The importance of branding is at an all time high

The power of personal brand is becoming more important than any other point in history, as technology is giving people the ability to curate their own identity in the real and virtual world and to see how they are being perceived in real-time on the web.

A major development making waves, so large the full impact is yet to be determined, is the unveiling of the Facebook Graph Search.

This development connect your name directly to your likes, dislikes, daily musings, flights of fancy and even general complaints in a way that makes your innermost thoughts directly open to a unknown public searching for information.

Using the new Facebook Graph Search now gives anyone the ability to find anyone on Facebook, even if the person conducting the search is not your friend.  By using very specific search terms such as “girls who like to buy gold earrings in Paris’ you can find an aggregate of individuals who have liked or discussed in the past Paris, gold earrings and even jewelry. Kashmir Hill of Forbes recently published a very interesting article on the incredibly true and downright strange searches that can be conducted on Facebook including: “Mothers of Catholics from Italy who like Durex” which is a true search and leaves the mind to wander what else can be found on the site.

Graph users also recently discovered the ability to view users’ private photos in Facebook, which shows the meaningfulness of inviting ‘friends’ to become part of an inner circle on Facebook is quickly loosing meaning but that is a whole other column.

Many question then looms largely over us all. What does your personal brand say about you? What would a Facebook Graph Search reveal about you?

The important part to realize is that the revealed information on the Facebook Graph is not new, it is content people are voluntarily posting or liking and now, for better or for worse, their name, and online brand is directly connected too even if it is positive or negative.

With that in mind it is now time to begin evaluating the content of the information connected with your name online and see if it is in conjunction with your values and the way you want to be represented to an unknown but curious audience. If you are no longer the tormented poet writing about your feelings or the frequent photographed Martini drinker, it is time to make improvements to your brand search and content if necessary.

So the need to curate your personal brand is more important than ever since it is the way you are represented to a largely interconnected but often personally unfamiliar population.  Now is the time to take evaluate, assess and take action to strengthen your brand.