Gen-Y is Adopting Personal Branding from their Parents

  • 1 min read

Today I felt like playing Sherlock Holmes to discover new trends I was seeing with online personal branding. Robert Scoble is everyone’s favorite and notorious “geek ” blogger, who writes content about technology and will soon be directing his own podcast show on FastCompany.tv. Millions of people venture to his Scobleizer blog everyday awaiting one of his now famous posts.

Scoble isn’t just active in the blogosphere, but on Twitter. Almost every interview I watch that he’s in, he speaks about Twitter and the different conversations he has using the social network. Overall, he is one of the finest examples and success stories when it comes to personal branding. By becoming the “human face” of Microsoft, he established a brand name and was recruited by Podtech, where has boosted his brand name even more with his “Scoble Show.” Finally, he obtained enough press and traffic that Fast Company gave him his own online TV show. He’s certainly nearing the “maturity” level of the personal branding lifecycle.

Robert Scoble is Gen-X, but let me draw your attention to his son, Patrick Scoble. As the son of a problogger celebrity, it’s only obvious that he would be inclined to blog as well and HE DOES! His blog is called “Mini Scobleizer” and he even uses Twitter. What you’ll notice is that his content is fairly short and specific and relates to technology problems that he is currently facing with Apple products. Both Scobles’ use Wordpress.com. Patrick has just as many, if not more comments than his father, and they are both quite entertaining.

Conclusions

  • When Gen-X becomes highly involved in social media, their children are more inclined to participate as well.
  • When Gen-Y matures, the next generation will be even more susceptible to technological advancements, especially when they see the successes their elders have had.
  • It will be an easier transition for the coming generations to build communities and to engage because their parents will have the resources, know-how and be able to link to their website/blog.
  • When your father has a big brand name, your brand equity will also increase to a certain extent. This relates back to a post I made back in July of 2007, when I explained how the sum of the brands that surround your life, play an integral role with your brand status.
  • The majority of Patrick’s traffic comes from his fathers blog and possibly Dave Winers Scripting blog. If Seth Godin had a child that blogged, they would reap the same benefits, but would gain all the comments that Seth would have gotten if he opened his blog up to them.
Picture of Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel is the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm. He is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin’s Press) and the #1 international bestselling book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future (Kaplan Publishing), which combined have been translated into 15 languages.

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