Chapter 3
Personal and Professional
Branding
Learning Objectives
• Define personal brand and explain the importance of
establishing a community.
• Differentiate the key characteristics of a personal brand.
• Understand the different types of personal brands in
social media.
• Discuss the key benefits and challenges of a personal
brand.
• Explain the skills needed to create a sustainable personal
brand.
Freberg, Social Media and Strategic Communications, 1e, © SAGE Publications, 2019 2
Chapter Overview
• “It takes many good deeds to build a good
reputation, but only one bad one to lose it.”
• Your reputation needs to be managed, invested in,
sustainable, and consistent.
• Any person, brand, or community can create an
image online.
• Effective alignment between reality and online
presentation shapes how we see ourselves and
how others perceive us.
Freberg, Social Media and Strategic Communications, 1e, © SAGE Publications, 2019 3
What Is a Personal Brand?
People have a voice on social media. The voice
ranges from person to person.
• Some voices are filtered carefully, presenting a
crystal, pristine image across multiple platforms.
• Others have an unfiltered voice, where the
person says whatever comes to mind
immediately and posts it directly for their friends,
their communities, and the world to see.
Freberg, Social Media and Strategic Communications, 1e, © SAGE Publications, 2019 4
Examples of Personal Brands
• The Rock
–has one of the most consistent and personable
brands on social media
• Rosanna Pansino
–created her own personal brand via the video-
sharing platform.
Freberg, Social Media and Strategic Communications, 1e, © SAGE Publications, 2019 5
Communities
• Social media allows people to share information
about emerging trends, personal stories and
experiences, and discussions of important issues
related to their areas of interest.
•Communities are groups of people that come
together for a common cause.
Freberg, Social Media and Strategic Communications, 1e, © SAGE Publications, 2019 6
Influence
• Essentially, actions speak louder than words. As
