Thursday 29 May 2008

The Ebb & Flow Of Your Personal Brand

Changing a logo before the Web used to be hard. But changing a logo in the networked world is a b*tch of untold proportions. When I was at McCann and we changed the identity of Rogers Cable, one of the tasks we were given as the Interactive group was "find" Rogers old logo on the Internet and make sure it was changed. I actually had someone work for 2 weeks straight surfing the Web looking for random logos that were all over hell and gone, printing the pages out, noting the URL all in an attempt to get what they "owned", their brand identity changed.

Well, now we are all media. And just like big media found out, we are being disintermediated as our personal brands get exported amongst all these different social networks and services. Friendfeed, our blogs, twitter...with the distribution of our identities, we also lose centralized control. People save a link to my blog and converse about it where I can't hear (and maybe don't even know) and I now, like big media, have to deal with a growing lack of control over all those things I once thought I owned.

But this is the new reality. This is what flow is all about. Ecosystems don't have borders and boundaries but the good news is that as the system changes, we as members do as well. While it frustrates some, IMO it's the new networked order that we may not like, but are going to have to get used to.

5 comments:

Gavin Heaton said...

Oh, you are a command and control sort of gal?

You know, it is scary what you find when doing a vanity search these days. I tried addictomatic and found all sort of stuff by me AND about me. Seems I am not necessarily who I say I am ... but also who others say I am. Hmmm ... which holds more weight?

Leigh said...

I gave up my old command and control ways about 12 years ago (pretty much to the day my daughter was born).

I'm actually just surprised at all the bloggers freakin' out because they want to own their comments.

oh and by the way, bc of you i tried addictomatic - loved it.

David Himel said...

web geeks oi vey!

Gavin Heaton said...

LOL ... it is surprisingly addictive. It really is my shiniest new toy -- and if you are really evil, you can use it to spy on others ;)

Anonymous said...

spark did an interesting episode on digital legacy

you might find interesting
http://tinyurl.com/5h8rud

audio interview
http://tinyurl.com/6lag2p

 
Real Time Web Analytics