What's Your Brand?

Let's do a little free-association.

What pops to mind when you hear the word "brand?"

Are you picturing a cowboy, marking a cow as belonging to a certain ranch?

Or maybe you have in mind the logo for a specific company?

Or perhaps you're thinking of a celebrity who endorses a particular product?

Or...maybe you are picturing a person, and the way s/he portrays her/himself on social media?

I've been thinking about that last definition for "brand" lately. I recently have seen quite a few people on Twitter responding to this tweet, sharing their own stories of foolishness...

What's the most On Brand™️ story you have from your early childhood.

Mine is when my mom told me not to touch the electric stove when it was red, because that meant it was hot, so I made direct eye contact with her and slapped my hand down on the stove top.

— mu✨ (@prinxeMu) July 8, 2018

I went through some of the stories people have been sharing in response, purely out of curiosity.

Some of the stories are really funny. Some are crass. Some are mundane. Some seem like they are trying to be funny and aren't quite hitting the mark.

That sounds a little judgmental of me, doesn't it? (Yeah, it probably is.)

That phrase though... "most On Brand story"...it has me thinking about how we use social media. Is that about right? That we are building a personal brand through our tweets, posts, snaps, and pics?

At about the same time that I saw these "On Brand" tweets, I also saw an image tweeted out by my longtime Twitterfriend, John Spencer. (And if you're a teacher on Twitter, I highly recommend that you follow him. He regularly engages in thoughtful discourse, both through Twitter conversations, and on his website. I've learned a lot from John over the years.) Curious, I clicked on the tweet, and read the thread of conversation. It was, largely, about how educators--and former-educators--share and interact on Twitter. Here's the image John shared:

Image by John Spencer. Used with permission.

I thought this was a helpful distinction. Building a "brand" is about self-promotion. Communicating your "craft" is about interacting with others who share your interests.

But, when I'm honest about it...I wonder if I'm doing a little of both in the way I use Twitter? Self-promotion...while also trying to have real interactions with real people about real things I care about?

There has been quite a bit of conversation among my Twitterfriends in EduTwitter lately about the idea of how educators...and especially former-educators portray themselves online. Some so-called "thought-leaders" who were formerly classroom teachers have been criticized for statements about the current state of the teaching profession, and what should be done to fix the problems. Some make sweeping statements. Some make shallow statements. Some make self-aggrandizing statements--that might belittle the folks who are personally investing themselves in the K-12 classrooms they serve.

I'd like to think that I'm not doing these things...but now I'm wondering if I might be part of the problem?

I'm very aware of the fact that I'm not regularly in the K-12 classroom anymore...and when I am, I'm rarely "in charge" in the way that I was as a middle school science teacher. However, I do still think of myself as a teacher, even though I'm in higher ed now, teaching future teachers. Does that mean I should keep my opinions to myself? I hope not...I hope that I still have things to say that K-12 classroom teachers might find valuable, both here on the blog as well as on Twitter. But I'm also aware of the fact that I have a bit of a "brand" that I'm seeking to portray in the way I tweet and retweet. I guess I'm thinking that I'm hoping I'm landing more in the right-side column of John's Brand vs. Craft chart, even while recognizing that I'm at least partly in the left-side column as well.