Personal Branding - The Risk of Leaving it to Others

Personal branders need to Google themselves. Like it or not, if you've got any kind of brand you will show up there.

Not there? Not much of a brand.

Even worse - there's some dude with your name dancing around naked? On the first page of Google. Under video results??!!

Like this guy.



Jim. Seriously? This is disturbing stuff. How drunk were you? Actually, you don't look that drunk. Are you just prone to taking your clothes off and looking goofy? Really? Can't you see you're giving us all a bad name? And now that you've established your personal brand, how's the career and job search going? Hopefully you're not a teacher are you?

I hate using me as the example in this case - but THANK GOODNESS I've established myself on-line in ways that 1) hopefully make it clear to most people that the guy dancing around naked ISN'T ME (if nothing else I'm a way better dancer) and 2) help dilute the overall negative impact that might be created by this video.

Imagine if the only Jim Crocker content on the internet was this video? Then, what might people think about me? What might my brand be worth?

Lots and lots of people continue to resist the notion of exerting some control over their on-line brand. And, on one hand - I get it.

But keep in mind that the best case when you do nothing on-line is that you go invisible. What's more likely is you will show up in random ways that may say lots - or nothing - about you.

Worst case, your brand image gets controlled by others.

Who may not care as much about your brand as you do.