PublicPersonality

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Current best practice in the art of selling (in a positive, constructive, profitable way) is all about building a relationship with your customer. One economic way is to AddValue? to the customer, say by solving their problems or by lowering their costs. However, customers don't buy big ticket items (including hiring you) without developing a trusting PersonalRelationship first, before then buying on the hard facts like the sticker price or the feature comparison or your skill sets.

A great way to build relationships efficiently is to build an audience of people, and a great way to build an audience with people is to talk in public. Contributing to WebLogs, OnlineCommunities, OpenSource projects are great ways to talk in public. It also helps by generating an archive of material that Google and the InternetArchive? will index. Then, people who you just meet can read about you and see how you AddValue? in the world.

After all, people tend to become bonded to indirect images of people, and thus turn into your AdoringFans. For instance, movie stars, authors, politicians, etc. It's the same thing, but on a smaller scale. To quote someone else, in the age of television, Andy Warhol said we all had 15 minutes of fame (as that's all that could be spared on AnIndividual). In the age of the Internet, we all have TheAudience of 15 (cf. Weinberger, 2002, p.14). If you're good at adding value to the Commons, this audience can become much larger through PreferentialAttachment.

It's important to remember that a PublicPersonality is not about advertising. Advertising is about going into your target market's environment and putting your message there. Being a PublicPersonality is about cultivating PersonalRelationships with TheAudience that has entered your environment. When you publish, write about your solutions to problems. But also put a little of yourself in there so people can get a sense of what kind of person you are. It's PerformanceArt, really. That way, they can begin to trust you before they really get to know you.

A PublicPersonality is more than a resume. It is, rather, your LifeInText.

But,

Given the disintermediation of the Internet, AdoringFans can come right to your FrontLawn and disrupt you. Be wary.
If you AddValue?, that's a good thing, but people will quickly become dependent on you. You risk becoming a ReveredLeader, which will open you up to attack if you fail your dependents.

References

Weinberger, D. (2002). Small pieces, loosely joined: a unified theory of the web. Cambridge: Perseus Books.

: "on the web, everyone will be famous to 15 people." (p.14)

PublicPersonality

References

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