Blogging as Branding

I have been thinking of branding myself for a long time, not until I’ve found out this blogosphere, or what I call “serious blogging”, I do not have a single clue on it.

What is “Personal Branding”?

Personal branding is the process whereby people and their careers are marketed as brands.  It has been noted that while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging.  The term is thought to have been first used and discussed in an 1997 article by Tom Peters.

The makeup of a personal brand has four main elements: personality, appearance, competencies, and differentiation. An individuals total perceived value takes into account these elements and is considered to be his or her core message or elevator pitch to an audience.

It is common to divide branding into tangible and intangible. Tangible branding involves associating an individual’s name with some specific advantage that they are presumed to offer, while intangible branding involves creating a more general positive feeling about them.” - Wikipedia on Personal Branding

What we talk, how we behave, how we dress, how we interact with our friends and colleagues and customers, etc., all constitute to our branding.  We are building up our own brand everyday no matter you are aware of it or not, and no matter you like such activity or not. 

Why ”Personal Branding”?

We are not “selling” ourselves, we are not doing any business, why we care about branding?  The answer rests with whether you have something in mind you would like to promote?  Whether there is something you are good at and you would like to show to the world? 

By doing personal branding, we could establish our fame and reputation in the aspects we are good at and for the things we are interested in.   With our own brand, we could attract and meet more friends who have similar interests and thoughts as we do and build up our network in a particular aspect.  We would be able to expand our opputunities for achievement.

Blogging as Branding

We want to brand ourselves, we know that there are some aspects in us worth presenting to the world, we want to build up our fame and reputations, what are we going to do?  Opening a shop and put ourselves inside the show window?  Printing ourselves  some leaflets and distribute them on the street?  Hiring a commercial time on the TV to speak to the audience?

In the past, writing a book and knock on the publishers’ door would be an good idea.  But this process requires lots of strength and patience.   We could also write some articles and try to submit to the newpapers’ editor.  If we are lucky enough, we could meet some editors who like our writing and let us write for the newspaper as freelance writers. 

With the growing popularity of blogosphere and that more and more serious and professional bloggers have emerged and there are more and more blog readers, it is now possible for us to brand ourselves, to set up a shop for us, to place ourselves in our own show window, to display and present any articles, thoughts, work of ourselves totally out of no cost (or at the minimum cost of getting a host). 

This little on-line shop for ourselves could be reached by all international readers 24 hours throughout the day.  We could manage the shop and keep contacts with our readers everywhere everytime whenever we have the internet connections.  What can be more easy than setting up a shop of ourselves by creating a blog?  What can be more achievable than branding ourselves by becoming a serious blogger?

To brand your thoughts, to brand your characters, to brand your interests, to brand your lifestyle, etc., there is always something good in you that worth branding.  Branding ourselvse, by way of blogging, is a way to build up our fame and reputation.

====================

related post: From Casual to Serious Blogging - what makes the differences and what does it mean?

Filed under self improvements, Success, career, blogging |