In the past months or so, I have been seeing a lot of talking about the digital brand and digital branding, what it is, and how to do it. Everyone's either looking for, or offering, an advice, an insight, a purple cow, a golden rule, and/or a must-have formula. Well, the truth is, there is none. There is no answer to digital brand question. In fact, I am pretty convinced that the very question itself is wrong.
This whole situation around the digital brand reminds of of a multi-million dollar weight-loss industry. There are thousands of manuals, celebrity endorsements, personal stories, thousand of "how-to" advices, and more rules and 10-step-programs that you can remember. Do they work? Well, sometimes. And for some people. The point is that sitting and READING ABOUT weight loss is not going to MAKE YOU lose weight. Similarly, thinking about digital brand is not going to miraculously create one. In order for that to happen, well, you need to do something yourself. That is, you need to do the hard work. You need to first see what works for you - what worked for Oprah (well, at least for a while) does not mean it will work for you (a.k.a. there are no universal rules). To figure out what works for you, you need to try out different things, test-and-learn, take stuff that works and discard stuff that doesn't, and then combine best practices. Then you need really to stick to it on a daily basis, and measure progress, and incorporate feedback, and all that stuff. And then you connect with others who are doing the same thing, and see what works for them. And then you have to see how that regimen fits into your already existing activities and daily routines, so everything goes easier. It's all in the execution.
So maybe it's time to stop asking questions about what digital brand is, and get to work. Digital brand is whatever you make it to be.
p.s. the image above was found here, via DesignNotes.
