Human Branding- Pt. 2

First of all... I know that this post is supposed to be my second part of Human Branding, and it is. But you may remember earlier this month I posted a blog for Love Drop. Well... they just dropped some love on Jill! Here's the link to watch the video. It's so awesome!

http://www.lovedrop.us/jill/the-first-love-drop-jill

If you would like to help drop some love go to: www.lovedrop.us



OK. Back to HUMAN BRANDING. If you want to catch up go ahead and check out my blog from earlier this week. 

I LOVE this pic! It describes what I'm talking about PERFECTLY!

My last post was about how "Branding Ourselves" can be a good thing. We can have a better idea of who we are, and how others see us. We can get ourselves out there. When you have a blog, or Twitter account, or even Facebook, you almost HAVE to market yourself like a business so that others can know that you are on those sites. 


Today I'm going to talk about the flip side of it. Again, I want to make note that this is NOT a "hate on social media" rant or anything of that sort. I LOVE social media. This is about the idea of "branding yourself" like you would a business.


Think about that for a minute. Treating yourself like a business. According to Dictionary.com, a business is: 

• an occupation, profession, or trade
• the purchase and sale of goods in an attempt to make a profit
• a person, partnership, or corporation engaged in commerce,manufacturing, or a service; profit-seeking enterprise or concern

It keeps going, but those are the tree definitions that I fit what we're talking about. If we say that if we ourselves are a business, that means we are defined by our job or occupation. If we are a business, we're out there to make a profit. 

Pardon? 


If we define ourselves as a "small business" that means that our purpose in life is to make a profit. What profit does a business have? A profit for THEMSELVES. Therefore, if we are "branding" ourselves like a business would... doesn't that mean that all of our family members, friends, other aquaintences become CUSTOMER.


I don't know about you... but I don't want to see as everyone I know as a customer to my own personal brand. People who "buy" into my brand. 

Aren't our relationships more about the other person and having a GENUINE care and concern about them? A friend of mine who I asked her opinion on this said: "Personally...i have very limited internet right now. If i put my time into looking on your wall or answering a message...lol...it means i care about you enough to take the time to respond." 


Another friend responded in this way: "There is no one I have ever known that I would not willingly give my all and my life for. So yes, I believe wholly in genuine relationships." 


When you make a connection with someone.... it's no longer about you. Now, should you have some sort of fulfillment from the relationships you have with other people? OF COURSE! If you don't, it's very unhealthy. However, if your motivation to become friends with someone is so that YOU can have a "profit" from it and to "make yourself known", I feel like that there's something wrong. 


I also really liked what another friend had to say: "I disagree with this lady's blog on a certain principle that my "company" isn't interested in putting itself out there for the sake of success and increasing its market, but to express opinions and deliver a message. Blogs and facespace have this amazing potential to give everyone a voice and a chance to contribute to the discourse of ideas in our society, and I think making "fame" or "notoriety" (even if it is in the internet world) the focus over that dialog will put out the potential."


We have AWESOME opportunities to express ourselves and to make connections. I was talking with one of my old youth students (OK, she's not old. She's a sophomore in college. But she was one of my youth a few years ago) as I was writing my previous blog about it. We were saying how we're glad that we have social media because it helps us to keep connections longer. We used ourselves as an example. Our conversation was through Facebook Chat, and we probably wouldn't be able to keep in touch as well without it. But our friendship started because we genuinely cared about each other and have face to face conversations outside of Facebook when she is in town on vacation.


But it all started because we ACTUALLY CARE about each other. Not because we wanted to "network" our way around the SEMO area, or because we needed to put our "personal brand" out there. Building a community because that's how we function. We care about people. Or at least that's how it should be in my opinion. Like on the TV show Friends. 

It's about connecting with people out of genuine concern for who they are. If you watch the characters on this show, they aren't friends because they "branded" themselves. They are friends because they had a connection and actually cared about each other. I personally feel like that's part of what made the show so great. It's what was all long for and strive for in our relationships. Or at least what I feel like we should. 

So what do you all think? Am I totally off on this definition of "branding yourself?" Or do you agree? What are relationships based on? How do you build your relationships with other people?