According to Wikipedia, the personal brand represents the shift from self-help to self packaging; this is not something I had explicitly considered previously. The shift from fixing ourselves to making ourselves into assets is an interesting one, as it suggests a more positive outlook on the individual self. Web and airspace is presently full of contentious debate regarding whether or not the internet age has made us more self conscious as a global society, or more confident. I find it interesting that personal branding, as it is inherently now linked to the web world, is defined as being self-motivating.
I think this definition is not all encompassing, but I do appreciate that the wiki entry admitted that though the concept of the personal brand may be dated, it’s place in the online world is not; personal branding is becoming a monetized market in and of itself, and I would have liked to see more of this discussion in the Wiki entry.
I found the editors discussion in the “talk” section refreshing and amusing. It mostly consisted of a debate about subjectivity, which is found in most if not all Wiki entries. The interesting thing to note here, however, is that the personal brand is subjective. However, one commenter argues:
“It seems like everyone has their own idea as to what a Personal Brand really is. Some like to make it seem very confusing, while others make it very simple. The truth is that a brand is a noun. It's an actual living breathing identity. Branding is a verb, it's the actual communication of your brand.”
I would argue that definitions dictated by parts of speech, especially in this instance, are relatively superfluous; the personal brand is about creating a commodity of the self; this may take place in a physical sense, or it may be much more abstract. Either way, the personal brand is mainly about perception, and the way we want others to perceive our identity.