网络时代自我推销的风险

    莎玛•卡巴尼的大部分时间都用在指导企业家和首席执行官们如何通过社交媒体进行自我宣传。她曾经写过一本书《禅说社交媒体营销》（The Zen of Social Media Marketing），得到了很好的反响。她成立的数字化营销公司正在不断成长。同时她还担纲一档网络电视节目的主持人，为人们打造个人品牌出谋划策。

    26岁的卡巴尼友善而直爽。她给自己品牌的定义是开放、充满生气、富有创新性。但她的行为有时候与却与她力图呈现的平易近人特征背道而驰。在收到一大堆“你真火辣”和“我爱你”的信息之后，她取消了Google+账号页面上的“发送邮件”的功能。2010年12月，卡巴尼出人意料地突然取消了对Twitter上全部16,000人的关注，希望能减少垃圾邮件和评论数量。她说：“局面变得有些不可收拾了。”

    关注者对她的决定看法不一。有些人在博客上评论她的举动是“干净彻底、斩草除根”。而有些人认为她自大而又自私。卡巴尼承认这一决定可能会导致她错失某些机会，比方说可能会有些客户或者组织找她作为演讲嘉宾。但这也使得她能好好思考如何在各种角色间找到平衡。

    没错，卡巴尼是一位作家，她通过多媒体方式友好地为人们答疑解惑，同时她也是这种“透明行业”内的一位公司首席执行官。然而，她本人的个人品牌是否存在曝光过度的问题呢？她说：“曾有人给我建议，刚起步的时候得有求必应。成长起来以后就得学习如何拒绝他人。”

    现在只要一键点击就可以登陆Google+、商务社交网站LinkedIn、Twitter和Quora，宣传自己的途径比以往任何时候都多，而毁掉自己声誉的方式同样很多。如果只满足于“他们只要能把我的名字拼对就行”，那你可能忘记了一点：过度的自我炒作可能会导致个人声誉直线下跌，就像以超乎所有人想象的速度从高级法拉利跑车变成年久失修的破车。关于这一点，社交名媛帕里斯•希尔顿就是现成的例子。

    对于崭露头角的新星或者刚刚晋升的公司高管来说，自我宣传的诱惑尤其危险。他们获得某项成功后，不去想努力获得更多成功，而是开始厚着脸皮推销自己。梅塞德斯-奔驰（Mercedes-Benz）美国公司营销副总裁史蒂夫•卡农称：“品牌就是一个人的承诺，承诺你真正能够做到的事情。”该公司对于形象塑造比较在行。

    位于弗吉尼亚州阿灵顿的麦克科米克集团（the McCormick Group）的莱尔•卡尔是一位经验丰富的招聘官。他说，如果有人在简历中未列出实实在在的技能和本领，他对这份简历的印象就会大打折扣，他说：“就像回到古老的商业时代，我要问一句‘干货在那里？’这些人企图用个性来代替真才实学。”

    有资本吹嘘自己好友数量庞大或者发Twitter的篇数很多，这固然很好，但有时候，少就是多。易见咨询公司（Vizibility）旨在帮助专业人士和求职者对他们的在线身份进行管理。最近，公司首席执行官和创始人詹姆斯•亚历山大屏蔽了一位LinkedIn用户的所有更新。此君每小时都在发帖。亚历山大说：“他已经无权通过LinkedIn跟我沟通了。谁都有权把时间（这种事确实占用时间）和精力花在这些事情上面，但是这么做只会使别人对你敬而远之”。

    Shama Kabani spends much of her time teaching entrepreneurs and CEOs to promote themselves on social media. She wrote a well-received book, The Zen of Social Media Marketing, owns a growing digital marketing company, and stars in a web-TV show offering advice on building your brand and more.

    Friendly and outgoing, Kabani, 26, defines her own brand as open, vibrant, and innovative. Yet her actions sometimes run counter to the accessibility she works so hard to project. She removed the "send an e-mail" button on her Google+ account after a barrage of "You're so hot" and "I love you" missives. Then, in December 2010, Kabani abruptly stopped following all 16,000 people she had subscribed to on Twitter in hopes of eliminating a barrage of spam and other comments. "It became unmanageable," she says.

    Some followers took her decision personally. A few blogged about her "slash and burn" move; others called her arrogant and selfish. Kabani admits the decision may have resulted in a few lost opportunities, such as potential clients or organizations seeking a speaker. But it also led to a careful deliberation on how to balance her various personas.

    Sure, Kabani is an author, a smiling multimedia answer woman, and a CEO in "an industry of transparency." But was she, in fact, overexposing her own brand? "Someone once gave me advice," she says. "When you start, you say yes to everything. As you grow, you need to learn to say no."

    With Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Quora just a click away, there are more ways to promote yourself than ever -- and just as many ways to screw it up. Worshipers at the temple of "just spell my name right" may have forgotten that overbranding can take someone's reputation from Ferrari to clunker faster than anyone dreamed possible. Just ask Paris Hilton.

    The temptation is particularly perilous for rising stars or newly promoted executives. They develop one success, and instead of growing it into a second and a third, they start selling themselves shamelessly. "The brand is your promise that represents real things that you deliver," said Steve Cannon, vice president of marketing for Mercedes-Benz USA, a company that knows something about image creation.

    Lyles Carr, a veteran recruiter at the McCormick Group in Arlington, Va., says he tends to discount a résumé that doesn't list true accomplishments. "It goes back to the old commercial, 'Where's the beef?' " he says. "They're trying to substitute style for substance."

    While it's nice to be able to boast about the sheer numbers of friends you have or Twitter posts you've made, sometimes less is, in fact, more. James Alexander, CEO and founder of Vizibility, which helps professionals and job seekers control their online identities, recently turned off all the updates from a man on LinkedIn (LNKD) who posted every single hour. "He's lost his privilege to communicate to me in that way," he says. "You can spend all this time and effort -- it does take time -- only to turn around and end up alienating people."