Name Brand Blog

One of the blogs I subscribe to is Word Count, which gives technical and business advice to freelance writers. It's a very useful blog, even for someone who has a full-time gig. But there is a lot of talk about "branding" and "building your brand." I hear a lot of talk about this from the media relations folk at work, too. And it makes me very uncomfortable. When I was a freshman in college I heard the word "networking" for the first time, and was appalled by the concept. My roommate, who was on a full-ride scholarship, had been invited to a networking event for scholarship students and university donors. "You mean you're going to meet people and try to make friends with them for the sole reason that they might be able to help you some day?" I asked incredulously. The whole thing seemed very craven and shallow.

It took me years to get over that impression and realize that at its best, networking helps you make genuine connections with people who share your resources. I have finally come to the realization that it's really just a newer name for the age-old ties and relationships that have always been used to connect people who have what each other needs. In fact, it is an improvement on these ties, because modern networking is somewhat divorced from the nepotism of the past. Now you can build your own network of allies no matter who your parents were.

I'm sure that branding, too, is just a new word for an old idea. But the commercial flavor of it still rankles. I know that people are busy, and don't have time to dig through a blog to figure out what it's about. I know people decide in seconds whether to scroll down or click on and if they hear about you from somewhere else, they will only remember if they can sum up your basic concept in one sentence. But I hate packaging and marketing. I hate thinking of myself and my musings as products.

I guess that's why my posts average fewer than half a dozen page views. Well, that, and I haven't been on Facebook in months, so no one in my network knows I have a blog.