Personal Branding vs Online Anonymity

Posted by Daniel Johnson, Jr.
July 27, 2010

Mitch Joel has an intriguing post entitled “The Next Big Thing Online Could Well Be Anonymity“. One of many things that stood out for me is this statement:

With all of this personal information that we’re publishing online, people still have a need/want to speak anonymously.

The post made me think about the drive toward more anonymity and how it seems to differ from the concept of personal branding. Mitch did a fantastic presentation about personal branding at Podcamp Toronto some years ago, so that’s probably why I began thinking this way.
From the personal branding perspective, it seems that the more you do to build your personal brand by sharing and putting content out there, the better off you are. You’re more authentic. Build your brand by share content about yourself.
Over time you get a certain reputation and have generated some level of credibility.  Yet at the same time, in a manner of speaking, you can be put into a box:
  • The SQL report guru
  • The social media strategist
  • The video guy
  • Mr. Approachable
But what if the person wants to re-tool or change his or her brand up? It’s not as easy for someone to break out of the mold. Some are certainly better at it than others.

Margo Rose recently asked me for what thoughts I had on future trends in social media. I’d already sent my reply to her email, but I could have easily pointed her to Mitch’s post if I’d read it beforehand.

More Now that we’re all connected and have the ability to share as much about ourselves and the world around us, should we? Already many, including me, have taken steps to reclaim some of that privacy.

What do you think?

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