Personal Branding: A lesson from Snooki

Robyn Stewart
May 18, 2015
2 min read

http://www.mtv.com/onair/jersey_shore/season_2/photos/episodes/202/blog/3.jpg

The other day I came across the Instagram account belonging to Snooki, AKA Nicole Polizzi, AKA Nicole LaVelle (check out her Instgram here, https://instagram.com/snookinic/). You remember Snooki, the crazy, drunk, Jersey Shore party girl dancing the night away on MTV. Well here is a picture of Snooki now:

http://usm.ag/1dVZ23d

Stating the obvious, Nicole looks amazing. I am calling her Nicole here because she has clearly shed her “Snooki” image. She has undergone a complete physical transformation since her partying days at the Shore. She looks appropriate and put together. And I don’t see an alcoholic beverage anywhere nearby. She’s married with children now and her look reflects a more wholesome lifestyle.

Seeing the new Snooki got me thinking about the importance of perception and personal branding.

As a public relations pre-professional, branding is a subject I have learned a lot about. I mean, maintaining a favorable public perception of a brand will be the end goal of my future career. My academic advisor often warns us students not to publish anything on the internet we wouldn’t want our grandmas to see. But not much more has been said about the importance of personal branding during the course of my studies.

Personal branding is something everyone should be aware of. Not just public relations people. The world has become one full of visuals published on the internet for everyone to see until the end of time. Or the end of the internet. Whichever comes first.

First impressions are crucial and we rarely get a second chance to give the impression we would like to leave. According to forbes.com, it only takes seven seconds to make a first impression. That means that someone is making a definite decision about who you are in less time than it takes to send a Snapchat. Scary. Read more about how to make a great first impression here, http://onforb.es/JNVHUd

giphy.com

I have a lot of peers in the PR program here at CWU that could take a leaf out of Snooki’s book. I don’t understand how some of my fellow students expect a company to trust them managing a reputation when they can’t even manage their own. If you can’t/don’t try to successfully brand yourself, you can’t/shouldn’t brand anything.

No one is perfect and yes there have been times when I’ve pulled a Snooki and not given the best representation of myself. But in the midst of a digital era, we all need to be a little more careful about the perceptions we create of ourselves.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go binge re-watch Jersey Shore.