In Which I Hurl Invective at a Harmless Quote

The very first sentence of a link forwarded to me from someone who will remain nameless:

Do you have an effective blogging strategy that guides your blogging and keeps it focused on building your personal brand?

Yes, do you? And are you a complete tool?

Look, "personal brand" is bullshit. It doesn't mean anything. I am not a brand, and neither are you. Nike is a brand. You're a person. The more you try to "focus on building your personal brand," the more you act like a complete asshole online.

Don't do it. Don't be that guy.

If you're working on an actual brand, then by all means keep its brand attributes in mind, and make sure that any communications related to the brand are on-target.

But if you're communicating as a human being, then you have a different set of metrics, the same ones you use in any communication with other humans: Am I being honest? Am I being fair? Am I being respectful?

Never confuse the two. And never confuse yourself with a bundle of focus-tested attributes.

(The advice in the linked article gets better from there -- if still in the freeze-dried marketing-speak mode -- but that opening quote is just killer.)