Would Your Personal Brand Exist if the Internet Went Down?

September 11, 2008 at 10:47 pm | In Personal Branding, Success Methodologies | 8 Comments


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Over the past few days, I’ve put a lot of thought into online versus offline personal branding.  We all need to focus on building powerful offline brands because who knows what will happen to the internet tomorrow.  What if the world loses power or the internet cord is unplugged?  What if web 3.0 is the end of blogs, online video, Twitter, and social networks?  

Anything can happen, which is why you need to start meeting people in real life and taking what you’ve built online, offline.  How you write, behave, interact and your expertise should be translated to how you present yourself day-to-day.  Always be consistent and don’t let technology rule your life.  Leverage the brand you’ve established online to further it offline.  I still value face-time more blogging, Skype, IM, etc.

8 Comments »

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  1. Of course your personal brand would still exist – it’s what you project to everyone you encounter every day.

    The difference is that far less people would have the chance of seeing it – luckily individuals are an integral part of anything online, and the interent won’t be going anywhere…

    Comment by Dan Thornton — September 11, 2008 #

  2. Dan, online disinhibition is a widespread phenomenon so that your internet brand is often quite different from the bland Clark Kent brand of your offline life.

    Here’s an article about it

    Comment by Recruiting Animal — September 12, 2008 #

  3. @Dan – what I meant was that if you spend too much time building an online presence and it vanishes..then what?

    Comment by Dan Schawbel — September 12, 2008 #

  4. The personal brand would certainly exist, a marketing tool would taken away.

    Your point is right on, anyone not implementing on and offline brand communications is missing it. I also think the authentic person is the same on and offline.

    Comment by David Sandusky — September 12, 2008 #

  5. Where is the value in dreaming up “what if” scenarios? Anything can happen tomorrow, but I don’t worry about it. I live for today.

    Comment by Ari Herzog — September 12, 2008 #

  6. The point of this post was the try and get you to think outside of web 2.0 for your personal brand. If you aren’t doing anything outside of the internet, then you are missing opportunity’s and your reliance on web 2.0 might hurt you in the future.

    Comment by Dan Schawbel — September 12, 2008 #

  7. [...] Personal Branding Blog [...]

    Pingback by K Street Cafe » Blog Archive » Daily Headlines — September 12, 2008 #

  8. [...] Says my colleague Dan Schawbel on his Personal Branding blog: [...]

    Pingback by HRM Today - Blog Archive » How Would You Network if the Internet Went Down? — September 24, 2008 #


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