Valhalla Island

Seth Godin’s Personal branding in the age of Google reveals an anecdote about what you can find out about people with a Google search. He ends with the (paraphrased) advice “drown the internet in good things relating to yourself so hopefully no one will be able to find the bad”. “Personal branding experts” (and to a greater extent, marketers) have it backwards. You should endeavour to cover your tracks, display yourself only in a carefully constructed positive image and cautiously check everything you do rather than just be a good person.

The lesson in Seth’s anecdote should not be carefully watch what you put online because everyone can and will find it. It’s no coincidence that the people with “personal branding issues” are the criminals, alcoholics and losers of the world.

Like a marketer that spends millions of dollars on advertising campaigns trying to convince consumers that their shitty product isn’t shitty while ignoring the real issue: a shitty product. “Personal branding” is a tool for bad and counterfeit people to cover their tracks.

The trick to “personal branding” (I keep putting in quotes because the term makes me shudder) in the internet age where all information about you is available to everyone is to first be a good person and then be yourself. If you’re a bad person, the internet is a superfluous detail, you’re still going no where.