Recently, I happened upon a Twitter conversation in which there seemed to be agreement that personal branding is flawed and self-centered. Since there were resume writers in the conversation, I wanted to add my view that obsessing about getting one’s resume right can also be self-centered. But I didn’t. The fact is, I could actually see their point. When personal branding is used merely as a self-promotional tool, it does come across as egotistic.It is an unfortunate misconception that personal branding is “all about me,” when virtually all brands put emphasis on some promise of value delivered to a target audience. As I observed in a prior post, if you work at defining your brand without considering the people to whom you can deliver some clear benefit, you don’t really have a brand. Put another way, if you promote yourself in ways that don’t show your relevance to a specific brand community, then you’re simply being narcissistic. My reading over the past year, has … [Read more...]