8.06.2009

When Did We Start Marketing Ourselves?


Part of my job as an author’s assistant includes social media marketing. Basically this includes using social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and even blogs to promote your product and expand your platform.

With that being said, I was a freshman in college when Facebook was created. I’ve watched it evolve (or perhaps devolve is the word I should be using) from a network where only college students could connect with other college students, via friend requests and pokes, into a tool used by companies and PR representatives to advertise their brands.

Lately I have run into some trouble concerning my Facebook, mostly from a guy questioning why I have certain pictures posted (nothing scandalous, just relating to people I am pictured with), or why I am friends with certain people.

Although we are blessed with a plethora of information, the digital age and all of its wonders is making it harder and harder to keep our personal lives personal. Can we connect with friends and upload the pictures we took last weekend without the whole world judging us? With the advent of social media marketing, are we forced to market ourselves by using sites such as Facebook and Twitter?

Perhaps I should have taken the advice from a good friend I met while living in LA. When I asked him if he was on Facebook his reply was “Absolutely not, I don’t put my business on the street”. At the time I thought that was silly, but now I understand the wisdom of his statement. It is now becoming impossible to keep our personal lives separate from our professional lives. Should my Facebook profile match that of my LinkedIn profile? While I am careful about who sees what, it is becoming apparent that it is impossible to keep up with who sees what, regardless of when it was posted.

I guess it’s time for me to untag some pictures.

2 comments:

  1. Word for Word, this is my exact outlook on fb, and has been for the past few months.

    All it does is cause drama...
    Good post, Brenna!

    -Jon
    Medleyism.com

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  2. There does come a time when the two paths (personal and busniess) merge because of the narcassistic ways we've adopted. We want to be fabulous superstars--wanting to be seen and heard--hell, some of us even blog (*wink, wink) but it all comes down to self-respect and understanding that what we choose to post (photo or blog or status update) is of our own volution and it will be judged. But don't our clothes get judged? Our hairstyles? The shoes we wear? And that's not on the internet...that's in every day real life.
    So maybe the internet isn't the problem...and the place to start the next status update is actually inside ourselves.

    It's been a very long time since I read a blog that provoke a real answer out of me. You are onto something here!

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