The Web enabled individuals to apply corporate branding strategies to themselves

Evidence

It is no coincidence that self-branding is contemporaneous with the Web. Internet technologies have made it possible for people to apply sophisticated branding strategies used by modern multinational companies to themselves, and social media in particular has allowed individuals with internet access to broadcast to the world in an affordable way. Perhaps due to its origins in the dot-com boom, self-branding has had a remarkably wide reach within the technology industry. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 466

Categorization

• XREF: The technological-enablement causal claim connects to McLuhan/Innis communication-determinism literature already in the reader’s library. — connects to: Online self-presentation expresses a neoliberal subjectivity applying market principles to identity — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 25; Self-branding philosophy originated in the dot-com boom era — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 143; Brands profit by monetizing user-generated word-of-mouth influence. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 253 (+15 more)

Broader Connections

• Social media reframed self-identity as a personal brand selling attention #expands (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1031
• Facebook cultivated the self-as-brand among ordinary individuals #exemplifies (0.82) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1004
• Self-branding normalizes surveillance and produces strategic, edited selves #expands (0.78) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 721
• Social media promotes an ideal of privatizing the self into corporate form #expands (0.74) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 354
• Personal branding online creates performative doppelgangers demanding constant attention #expands (0.72) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 32