Self-branding is treated as distinct labor separate from the actual work of producing content

Evidence

Lacy saw self-branding as distinct from actual work, which she understood to be “writing and creating content.” She promoted “Sarah Lacy the brand” by speaking at conferences, networking, and doing media appearances to get plum assignments and drive book sales. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 483

Categorization

• DEFINE: Empirically grounds the self-branding definition: practitioners themselves split the brand from the work — branding is visibility labor, distinct from content creation.
• QUESTION: This split between brand-labor and work-labor is worth chasing — how do influencers account for branding time as unpaid labor, and how does it map onto later discourse about creator burnout?
• SEED: Angle: ‘Self-branding as unpaid second shift’ — follow-up essay on how the distinction between content work and visibility work has sharpened or collapsed in the creator economy.