Peter Kim’s post today reminded me of something that I think about every day: my brand, my company’s brand and how they’re interwoven.

As a community manager it is your job to uplift the brand. Do you have the right to uplift your own brand?  Peter framed his post around concern that people are building their personal brands in social media in the guise of building a corporate brand.

Stepping back I think the bigger question is what if your brand is strong and built of your own accord. How much value does that provide your company (and their brand)? Doesn’t that indicate that you have some successful brand building skills?

My bigger concern are all of the people that are claiming to be social media experts based on self proclaimed skills and that haven’t been involved in building a corporate brand. And my favorite is when a conference organizer invites me to speak at an event & then rescinds it because I’m not an independent consultant. (Yes, I do work for a brand and I believe in being a practitioner as much as contributing to the industry in a greater sense.)

Peter Kim asks these two questions:

Are you represented by a carefully crafted digital presence?

Or are you the sum of who other people say you are?

If you focus on branding then you have a long term plan, but I think that it’s important to evolve with your brand (whether personal or corporate). So the ‘careful’ part needs to include flexibility so that you don’t get stale & boring. I personally push myself to grow and learn but intertwine that with my brand in a consistent way.

And I am the sum of who I am + what I’m striving to be + what others perceive me to be.

That last piece is what keeps me humble. Generally when I read someone’s perception of my work or sense it when I meet them in person  I’m reminded how important my community is and that I always need to be giving back.

I believe that we must build our individual brand as well as uplifting that of our corporate brand. If you’re going to build community then you’re building equity on both accounts. That’s supposed to be your specialty as a community person so you may as well shine at it!

Am I all wrong on this?