Debranding Digital Identity: Personal Branding and Identity Work in a Networked Age

This article explores the rhetoric of empowerment surrounding the recent phenomenon of personal branding and calls into question the idea that personal identities can and should be managed through corporate marketing processes in a Web 2.0 world. Starting with an examination of the historical basis of the personal branding movement and a critical analysis of the branding metaphor, the article then proceeds to show how the three stages of the conventional branding process on which most personal branding advice is based on, provide an inadequate framework for understanding the complex nature of identity work in a networked age.