Berlusconi's women, Yolanthe Sneijder-Cabau van Kasbergen's 24 dresses, and Gerard van de Velde's shirtless torso after his Olympic gold in Salt Lake City. These are examples of how these individuals influence their image. One celebrity occasionally seeks some negative news to emphasize their bad guy persona, while another TV personality only wants to appear positively in the magazines. The fact is that famous people have a large platform to profile themselves and to brand themselves. Many famous people are sophisticated at branding themselves or employ staff to do this for them.
In the past, when we still had potholes instead of bumps, it was a struggle for an ordinary mortal to do personal branding. You could distinguish yourself by driving a specific brand of car, wearing leather jackets, or putting on T-shirts of your favorite band. If you wanted to brand yourself professionally, you had to ensure that you got noticed by management in one way or another. The elevator pitch even made its way over from America so that you could brand and sell yourself to management in a short time.
The Internet has made many things easier, including Personal Branding. In the early years of the Internet, it was still somewhat difficult, but with the advent of social media, it became very easy to brand and profile yourself. In the Netherlands, Hyves was the first major social network, where almost every Dutch person has a profile. Everyone in the Netherlands has the opportunity via the Internet to brand themselves in the way they want.
In the early days of social networks, not everyone was aware of the fact that everything you post online is visible to everyone. This led to photos and messages appearing online that had consequences for that person. Photos of a night of heavy drinking and posts about the boss's wife were carelessly posted online and shown to the world. If you then showed up at the meeting on Monday not quite fresh, the boss only had to check your Hyves profile and he knew enough. Not exactly a good form of personal branding.
Now, you could say that your boss shouldn't interfere with your private life. I agree with that, but what if you are constantly occupied with your private life during working hours and you expect your employer to allow you to do so? Is your boss allowed to have an opinion about it then? And what if you state on your Hyves or Facebook that you work at company X, while a page further down there are photos of yourself in a drunken state?
In my opinion, more and more social media users are taking into account what they post online and want to share with the rest of the world. Additionally, I increasingly see users posting links to articles they find relevant and wish to identify with. This happens primarily via LinkedIn and Twitter. Individuals consciously demonstrate their interests and, in doing so, create a valuable online identity. Furthermore, the dividing line between private and professional life is becoming razor-thin. In your private time, you tweet a message about developments in the industry you work in, and during working hours, you send a tweet to a friend. And if you do this responsibly, no employer will object. After all, you become a 24/7 showcase for the employer, which can generate assignments for them.
I even believe that employers should promote this and provide training for employees on this. As an employee, you are trained to treat customers politely and to put the customer first. But if entrepreneurs truly put their customers first, ensure that the same relevant information, or even more, is offered online than in the offline world. Who is responsible for distributing the relevant information? The employees who also physically distribute the relevant information to your customers. After all, they already have a bond with the customer, come across as trustworthy, and are known as authorities. So, entrepreneurs, ensure your staff is personally branded!