Social Media Provides Tools for Personal Branding

 

Carmin Chappell writes an intriguing article on how she used social media to brand herself at a young age. She is 17 and has tapped into how to use these new networks to her advantage.

 

Twitter is a way to give one-liners and let your followers know what you're doing and sometimes gives them a taste of your personal philosophy on life. Carmin says it's important to let some of your personality shine through with the limited 140 characters you have. This way, her followers can peer into her thoughts and see that what she has to say is insightful.

I would have to say that most people probably don't use Twitter in this way. Many times teenagers and young adults use Twitter as a diary or even worse, when they are intoxicated. I would think Carmin would agree with me when I say, this is bad branding.

 

Social media brings the new generation a great outlet into selling yourself to the world. Instagram is also a great way to show people your "artistic" side, even if you aren't that artsy. This helps us to appeal to many different audiences to get across what about ourselves we're trying to sell.

 

One of the biggest problems with this is that teenagers are using these tools at such a young age, and don't know what they should be branding. Many times, we don't actually know who we are and what we want to be until after high school. This could pose a problem if kids are growing up with every social media site. They may already be branding themselves without knowing it.

 

The great thing about social media is that it is a constant flow, and many times only the most recent information is seen by the public. 

 

Carmin touches on a very important point in this article, that each social media provides a distinct niche to showcase different aspects of your life. It is easy to see when people do not know that there are specific purposes for each network. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are all completely different.

 

When you realize which aspects of your life you want to be filtered through which social network, you can create an inflated version of yourself via social media. This might not seem like the best idea for creating a real reflection of yourself, but it does help in maintaining the social image you want. 

Carmin explains why she thinks Facebook users have declined, or at least the interest in this social network has lost it's spark.

 

"Social media’s shift in purpose from communicating with friends to feeding our growing digital narcissism explains the decline in Facebook among teens."

 

In a sense, Carmin is saying that Facebook is too close to home, a little too real. By limiting yourself to 140 characters or one picture, there is less information that can be put out and more of it is in your control.

 

Let this be a message to all social networks, new and old, to stay in your niche and not try to do everything. People like having a social network for each aspect of their life. When it is all on one, it generalizes the audiences in a negative way.

 

"Almost all popular social media sites are now associated with certain characteristics. Instagram lets users see the world through an artistic lens. Twitter is for sharp punch lines and the occasional philosophical musing. Tumblr is a safe haven for the shameless super-fan. Vine fosters over-the-top humor. And with its new lower age limit, LinkedIn wants teens to develop their professional sides online."

 

 

 To read this article: I'm 17 and It's All About Brand 'Me'