Self-branding treats the self as a salable commodity marketed to employers

Evidence

Self-branding is primarily a series of marketing strategies applied to the individual. It is a set of practices and a mindset, a way of thinking about the self as a salable commodity that can tempt a potential employer. Self-branding, the strategic creation of an identity to be promoted and sold to others, has moved beyond its origins—the modern culture of creative, entrepreneurial labor in Silicon Valley and an association with the dot-com boom—to become a staple of career counseling and employment advice. Self-branding, which would be impossible without the affordable means of information distribution that the internet provides, is intrinsically linked to the features of social media technologies that make self-promotion on a wide scale possible. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 418

Categorization

• DEFINE: The book’s core field-defining definition: self-branding as marketing strategies applied to the individual, commodifying identity.
• XREF: This definition grounds the entire foundational vocabulary of the self-branding and micro-celebrity field, connecting to later chapters on social media affordances. — connects to: Public self-promotion is now required for employment across many occupations — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 406; Self-branding unifies commodified attention, achieved status, and ascribed celebrity. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 412; Self-branding arose from corporate branding models applied to individual workers — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 416 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Self-branding arose from corporate branding models applied to individual workers #expands (0.85) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 416
• Self-branding exercises frame profit-seeking as the discovery of an authentic self. #complicates (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 496
• Showing oneself as a self online begins the manufacturing of the self as commodity #expands (0.80) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 61
• The Web enabled individuals to apply corporate branding strategies to themselves #expands (0.78) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 466
• Social media reframed self-identity as a personal brand selling attention #expands (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1031