The hype over personal branding has gotten way out of control.  I think we’re approaching cult status – and not the positive “Clockwork Orange” kind, where it becomes beloved by a surprising number of people over a long period of time.  No, I mean ‘cult status’ in the creepy Tom Cruise/Scientology way.

It’s not just the endless rabble about the topic on Twitter or the insipid blog posts that use a lot of words to say very little that makes me raise an eyebrow in wonder.  It’s the unflinching allegiance the personal branding students have to Dan Schawbel and the like – and how blindly they follow anyone with anything positive to say on the topic.  And, of course, how unwilling they are to hear with an open mind any argument that might disagree with their own.

I fall into a camp of marketing and branding experts (I have written multiple books on both topics), that acknowledge a certain level of need when it comes to personal branding or self-image (as kids, we were all taught to be polite, to say “please” and “thank you,” not to pick our noses in public, tuck our shirts in at the dinner table – personal branding isn’t anything new), but have reached a point where we say “enough is enough.”  The hype around such a basic tenet of life and business has far surpassed its saturation point. The personal branding minions are starting make the Second Life and Star Trek enthusiasts seem tame.

Yes, companies are putting on a more human face – to the extent that they’re using social media to reach their audience, and are beginning to measure marketing by engagement rather than impressions. So sure, CEO’s are starting to blog more – but before blogs, when print was more relevant, they expressed their opinion in op-ed pieces and interviews in Newsweek, WSJ and more (which they still do). How many people can really name more than three key execs (other than friends or family), that work at P&G, Pepsico or Chase Bank simply as a result of their “personal branding” efforts?

Did personal branding not exist prior to social media?  Did we all just not care about our appearance, experience, or public image?

Branding is the sum total of all user experiences with a particular product,  service or person, building both reputation and future expectations of benefit.  It’s no less important for companies of all shapes and sizes to continue building their brand today as it was ten years ago.  A company’s brand will be the determining factor in long-term success. Do individuals need to be concerned about their own brands?  Sure, but let’s stop making more of this than we really need to. People weren’t Neanderthals before Google and Twitter.  And let’s not try to convince people to be something that they’re not, to pretend to be better than they are.  Brands will always fail when they over-promise and under-deliver – they need to be true to who they are and what they can really offer.  Otherwise, they become nothing but smoke screens, and people will inevitably see through that.

There’s nothing wrong with the concept of personal branding – there’s just nothing new about it either.  Before the Web, resumes still highlighted what makes each of us special, and we all put our best foot forward and did what we could to establish and maintain our individuality. Know who you are, and be yourself.  The Web hasn’t changed the means – it’s just slightly evolved the methods.