Oh Lovely. Another bullshit trend. "Become your own brand."

[MattSh]

The gospel of self-improvement has taken varied forms throughout history and is perhaps America’s most successful export. But in the digital age, the idea of improving yourself is under siege by a similar-seeming but utterly different gospel: that of self-branding.

The Internet-connected class worldwide faces growing pressure to cultivate a personal brand. Ordinary people are now told to acquire what once only companies and celebrities required: online “findability,” thousands of Google hits and Twitter followers, a niche of their own, a virtual network of patrons, a personal Wikipedia page and dot-com domain.

“The Internet has forced everyone in the world to become a marketer,” said Dan Schawbel, a personal-branding guru and the author of “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success.” (Mr. Schawbel, 26, has more than 100,000 Google listings for his name, 70,000 Twitter followers and a self-styled niche as the “personal branding expert for Gen-Y.”)

The rise of the personal brand reflects changing economic structures, as secure lifetime employment gives way to a churning market in tasks. It suggests a new unscriptedness in institutions as we evolve from the broadcast age to the age of retweets. It augurs a future in which we all function like one-person conglomerates, calculating how every action affects our positioning.

...

The personal-branding field traces its origins to the 1997 essay “The Brand Called You,” by the management expert Tom Peters. But only with the rise of easy-to-use social-media tools has one-person brand management become practical. Columbia University and other institutions now teach it; training firms peddle it in India and China; Microsoft has sought to bring its precepts to the poor; PricewaterhouseCoopers this week announced a Personal Brand Week, providing free online tips for college students.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/us/27iht-currents.html

[FormerDittoHead]

1. What? Haven't you written your own "mission statement"?

You wouldn't get married and have kids.

You'd partner with another brand and maybe, capitalizing on the synergy, utilize common assets and spin off some subsidies!

[proudohioan]

4. And the homewrecker would become a hostile takeover!

[customerserviceguy]

5. Just this morning

my lady and I completed a merger!

[blueworld]

2. Corps are people & now people are supposed to act like corps? BS indeed. n/t

[TwilightGardener]

3. When I was a young woman, I always wondered,

at what point in the future would I officially become over-the-hill like my parents and grandparents--at what point would the world finally pass me by? I think I am at that point, reading this.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Fits right in with the current American direction. 'Image' is the only important thing. No longer

does your true character, morals, ethics, or skills matter. If you scream out how great you are to the world (think all those young Repubs at CPAC) long enough, then it must be true. Self absorption instead of a sense of community, neighborhood, or nation.

I'm so glad I'm old and have only a couple of years left to deal with this mess.

[pscot]

7. We're all out there "on a shoeshine and a smile"

Brave new world, isn't it?

[NashVegas]

8. What? You're Surprised?

The internet is fertile ground for the people who brought us late night and Sunday morning infomercials.

Bloggers have been slowly discovering this for a few years now. Putting brilliant content on the web is not the way to get out of your day job: earning speakers' fees is. Best way to get the speakers' fee is to tell people exactly what they want to hear.