building the you.com brand

As I met with a group of friends several months ago, something interesting came up. One of these friends was my age and just out of college, the other two are a bit older. We had come together to discuss how we might cooperate in providing communications services together to various clients.

In preparation for the meeting, we all outlined what skills and knowledge we would bring to the table.

Interestingly enough, though our skill sets varied, it seemed that many of the same concepts were present.

The key difference, as Richard pointed out, was how we marketed ourselves in our own self-descriptions.

It seems that college students and recent graduates today have a high aptitude for branding themselves (maybe for branding in general). We like to plant our own .com and build a look and style that adequately describes ourselves. Very interesting indeed.

Branding is key. But how will all of these personified brands play out in the future? How will we integrate into a corporate world, yet maintain our own personal and branded identities? How will we work together without competing?

This is yet to be seen for me, at least. But I think the independent and small-biz web development culture is by far the most advanced in this area. As I’m just busting (or re-busting) into the scene of web development, I’m enamored by the community I’ve walked into.

Of course, I must give kudos to Alex Hillman, for his coworking evangelism. He’s drawn me in, and inspired me to participate in a new community of professionals who are working independently, yet together.