I came across two interesting little ditties about marketing ya dayum self, Fame, celebrity, persons and Persona recently...
From Fame Game (more on that later), an excerpt of an interview with Erin Callan, the former CFO of Lehman Brothers, on becoming a Wall Street Celebrity:
What mistakes did you make? You can’t be naive about the press. I had a lot of positive exposure but didn’t recognize the opportunity for significant negative exposure. Exposure becomes celebrity, and you get a persona. That persona got away from me and the firm. There were so many pieces to it, not least of which was the phenomenon of a woman CFO on Wall Street.
And Fame Game's take on this?
Any PR person (or famehungry microcel) knows you have to have a persona. People don’t have time to get to know you and understand your context and personality. They have time to look at a picture of you and a headline, and then they generate a web of inferences that informs their idea of you, or, more accurately, “you.†Yet this description of the process is brief and incredibly clear. You get “exposure,†and then follows “celebrity,†and then you get a “persona.†If you were consciously playing the game you would have figured out your persona first, then set about seeking the requisite exposure to become a celebrity.
Velly intellesting.....
Oh, and about Fame Game - a word (or some words rather) from their founders:
FAME GAME is a rapidly-growing website that maps and analyzes your social connections and media attention to help you promote meaningful ideas, people, and organizations in culture. FAME GAME creates public-facing “social network†profiles for the 150,000+ most visible players in the New York media based on their cultural footprint.
From my cursory glance - FameGame appears to include featured profiles (celebrities), parties, projects, pictures and pr (news and editorial mentions) and along with the typical social networking aspects - it "ranks" people based on these characteristics (mostly on exposure). Their site also includes a blog, with editorial pieces such as Eric Callan's interview excerpt.
ok, but I digress. This idea of persona -> exposure -> celebrity extends far beyond the "famous" or celebrities.
We've all heard the adage about "first impressions". But how many of us manage our "persona" before those first impressions are made? And do we understand that we're always "on", always exposed and that this moment (and every moment that follows this) is an exposure leading to our "version" of celebrity?
Maybe I just missed the boat - being a nerd, I've had more than my fair of schlep in me of late, but.....
I've been fairly busy of late, primarily due to some work I've done in a semi-academic setting. I worked really hard academically, primarily to absorb as much information as could be crammed in my unusually large head. But in the process, I inadvertently created the "persona" or a diligent, hard-working and dedicated student - which aligned quite well with the parallel persona I'd created of a diligent, hard-working and dedicated employee. In this case, it's paying off, because (while I'm semi-employed) it's helping me maintain a steady source of revenue.
And in the process, I'm creating the persona of a diligent, hard-working and dedicated entrepreneur. Did I mention I'm working for ma dayum self? Yes, I am. And I'm conscious now....NOW, before things really begin to "jump off", that I need to work on that "persona" as diligently and hard as I work on my projects.
I alluded to this before, when I talked about Branding Yo Dayum Self, but I didn't dig down deep enough or make it clear enough for even ME to get it in my own personal life. So clearly:
- To work smart at your personal brand, you have to create your persona PRIOR to getting the exposure.
- You have to understand that every encounter is a potential exposure
- You, and I mean YOU - own that persona - you OWN your personal brand
Every encounter, chance or no - is an exposure. Who's watching you and managing your persona?
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