Thoughts About THe Miss Use of Social Media: Being a new media douche bag

For me the video below is a well thought out and put together dig at what I have been seeing an explosion of lately social media (Facebook, twitter, blogs). What has been concerning me most about the use of Social Media and personal branding is the “Lack of depth and authenticity”. It is what is causing so many online commentators to rant about its shallowness, lack of substance, affront to the word branding, an attack on the profession of marketing etc etc.

I am certainly not claiming to be the perfect example of a personal brand, far from it, in fact is there really anyone that could lay claim to that title? We are all evolving our brands and as technology advances our approaches must change with it. Some of are behind the curve, some ahead very few are riding the curve right at any moment. But the point about the technology available to us is that it is a tool to help us communicate our personal brands in new ways, to bring more people inbound to our brand’s hub (this website represents my own personal brands information hub) – IT IS NOT PERSONAL BRANDING IN OF ITSELF.

In the last few months I have found myself commenting on more blog posts, more tweets on twitter and generally having more discussions about personal branding. Not because I am just trying to associate my name with the term and get hailed as the next new media douche bag, but because I firmly believe this is a bona fide approach to brand management – dare I say even life direction and focus – ultimately meaning greater personal satisfaction and positive impact with others. They key difference between being legitimate/authentic and being a douche bag is how much of your information flow over these social links is directed at you or are legitimate attempts to help the quality of life of others – answer a posted question on twitter for example, or recommend a good book or other blog to solve a well known problem (without an affiliate link).