The Persona and Personal Branding in Social Media

by Richard Reeve on December 11, 2008

in AziMuth

“The persona is that which in reality one is not, but which oneself as well as others think one is.” ~ Carl Jung (CW 9i, par 221)

What does it all add up to?  All this social media activity with our interactions and our presence across multiple platforms (or stages as I like to think of them), to what end?  Allow me to throw some ideas together that I’ve been playing with.

First let’s draw out some nuggets from Chris Brogan’s eBook (referenced yesterday) Personal Branding for the Business Professional.  (I know, Brogan and Jung in the same post: yikes! but bear with me…)

A rapid fire run of some Brogan takeaways: branding an emotional after taste; being memorable; a mix of reputation, trust, attention, and execution; brands are complex and not one dimensional; the ability to stand out in a sea of similar products. To these let me add a definition of branding I heard at the New Marketing Summit (I do not have a source, anyone?): a brand is the sum total of all that everyone thinks about the product, personality or service.

In the social media space we message in all shapes and sizes.  We pitch content, we interact, we commiserate, we joke and we pitch more content.  A baseball pitcher develops a reputation in his league based on the cumulative experience of the batters facing him.  That dude is wild.  Some heat!  Did you see that curve.  Is that all he’s got, how’d he get up here?  That delivery was so wacky, I didn’t know where the ball was coming from (tipping my cap to Luis Tiant).

Now lets weave back to a tricky idea that Brogan’s pitches: branding isn’t playing a role. That’s complicated for me.  I do think we all play roles in every facet of our lives.  I needed to learn the role of father, spouse…heck, even trusted friend.  And not anyone can walk out on the mound of a major league stadium and play the role of the pitcher, no more than anyone can step out onto a stage and play the role of Hamlet. You can’t fake a role.

…and so it goes with the role of social media practitioner.

Branding not the role, but the reputation that develops around the role. Social media is a public marketplace and our content stream is accessible to many more than we are ever truly aware of.  We let fly of our snippets of content that they might take shape and be experienced by others.  It’s the cumulative efficacy of our actions within the minds of others that results in our personal brand.

So, what kind of heat you got?  I like to pull out the knuckler.


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  • Sidney F. Parham
    If I understand Jung we construct our persona both consciously and unconciously. It is both our mask to the world and the way we interact with it. If you've read Irving Goffman on role, he stressed the social situation as one of the determining factors. It seems to me that Social Media creates a virtual society in which branding has replaced persona. As I look at twitter's avatars, I see both shadows and masks. The connotation of "branding" implies a self serving calculation. This may be misreading Brogan, but the notion that I am my brand bothers me--all though that I am, in a social sense, my reputation seems true. I'm not sure if I am disturbed by a difference in words or a dirrerence in things.
  • What I take away from Brogan is not so much that you shouldn't play a roll as you shouldn't identify with the roll.. As I say this I'm not 100% sure of myself.. and it would seem to have some strange ramifications but.. I think about it a little more and.. it doesn't seem so strange.. Like if the police are doing work in the community... they're uniform isn't so front and center as when the lights go on as a result of your speeding a little too fast.

    And yeah.. a brand is essentially an association complex.

    On the subject of my heat... I think its like most people are talking about communications in social media.. and I think what I'm interested in is expression in social media.. so I don't actually do my personal branding by conscious design.. so much as expression.. which is kind of a different way of working with association complexes.. or at the very least that's how I conceptualize it... which.. I suppose produces a different kind of heat? LOL, probably a wild knuckle ball...
  • Zoe
    The idea of all these snippets forming a brand or reputation is parallel to how we try to define our "selves" every day. Even when it's not conscious, every story we choose to tell people, every photo we show, etc. -- it's all these snippets that build up to create our persona.

    We aren't capable of knowing our entire selves, let alone explaining it to others, so how people perceive us will always be a bucket of "snippets." But like you say, we won't "get" each other through streams of social media. To me, a real conversation will always be more fulfilling than Tweets exchanged, because more facets are revealed and sensed. Also, a good portion of social media is exchanging the content we consume, rather than what we create, which adds a buffer.

    I think social media is a building block, but shouldn't define a relationship.
  • Hmm, kinda makes me think I need to spell better on the fly!! I think one thing really missing, though, just from your quick summary of Chris' points, is the fact that most of us use social media to supplement offline activities - either in the real sense, or figurative: we are also meeting people in real space, sending one-to-one messages, and having phone calls. Or we may know folks well already and use these interactions to stay in touch. The true value of social networks is to enhance relationships, not substitute for a fuller experience. So, is the brand people see in my public persona the brand that's going to get me my next job or close friendship? I think it's more likely to come from a relationship with many more facets than just a few social streams. I won't really get Chris Brogan or many others unless I have a chance to really talk to and interact with them - and they won't get me, is what I'm saying.
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