As usual, great post. I think there are +/- of Personal Branding from a corp perspective. It is far easier to lose a high value employee if they can make it on their own due to the value of their “brand” in the marketplace.

But on the flip side — in industries like Marketing, personal brands can be powerful. Clients hire people. If a marketer for instance has a high profile, personal brand, that can lead to clients wanting to hire/him her and thus, to get that person they hire the company. Think Steve Rubel for instance.

Thus, as an ad agency, if I had 10 people with strong personal brands, plus the strong agency brand, that’s 11 brands possible clients might want to connect to versus just one agency brand.

Further, because each person can add their personal dimension to the brand, it gives our agency brand more breadth and thus, opens us up to larger audiences that may like our agency brand but love one of our staffers personal brands.

Make sense?
@TomMartin

Tom Martin’s last blog post..For every rule there is the exception

I currently work in a consultancy and we’re looking for ways to brand ourselves where our company brand can take front and centre and not just the personal brand and networks of the partners who own the firm. Of course we have to leverage the benefits of using their personal brands and networks, but I believe the company will only live on beyond the initial partners who started the firm by establishing a strong and consistent company wide brand.

And I do agree with your point of how can an employee’s online presence bring benefits to the company. I had an example of this in my own work when a friend and former colleague read a blog posting and invited me to come to a conference she’s organizing on the topic. From that conversation we got our bosses to meet and my boss will be speaking at the conference, and we’ve identified a book project that our organizations can work on together. The fact of being online and being aware of what types of conversations you want to stimulate via what you post online can be hugely beneficial, whether you’re looking for a future career or if you want to find opportunities to add more value to your company.

Thanks for the opportunity to extend the conversation; sorry we did not have the chance to visit, one to one, during your trip to Austin at SXSWi. And on behalf of our fair city, I am sorry about your miserable service experience at Stubb’s. ([The Royal] We have hung the General Manager in effigy.)

As a caveat, please keep in mind said perspective is driven from my in the world experience in the Austin microcosm and what little I know about you.

First things first, [connotative] definition of brand. “Brand” is the associated values, mission, concepts, story, song, voicecommitments, promises, methodology, product and service offerings, reputation and institutional memory, of an entity, commonly represented by one or more people.

Perhaps your own experience runs contrary to your own beliefs on personal brand.?

For your own part, Beth, when you trekked out on your own and launched your business, you went through the naming convention process like most of us, no doubt around a table of friends, open bottles of wine and vittles. You probably considered a litany of names, compiled a list and chose Harte Marketing and Communications because of the equity you had established and the corresponding attributes associated with your birth name-Beth Harte. Your name is and was your calling card, and the most easily identifiable “concept” when you entered the market place of ideas and idea diffusion. People knew what to expect when working with Beth Harte, could easily identify the differentiators when working with you. Your personal brand and professional identity was, and to some degree still is, the kelson of all the associated values, mission, concepts, story, song, voice, commitments, promises, methodology, product and service offerings, reputation and institutional memory of your business. Now that you have enjoyed both traction and velocity, your personal brand has submitted to your business brand because the latter has assumed and/or transferred the energy of countless others and become something greater than you. Nevertheless, as wave flow into waves, all of the histories, experiences, people, education, trials and tribulations that make you who you are, were the well spring for what Harte Marketing and Communications is today, because without you, there would be nothing to codify the interest moving forward.

On a grander scale, think about Michael Dell. Eschewing the cynicism that often accompanies any allusion to Dell, the man has built a formidable brand empire on two primary promises: hardware customization and direct sales–the same promises he maintained when building computers in his dorm room at The University of Texas. Now, these promises have taken on a life of their own so that Dell (in most circles) is no longer associated with with a middle-aged man living with wife and kids in Austin, Texas. And when Michael Dell inevitably dies, his personal brand, and the footprint his life work impressed upon the world will live on, indefinitely, for the life of the company. Michael Dell was the vehicle and engine of Dell, and now those roles have reversed.

The two examples cited above maintain at least one common element: the name of the person and the name of the company are the same. But what about the instance where the personal brand is not the name on the door of the company? This is the real crux of the issue. In Austin, three examples immediately come to mind. I reached each of these “examples” by phone to disclose my purpose when responding here, and each politely asked that I not publish my thoughts; out of respect and deference to my friends and colleagues, I will not.

The reason? In detailing the situation, one or more of the brands (personal or otherwise) would be compromised. This statement more than any other points to the fact that as market mechanisms and the decentralization phenomenon (whether voluntary or involuntary) in this economic climate continue to escalate, personal brands will continue to elevate to unprecedented levels. Corporate brands are dying, but the people that drive the core competencies and action of the business live on. Consequently, we’re witness to the Entrepreneurial Age where the traditional brand takes a backseat to the corporate brand.

In closing, remember the destiny of the 17th Chinese Destiny: Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it.