This post started as a conversation with @localcelebrity a few weeks back at @timjahn and @rebeccadenison’s “Monday Rocks” Tweet up.

Regardless on your thoughts about the term, “personal branding” in the communications industry is rampant. Carefully crafted online identities present a package that shows off intelligence, business sense, communication skills and personality. Personal branding has exploded with the takeoff of blogging, and now the popularity of online streams can literally give an online lurker  or employer 24 hour access to your carefully constructed online identity.

Beyond merely what you write or say, streams allow you to illustrate what you read, placing your entire idea exchange in public, broadcasting to the world that you are doing cool/witty/ nerdy/ intelligent things at all times.

In our world of streams, the biggest personal brands in the communications industry are folks who share the content that inspires others to create. Brands used to pay handsomely for the amount of information that Jeremiah Owyang places on his blog for the public to see. Now he makes the big bucks because he has provided such informative information in a public setting. While public information allows for copycats, his reputation and influence earned by the quality of his blog’s information attracts top caliber clients.

Big clients have started paying attention to personal brands. Check out Chris Brogan’s brand list:

Big Agencies have taken notice, hiring names that will raise their profile and attract top caliber talent and clients alike. Hiring big personal brands are extremely attractive to agencies for a few reasons:

1) It makes agencies appear cutting edge.

  • In an industry that is ever changing, hiring an “influencer” or “thought leader” assuages client concerns that you will miss the next big thing.

2) It garners industry respect.

  • While people within the communications industry talk about big personal brands as if they are household names, most personal brands are well known solely within industry circles. As an agency, there is no better way to show you’re serious about social media than hiring someone who is well known within the circle already. If you’re looking for information about how to hire the best social media talent, check out this article.

3). Agencies can utilize enormous personal brands for clients (Whether directly or indirectly)

Have we reached a new era of personal brand influence over agencies? In the next five years will major brands choose to work with individual consultants like Amber Nausland, Liz Strauss or Shannon Paul instead of an Edelman?

The obvious answer is for agencies to begin snapping up personal brands like crazy — and they have been. But big personal brand hirings  lead to numerous questions:

Client Strategy

Will we see a world where a client asks an agency to target administrative assistants on social media, and in response the agency hires the administrative assistant with the biggest personal brand and online following? Is this already a reality?

Dilution of Trust

Does working at an agency dilute the trust of a personal brand? If you create a strategy around a certain social technology are you more likely to promote that technology on your personal streams? Even subconsciously? Obviously there is no such thing as true objectivity in blogging, but if trust, reputation, and relationship building are the foundation of this online economy, can you protect your personal brand while investing in technologies for clients that you may or may not believe in?

Intellectual Property

We’ve recently seen this come up with Forrester, when they banned their consultants from running personal blogs. If you’re in the business of selling ideas, strategy, and research your employees are your best assets. Where does individual intellectual property stop and agency intellectual property begin?

Melding the individual and corporate brand is of the utmost importance for any agency, and will continue to be even more so in the future.

Will personal brands ever outshine agency brands? How does where you work, or where you want to work, shape your online identity?

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