The Brand Called You: 10 Years Later

The Brand Called You: 10 Years Later

Ten years ago, Tom Peters wrote "The Brand Called You" for FastCompany magazine, a classic, stunning, and grandiloquent piece on the necessity of and the methods for branding yourself. The piece prompted this recent retrospective from BusinessWeek. Today we take a look at some of the promises and challenges of self-branding in the world of online social networking.

Before we begin, if you haven't yet, go and read Peters' piece right now. It's a great and well-written motivational article with some big ideas but also concrete ways to apply them to your own life. Although some have criticized the article for being over-the-top and inapplicable, I've drawn some lessons from it that I think we can all use today.

First of all, if you aren't actively creating your own brand, other people and companies will do it for you. Whether it's what Google says about you when people search for your name or what your co-workers say about you when you're not listening, the brand called you will be created; it's just a matter of whether or not you want to be involved in the process. Furthermore, the areas you choose, or don't choose, to brand yourself also say something about you. Do you use LinkedIn? Facebook? MySpace? None of the above? The networks (or lack thereof) you choose to involves yourself in can have concrete effects on your career.

Secondly, the explosive growth of blogs and personal websites means the need to differentiate yourself online is stronger than ever. According to Technorati's "State of the Live Web" from April 2007, the number of blogs being created every day is still staggeringly large:

Finding a suitable niche and excelling in it has becoming more important than ever.

Finally, don't overdo it. It seems like a simple reminder, but although you should constantly think about how you brand yourself, you are still a person, not a corporate creation or a lifeless being who exists only to sell his/her attributes. Brand responsibly, and with moderation.