After an elongated discussion with someone on the nature of on-line identity, followed the next day by someone following up on my post about “Free Marketing Space” I began really mulling over the idea of both on-line identity and personal branding.

To clarify before going any further I’m talking about the idea of ‘personal brand’ as the identity you create for yourself, how you present yourself to others rather than turning your name into a brand a la Tommy Hilfiger, Armani, Calvin Klein, etc. 

For the sake of argument in this particular brain dump the idea of an on-line identity and personal brand are one and the same. People naturally create an identity for themselves; the clothes you wear, books you read, music you like, etc all go together to create who you are and how you are viewed by those around you. Social networkings made this even easier when you sign-up to Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, etc you choose exactly what information is shared. 

By carefully selecting the right books, music, films on your profile, uploading only the most select pictures and twittering/linking the cool bits you can create any perception of yourself that you want. This blog’s a great example, it by no means contains all the mundane rubbish that I think or get up to so why keep one? It’s not like I’m addressing a huge audience (hail to the two of you) or have any huge words of wisdom to impart to anyone. I do it because I enjoy writing and having somewhere to post up the stuff that I find interesting with some sort of commentary on it. I also do it because I like being part of the conversation, I don’t have to be heard by many or any but part of my ‘brand’ is that of taking part in “the conversation” rather than just watching it occur. 

It’s natural, (most) people like the idea of being aligned with something, they want to talk to people that they share interests with, basically be a part of something. It’s nice to be able to share with people that you know are going to understand and appreciate it. The “Free Marketing” post was another example of creating that personal identity, essentially “selling” off space on the cover but limiting it to only the companies I wanted to be associated with. Thinking it through I guess I wanted my laptop to continue to make a statement about myself but one that I controlled, I wanted it so that the thoughts/feelings people had about those companies they also associated with me. 

The point I’m very badly meandering to, and I’m sure I’ll edit this post tomorrow, is that with the ever growing different social networking sites in existence people are able to continually manipulate and control how they are perceived. People can find you more easily, what do you want your future employers to find when they google you? When you meet someone in a club/bar/etc will it soon be a case of whipping out the iphone and googling them to find out just who they really are and how compatible you might be? But will the really be what they are about?

Who do you want to be today?