Comments on: Challenging Integrity: Personal and Professional Branding

By: Back to One… « Sheila Germain

Back to One… « Sheila Germain — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:32:09 +0000

[...] (Brian K. McDaniel of BKMacDaddy Designs just published a great blog in the same vein called Challenging Integrity, which I invite you to review [...]

By: countzeero

countzeero — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 18:09:55 +0000

This is a great article about a very valid subject. Gave me real food for thought and set me to reviewing my own “Personal” Brand Strategy.
I have been around on the interwebs since ´94 or so, back then I was mostly to be found on “the boards” and later using the mighty Hotline Communications Software on my PowerMac.
The Web in the late 90´s was to me about subversive dissemination and being anti-establishment, the feeling of being 1337 or l33t was enforced by being a Server Admin running Hotline and offering all sorts of wierd and wondeful or plain dodgy stuff to those lucky enough to be insiders in “our” community.
We instinctively used “nicks” not only to protect our real identities but also as projections of our personalities, I think a “nick” gives someone encountering you for the first time more insight into what you are about than a real name.
countzeero has been my “online identity” for a good 15 years now – I took the name from the 2nd part of William Gibsons Sprawl Trilogy – added a second “e” (for reasons I won´t go into here) and promptly registered email addresses and domains. My online persona was born. I have used this “ID” for so long now that it has become inseparable from my “real” identity, some good friends call me Count or refer to me as The Count – both on and offline. I have even insisted that my email address at various Agencies where I have worked be count or countzeero@agencyname.com.
As the web boomed and subsequently blew up in it´s own face and online privacy issues made daily headlines I sat there smugly grinning at friends and colleagues who were being beleaugered by telemarketing and spam mail whilst shovelling kilos of waste paper out of their postboxes. Almost 10 years have passed now since the dotcom boom and we live work and play in an Internet that is generally assumed to be safe for non hackers and geeks, I say “assumed safe” because this is not the reality. The internet of today is IMO dirtier and sleazier than it ever was back in it´s infancy, Identity Theft, Malware, Keyloggers, Rootkits and BotNets are just a few of the threats to the personal Integrity of anyone who goes online.
Although I maintain Profiles on a multitude of Social Networks which integrate directly with real life, real work and real play, I still prefer my Front-End Identity to be countzeero. If you look deep and hard enough you will find my Name, Address and even telephone number. This is necessary and unavoidable for a freelance designer dealing with clients from both the online and offline world. I do not see it as measure of my sincerity (integrity) that I prefer this approach to the “facebook” type of unconsidered and complete personal disclosure which seems to be accepted by millions.
The integrity of countzeero reflects directly upon my real person and vice versa – I don´t pretend to be anything or anyone else. I am Me and countzeero is Me. I like it that way and I have never had a client shy away from working with me because I don´t use my real name in online communications. I would go so far as to say that I have gained not only clients and jobs, but also new friends because I maintain a “Virtual Persona” that they can relate to.
Since founding the OWN INDUSTRIES brand with my better half (who also maintains a couple of virtual personalities) I have been experimenting and developing a whole bunch of Brand Identities and have begun to refer to them as ID:Entities. In essence these ID:Entities are various aspects of our creative (multiple) personalities and reflect different values, roles and contributions to the “whole” of the OWN brand. The integrity of our brand is being reinforced by these virtual entities and the background noise of our real identies.
Personally speaking I feel that integrity comes from the spirit and is not implicit in whether that person prefers anonymity or not. I would go further and say that some virtual entities – take the Gorillaz as a prime example – display more integrity than many “real-life” identities let´s say politicians and investment bankers.
I will continue to enforce my Integrity (in all senses) by using my virtual entity as an anchor to my real life person and believe that they will both benefit from this approach. The integration of both into my real-life and virtual presence has so far proven to be successful and I can´t see any reason why that should change in the future.
To finish up I would like to say that I have seldom read a “blog” that is so engaging and interesting as yours. I feel that I absolutely have to have my “say” in the discussions that take place here. Maybe it has something to do with your obvious integrity.

By: Gratis Filme Downloaden

Gratis Filme Downloaden — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:07:21 +0000

Great post!

By: Rami

Rami — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:38:15 +0000

I agree — everyone has to establish their own measure of comfort and appropriateness…I appreciate that you framed your article around integrity. It’s a very important angle in the discussion I think.

By: bkmacdaddy

bkmacdaddy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:31:10 +0000

Thanks for your thoughts, Rami. I completely understand your getting stuck between the various online forums and how to best use your blog. Again, I think it’s every individual’s struggle and we will all probably end up at our own various places.

By: bkmacdaddy

bkmacdaddy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:29:04 +0000

Interesting points, Dave. I appreciate your input. I think the example of the confusion your friend’s online identities creates is a perfect one for this discussion. Thanks for the advice!

By: Rami

Rami — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:03:26 +0000

It is such an interesting question…I struggled with this “branding” problem when I built my first website for my business. I am a designer, and that is what I do for business. I am also a visual artist, and an experimental musician. And a mom. And a thinker.

I am an integrated being, but all of these roles have different qualities, different tones, and I am uncomfortable with revealing all of those dimensions uniformly. I don’t want my design clients to necessarily know how “out there” my music or my personal philosophies are (or might be perceived to be)…I know my own code of integrity, but I am also familiar with being misunderstood or incorrectly assessed, and that is the risk with “branding” that is incoherent, too stiff, too personal…The public and the personal face are not the same…but they all overlap in the world of social media.

My solution thus far is to keep some separation based on how I use each medium: Linked In is completely impersonal — business only; Facebook is for friends and family only; Twitter…is public but chatty, like Main St. in my neighbourhood; and my blog…THAT’S where I get stuck. I can’t choose a tone for this: I more often want to write from a very personal point of view, but my blog is on my professional site!! And I am not comfortable putting my self out there in a totally personal way in the same space I am trying to appeal to unknown future clients…

Really, I guess at the core of the question, I don’t put ANYTHING online that I am not ok with being PUBLIC. But I differentiate my use of social media, based on who I think is MOST LIKELY to be paying attention, or how I have chosen to limit access.

By: Dave Lubelczyk

Dave Lubelczyk — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:08:50 +0000

Being IMAGEidentity’s Founder/President/Key Figure I already have trouble keeping my company brand and my own professional brand separate. If I had to add a personal brand to the mix my head might explode. Therefore, I try to keep my online brand as friendly as possible revealing some of me while trying to maintain a professional image.
I know someone who maintains two Facebook profiles. I went to college with him and I know him professionally. I am friends with both profiles and I am never sure which profile to interact with. Conversations often drift in and out of both walls. It is a pain. I also notice that neither is 100%personal or professional.
My advice is to determine what you want your online brand to be and only post things or interact with friends online who will support that brand.

By: Carol Logan Newbill

Carol Logan Newbill — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:28:58 +0000

Rereading my initial comment, I wonder if I needed coffee. I wasn’t terribly clear.

Basically: I am who I am. That comes through in my writing although I have tried to minimize overt personality in my business dealings.

People like to deal with people. I need to be less anonymous on my website, though no less “me.”

And the only reason for separating business from personal is that not all my business clients are interested in art, while not all my art friends are interested in web design and marketing.

I still don’t talk about what to have for lunch on either side.

By: bkmacdaddy

bkmacdaddy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:39:24 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Brandon. Obviously we’re not talking about revealing all elements of your personal life such as your children’s photos or items that potentially endanger your family’s security or other things of that nature. But when it comes to revealing the true character of a person, shouldn’t we be able to stand before everyone online or off with confidence that our true character is enough?