Have online social networking sites made Personal branding easy?

Awareness around personal branding and the success it creates is commonplace. The difficult part of personal branding is the investment it requires – building and communicating the brand you have so it works for itself.
I have questioned whether perhaps social networking is now a quick and easy solution for modern personal branding.

Yesterday, Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the business is cash flow positive – a milestone not expected to be reached until mid next year. Almost everyone knows or uses Facebook and its prominence continues. At times, I’ve found myself forced to socialize on the site so I can retrieve party invitations! Facebook is just one example of many.

Being active and regularly online, you can build a brand and develop your network quickly. With the likes of facebook you are guaranteed the audience and accessibility of a target market – it is also very easy and convenient. Log on when it suits you, mask your mood, and update your status – where you are, what you’re doing and what your plans are. Connect with those you’d like to, block those you do not want to appear to be associated with. Show the world smiling and fun photos, and gain immediate contact with friends, friends of friends and other likeminded professionals or people.

Living your personal brand is much harder than having a good online social presence- or is it? Do you ever need to be physically available? Facebook is a household name, young and prosperous. Can we achieve our desirable branding goals all online the same way? Can we replace physicality with online techniques?

I’m not sure what your thoughts are, but certainly for me, to fulfill an effective personal brand requires online and offline methodology. You need to LIVE your personal brand and be seen – everywhere not just online. Next month, the myambition free workshop is on building personal branding. A strong component of the workshop does relate to online tools but at this stage, verdict is still out – I advocate a good mix of both online and offline.