Talk:Personal branding

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Yeexyc. Peer reviewers: Yeexyc.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 06:26, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Many issues in this article
Adding a self-contradictory tag. I cleaned up a lot of unclear wording and organized the introduction, but there are many contradictions later in the article.

The History section probably needs to be entirely rewritten and re-cited. For example, the introduction claims that the term Personal Branding was first mentioned in 1997, however, the History section states: "Personal branding, self-positioning, and all individual branding by whatever name, was first introduced in 1937..." Later it mentions Tom Peters, but I'm going to leave this to avoid a circular reference. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Somethingartsy (talk • contribs) 22:34, 22 June 2019 (UTC)


 * My personal take is that it is not self-contradictory - instead, the resolution is that Napoleon Hill's book has nothing to do with personal branding. If it does, then include Dale Carnegies' books as well. But the real story is those 1930s books just aren't about personal branding.
 * Same for the 1981 Repositioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Sure they had a chapter on positioning yourself and your career, but was it really personal branding? I re-read the chapter just now and I think calling it personal branding is a bit of a stretch. As per their philosophy, they say pick a good name, pick a category you can own, be differentiated, and use a good tactic. It's positioning (as the title of their book says) but as personal branding it's very undeveloped.
 * Tom Peters seems to be recognised by many as the "father" of personal branding, but he referenced predecessors in his work.
 * I think it's fine in a history section to point to earlier precedents like Positioning. But Think and Grow Rich is a dubious version of personal branding at best, and should be deleted. I might do so. Lauchlanmack (talk) 12:28, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

Trying to Fix Issues
Hi There,

I am trying to help fix the issues in this article and I think that the entire section, Goffman's Self-presentation theory should be removed, as it is a long semi relevant tangent to the definition of personal branding and is written like a literary critique which is not good. I wanted to get feedback from other users before making this change. Advice anyone? LilMew88 (talk) 18:21, 14 May 2020 (UTC)


 * Agreed. Lauchlanmack (talk) 12:29, 30 March 2022 (UTC)
 * I suggest create a new page on Goffman's self-representation theory and just link to it from this article. It's really a tangent for this page. Lauchlanmack (talk) 12:43, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

Uneven quality, much of it written as personal essay
Too much of this article sounds as if written for academic assignments. The use of "you/your" is one of many clues that this is an article that suffers from too many editors. The topic needs an article, but more on what "personal branding" is and less on how to build my brand. I'm just passing through, but hope experienced editors who care more about this page can improve it. I wish you well. Pete unseth (talk) 01:31, 28 December 2021 (UTC)