Personal brand or brands - that is the question

Sometimes I actually get a chance to read some of those articles I've bookmarked as "Read later". These are mostly tips from Twitter, and blogs that have not yet earned a place on my Google Reader. But it can also be pages that I already have on RSS, bookmarked, on one of my numerous post-its (yes, I do still use pen and paper...a LOT)

One of those pages are from MediaPost on how to Optimize your personal brand.

A valid point from that post is:
"A lack of personal optimization can be a serious disadvantage in a down economy."

but I also read somewhere about the discrepancy between a strong personal brand and the company brand - which one should take a step back for the other? (lets leave that for another post)

Then we have the question of WHAT to optimize for.
I'm present on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Xing, a couple of business specific communities. I write this blog, and I write for our company blog and I network in "the real world" (some of which ends up online). You get the point!

Frankly, I'm not at all convinced I'd want all of these interlinked. I try to "be myself" within all of these networks, but still I'm not sure if ppl looking at my LinkedIn profile should have access to my vaccation photos. Or that ppl reading our company blog should have easy access to my questions on Google Help Forum.

And there is also NO WAY for me to optimize my output, since I use internet all day, every day, for friends, for work, for smart ass posts like this one and for dumb questions.. and for, well, you name it. :P

I think my take on the matter is quite simple:
Be honest. Everything you "say" CAN be found!
Reward loyalty. My followers on Twitter knows when I've written a new blog post, as do visitors to my LinkedIn profile. And you guys, just got the links to all my online presence...
Be clear on your objective. I'm restrictive with adding Facebook friends, because that is my "inner" personality, and it's not always suited for business (you know, sometimes I whine ;-) )
And I think twice before I air my views on the company blog.

What's your take on personal brands in general or optimizing them in particular?!

The tooting of horns...

Okey, I'm about 6 months into this webanalytics/SearchEngineMarketing/Optimazation business... And I love it! I do - it's marketing! And it's hilarious - as you will find out if you visit YourPPCSucks That guy is a genius, and I'm scared to ever come close to ending up on that site :) In the meantime it makes me feel good about the ad copy I produce - hey, at least I'm smarter than a software ;)

I found YourPPCSucks on Twitter. There are many great things to find on Twitter - don't even try to tell me otherwise. I also found TheDaveCollins, and it turns out I could learn from his blog! There is also a lot of less great things on Twitter, but let's just ignore those.


Twitter can, amongst other things, be used to toot your own horn, and who wouldn't want to do that! I got to toot a bit for SurveyPirate yesterday when we lanched CSV-reports and Preview function of the survey tool. And I'll toot the fact that I'm writing for the SurveyPirate blog - the PirateUniversity part, designed to teach you great stuff ;-)