Cultural Effects of Personal Branding on Social Media

Personal branding is indeed fast becoming an important part of living a virtual online existence. As a matter of fact, the phrase “personal branding” is not ubiquitous a few decades ago. With the arrival of various forms of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube and etc, users are encouraged “to boost social status, [as] young professionals adopt self-consciously constructed personas and market themselves, like brands or celebrities, to an audience or fan base” as quoted in Alice Marwick’s book, Status Update.

(Image Source: The Guardian)

I, myself have various Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts as I enjoy social media very much. However, I have noticed that spending a huge amount of time on social media has not only caused minor migraines as a result of staring at the computer screen for too long, but also took a toll of my mental health as I felt emotionally drained after using social media. So, today, I shall be evaluating both the positive and negative cultural effects of personal branding on social media.

Not too long ago, a news about a beautiful Australian teen, Essena O’Neill with more than 612,000 Instagram followers quit Instagram claiming social media “is not real life” (Hunt, 2015). She described it as “contrived perfection made to get attention”. Essentially, she was self-promoting herself on social media and somehow became consumed in personal branding herself so much so that she decided to delete thousands of photos “that served no real purpose other than self-promotion”.

According to Alice in Status Update, “strategic online self-presentation plays an enormous role in increasing one’s social status, how one is viewed both online and off”. Nonetheless, Essena’s “strategic presentation” of herself online was to “suck in stomachs” or to “push up boobs”. She got sick of constantly hungering for social media validation and thus, her decision to quit.

I truly admire her bravery and honesty in doing so. She has made me realized that you should not obsess over your virtual self-image. I guess it took a humongous toll on Essena’s mental health although she was paid to market products on social media.

(Image Source: Hollywood Reporter)

On the other hand, personal branding can have positive impacts on your professional career. For instance, the judges known as “sharks” on the popular national TV show Shark Tank are constantly encouraging and advising business pitchers to “personally brand” their businesses as consumers easily associate the products they wish to buy with your brand. There are so many products with similar functions. To consumers, we just want a quick solution and will buy the product with the more popular brand. Thus, earning money and gaining recognition are the perks of personal branding whether it be on social media, business companies or in your career.

In sum, I do not think personal branding is a bad or good thing, per se. However, I do agree with Llopis’s statement that personal branding is not just about self-promotion, it is a full-time commitment to the journey of defining yourself as a leader. With that said, social media should be used responsibly and appropriately to wholly optimize the personal branding building experience.