Does Marketing Yourself Online Matter?

Before social media, life was so much simpler. 

You’d walk into the office, smile sweetly at the receptionist, high five a few of your colleagues, have a chat over a coffee and then get on with the day. Your actions would have a direct effect on how others perceived you, your clients would reward you on your successes and drop you on your failures. Your career was in the “here and now” and even when you wanted to move on, it was the matter of an updated resume, a few phone calls, a couple of interviews and the job is done. 

That was before the age of the (potentially misleading) personal brand.

Now, the least successful among us can portray themselves as superstars. With intricately weaved collections of viral updates, blogs, podcasts and all manner of social media “currency”, it is almost impossible to separate fact from fiction. You can be a below average performer at work, but if your social media game is top-notch, you enjoy an automatic advantage over the rest. 

That is why far too many of us feel compelled to play the game in order to retain the level playing field. The charlatans will be found out at some point, but if we are in the mix, at least we can tell our authentic stories. Other people must be interested in what we have to say, surely, aren’t they?

It would be interesting to understand some figures about the split of our attention between actually doing our jobs and managing our “personal brands.” For those of us in B2B roles, this latter activity certainly takes up a fair bit of time, but the return on our investment is spurious at best. Being authentic may feel good, and there is certainly a psychological release involved, but can we honestly say that we are converting the masses to our cause. Maybe for a few minutes, but it has to be said that social media fame is utterly fleeting.

So why do we continue publishing posts, creating those videos or sharing those memes? It is fair to say that we would probably much rather be out playing with the kids or watching a film with our spouses. Many of us are tired of continually shouting amidst the crowd to make our voices heard, but we feel that a voice in the commotion is better than no voice at all. Any activity is seems that much more tiring if you feel that there is no benefit, but the sense of making an incremental difference, however small, keeps us talking about ourselves. 

We continue to share our lives and innermost feelings with the world. Yes, we are marketing ourselves for others, but we are also doing it for our benefit. In doing so, we are working out who we are. This introspection is no bad thing – as our marketing adapts to an uncertain future, so we are writing the next few lines of our destiny. 

Do you not care about crafting your future?