need to be working on something that is remarkable or be remarkable yourself. In other words, you need to be working on your “personal brand.”

Indeed, as the author states, being technically great at your job only keeps your head above water and you need to pursue avenues beyond just your normal career if you want to excel and be remarkable.

The ones he advocates pursuing such as:

• lead a user group
• create a popular open-source project
• write a blog
• publish a book
• publish articles
• speak at conferences

are things I'm actively pursing as well. I guess the question then becomes, what if everyone starts to pursue these things too? Won't it dilute the competitive personal advantage one gains, since everyone else is doing the same? Well then you will have to do something more remarkable to stand out from this crowd. And I have noticed more professionals pursing these pursuits, since the cost and barriers to entry by way of blogs, podcasts, user groups, YouTube videocasts, etc. have made it easier for everyone.

But I think the reality is that though it may be easier technologically, we are basically all under the same constraint of time and also the fact that most people will not want to put forth the effort. Also, not everyone is a natural sales person and may not be inclined to pursue self promotion.

But no doubt the world has changes and the pace is much faster and it is harder to distinguish yourself from the crowd. Paradoxically, the technological tools have made it easier, but has also increased the noise and you now have to shout much louder to be noticed.