I think you hit the main point of your discomfort with my advice on social media in your next to last paragraph – social media can be “fun.” If you knew me you would know fun is my middle name, and I quit careers when they stop being fun. But you also have to remember that in my day job I prepare young adults for careers, and I see them having way too much fun with social media and having no where near enough professionalism to use it as the powerful platform I think it can be.

Having fun is one thing, wasting your time and actually damaging your career efforts is another.

Friend me on Facebook, Elie, and you will see pictures of me having “fun.” That is my personal. I also add videos to this site and in my latest one, you see much more the “daily” me – t-shirt, jeans, and not shaved. That’s getting personal while being discussing my value platform. I am using video on purpose in an attempt to make a more personal connection.

My advice is *online* if you are going to make an error with branding, it will be from being too personal, not too professional.

Thanks once again for sharing your thoughts, Ellie!! Bret

I take your point that playing around on social networking sites is not personal branding, although I would argue that for people whose careers don’t require them to have such a well developed brand it can perform a very similar but reduced function, PBlite if you will. This has the advantage of setting a person up with the mindset required and can be developed into a full personal brand more easily later on.

I am afraid you still haven’t convinced me that consistency across your entire online life is the way to go! We may have to agree to disagree but I don’t quite feel I’ve got my entire point across yet, so I’m going to have one more try:

I think there is room for a personal online life that has some separation from your brand. It isn’t necessary for it to be all about showcasing yourself or the value you can add, it can be more relaxed and I see no need for it to be integrated. That said, I believe it must be connected with your brand in such a way that people looking at one can easily find the other. This is because, although I don’t see it as a part of the main brand exactly, it should add to it by showing you as a rounded individual. That is distinct from being personal in your brand, which I agree is also important. It is important to ensure your personal online life portrays the person you would like others to see and to beware (as you have correctly pointed out) the illusion of privacy. It’s difficult to separate this personal life from your brand because it really is a part of it, it might even be just as important to you. For people looking specifically for the professional you, however, it should appear as an aside – valuable extra information on how you are interesting, but not the be all and end all.

Apart from anything else, I think it is unrealistic to expect people to be professional at all times online. There is simply too much fun to be had and we shouldn’t stop people filling out daft questionnaires on Facebook if they find that sort of thing enjoyable. The only way to prevent that sort of thing contaminating a personal brand is to allow some separation.

Sorry for the very long comment. I usually try and avoid doing this, but you can be relied upon to read and respond so I allowed myself to break my own rule

Ellie

This is a great reminder about how we should regard personal branding. While we do have to include some personal aspects of ourselves in such interactions, we shouldn’t confuse this with being unfiltered.

It’s ironic that so much has been said about these engagements being nothing more than another form of communication; and yet, how many of us discuss extraneous minutiae with those around us in “real world” conversations (Seinfeld being the exception of course)?

For me, the personal aspect of such interactions involves sharing details or moments that reflect a shared or common experience, something that allows for a sense of relatability. In that way, the inclusion adds value to the interaction, instead of simply acting as random noise that would have best been left unsaid.

I see this with coaching clients all the time. There are an abundance of things that make them who they are. And it’s hard to pick up the fact that those wonderful things often don’t matter to the people to whom you present your brand. People aren’t the only entities with this problem. Many businesses have it as well.