Comments on: Personal Branding & Finding Your Naked Superhero

By: josef

josef — Tue, 17 May 2011 08:09:54 +0000

Hi Lisa
thanks so much for this post. As an artist it is very tempting sometimes to blur the distinction between your real self and the outward persona.Since I am not in performing arts but in painting it is sometimes difficult to make this separation as in the visual arts there is a kind of demand to be authentic (whatever it means) and putting out there a “fake” persona feels kind of weird.
I mean, nobody expects Britney Spears to put her real self out there but everyone expects Lucien Freud to be “real”.
your post is very helpful..thanks

By: Tim Danyo

Tim Danyo — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:22:01 +0000

A good example to look to is Talk Radio. Those guys/gals definitely amplify their personalities to attract and keep HUGE audiences. Many are controversial and extreme. Some are uber helpful solution providers. The best ones are masters of stimulating conversation and debate.

By: Jorge

Jorge — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:13:43 +0000

Interesting perspective. I was reading this and I remembered this post by Tara Hunt that gives a different view of the personal brand idea. I think that rather than a personal brand we should be people and finally people want to get know other people. Of course we should keep some stuff to ourselves as we do in our offline professional life vs our offline persona life, but rather than controlling ourselves too much we need to keep being us (our personality/rather than our ideal).

By: FireSpy

FireSpy — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:40:54 +0000

Lisa –
It seems like you’re lumping personal branding with something everyone wants to do on social networks, or that people on social networks are all there for some kind of self-promotion which inherently necessitates some kind of ORM. I think it depends on the motivation of why someone is on the social network in the first place.

For example, porn bots are the best superheroes on Twitter according to your definition. They don’t give too much away about their personal life, but we get to see ‘the goods’. Their nakedness IS their cape.

Meh, but most of us aren’t bots so…for those people who aren’t bots, or there to promote themselves or their company in some way, why would they care about personal branding? They don’t.

But what do I know? I’m drunk right now. What I’m saying is, if someone is building a personal brand, for whatever reason, I agree with you. I like your superhero persona. But not everyone needs to be or can be a superhero like you.

See? That diarrhea mouth above is why I usually just lurk.

By: Heather Villa

Heather Villa — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:21:11 +0000

Steve,

Makes perfect sense to me. We all have different aspects of ourselves that we show/present in different situations. I don’t show my ‘party girl’ persona to my in-laws. The same is true on the web. Who I am on my personal accounts is slightly different than who I am on my business accounts. I’m the same person, but I ‘show’ a different aspect (or facet) of myself depending on who my audience is.

By: Therese

Therese — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:30:04 +0000

This is interesting, you made me sit back and think. Although, I do agree for the most part, I also think the two can go hand-in-hand. I think you can be related to and responded to. Just because I see Chris Brogan as a leader, does not mean that I too can’t see him as my peer, I don’t think how successful you become changes how people can relate to you, I think it is how you deal with your success.

True or not, I feel as if I could reach out to Chris Brogan just as I would reach out to other peers, but I would never feel comfortable reaching out to to lets say Seth Godin, I love what he has to say (at times), but I feel as if he is talking ‘at’ his readers vs. to them or with them, so I think it has more to do with how you handle your success vs. the success itself.

Does that make sense?

By: Justin Kownacki

Justin Kownacki — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:18:31 +0000

People relate to other people, but people respond to archetypes.

Do you want to be related to or responded to? Engaged with or followed? Seen as a peer or seen as a leader?

Chris Brogan is a real person, but due to his success, his personality become archetypal by association. Same with Arrington, Scoble, Kawasaki, iJustine, etc. The less personal your relationship, the more likely people are to process you via sociological shorthand.

There’s nothing wrong with either approach, but if you’re successful, you’ll end up becoming an archetype — or a superhero/villain — by default.

By: Therese

Therese — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:00:11 +0000

Offline I use to have this huge wall up (years ago), and then, I suppose because I am a bit of a extremist (I blame it on the Scorpio in me), I learned how to let my self become vulnerable, now I question whether I am too vulnerable. So when I caught onto social media, and the authenticity of it, how it was real conversation happening , I became hooked.

Offline, people still have not reached this level of authenticity, so I felt I was able to be vulnerable in this online space. When I say this I don’t mean that I am going to tell you my life story, but to be able to speak candidly and to not have pretenses and for it to be okay.

Kind of in the same lines of this post, there is a post I just read by Brian Solis – http://www.briansolis.com and in his post he talks about how being able use this space has given others the confidence they need to take it offline, which to me is a beautiful thing about social media, and one I find to be true.

So although, I have no problem with being authentic and vulnerable online, and at the same time drawing the lines on what I share. I have not learned how to tap into my inner super hero when it comes to putting my shield up, and not letting what others say have an effect on me. I will not let this stop me from writing in my blog, or tweeting, but the nonetheless, it still exists.

By: Suzanne Vara

Suzanne Vara — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:39:36 +0000

Stephen
Exactly, we have the right to reveal as much or as little as want. Where I get a bit squeemish is when people go outside of what others feel is the norm and get bashed for it. I do not mind one bit people disagreeing or challenging my thoughts but an all out bashing to make themselves look bigger or to promote themselves I am not a fan of.

By: Stephen Q

Stephen Q — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:17:57 +0000

Well put. People have the right to reveal what they want, and there is nothing wrong with that. The web is a great medium because it allows you to show the brightest side of yourself.

Was this post by any chance inspired by the House episode last night or just a coincidence that they are related?