Privacy on the internet, and what that means for personal brands.
I was reading an interesting article the other day about Facebook. While I agree that Facebook’s definition of user privacy has definitely become very hazy, I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing.
I took a class an Advocacy last semester and my professor, John Daly, said something very pertinent about change. He said the majority of us who experience change have a gut instinct to fight it. However, those few who adapt the quickest to change and look for opportunities instead of fighting the changes are the ones who ultimately are most successful.
Those of us who grew up in an online world where our interactions were private need to get over these new Facebook changes and adapt quickly. Why? Because this is an amazing opportunity to build an online brand for yourself. Instead of fighting the lack of privacy, look at this as if it’s a branding opportunity.
Imagine if someone googled your name and your Facebook profile was among the search results. I don’t think anyone would not click on that link and not try and see your pictures, links and wallposts. Well, what if when they viewed your profile, they were actually seeing a carefully sculpted online brand? What if your pictures, posts, comments, likes and interests all came together to form a distinguishing identity of you on the internet?
Facebook’s new found openness is not a loss of control, it’s actually an opportunity to influence your personal brand online. Sure, you might have to put in some work by cleaning out your current profile (or perhaps creating a new, professional profile and narrowing down your personal profile to a very select group of friends), but the effort is well worth it.
And it’s not just Facebook. Twitter has already established itself as a branding platform; and Flickr, deviantArt, LinkedIn, Blogger, Wordpress, etc are all part of the same equation.
So instead of worrying about big, bad companies discovering your tastes and preferences (if you’ve ever shopped at a big box retailer like Walmart or Target or even an online retailer like Amazon, then you’ve already revealed far more of your tastes and preferences than you can imagine), use this opportunity to market yourself. The sooner you do this, the bigger advantage you’ll have over others who either merely don’t exist or who have no control over their online identity.
