The Mission is “To Be”, Not Brand
Many friends, students and even young professionals that I encounter continually downplay the potential positive impact that maintaining a blog or using twitter in a mature way could have on their personal growth and/or career aspirations. Despite various examples on a daily basis how they could be using the various tools, Twitter is still equated with the Facebook status and blogging is what Perez Hilton does. I still urge them to think about the question: “How many people outside Babson (non-family) know who you are and what your passion is?”
For the individuals that are receptive to start using these mediums, the first thing I personally try to impart on them is that the goal is “to be” and reveal, rather than brand or craft a perception of them.
The motive behind tweeting, blogging or commenting is not to artificially create a brand of yourself. Social media and the web doesn’t exist so that you can use smoke and mirrors. It’s not to think yourself “what would my future employer or friend want so see?” and then set off trying to build a disingenuous perception of yourself.
Rather, social media and maintaining a strong web presence is about revealing who you truly are, what you are passionate about and what you are doing. It’s about bringing the real “Insert_Name_Here” to the surface. The audience of your tweets and blog posts is often a mixture of peers, friends, acquantices, co-workers and future employers. A personal balance must be struck between fun, professionalism, candid thoughts, and frequency.
You should strive and continuously work at becoming a “talented _____”, “thought leader”, “expert” or something simple as a creative and curious student. The emphasis here is that who you are online is representative of who you are in reality. That way when you do meet someone in the physical world for coffee, at an event or an interview — there’s not need to bullshit or fake it.
Have any thoughts on this post? You can find me at @ryandawidjan
