When “Personal Branding” goes too far

As we all know, the internet has become saturated with a bunch of self-made reality stars thanks to the advent of social media. Everyone is scamming to get a moment in the spotlight and unfortunately, as technology advances, people will find new outlets for “personal branding”, even if it means that you will be carrying around a strange man’s face on your cell phone.

It’s one thing to be followed on Twitter for saying silly things and giving random advice here and there, but when does this whole “personal branding” thing step over the line? One particular instance of uber-vanity was brought to my attention by this lovely TechCrunch article yesterday. Here’s an excerpt:

Yes, Brian Solis – Valley PR, always-on web 2.0 schmoozer and occasional TechCrunch contributor – has his own app, available through Apple’s app store. Thanks to the app, Solis fans can view photos of their hero, read his latest tweets, track his speaking appearances and even see when he’s visiting a town near you. That last feature also generates the most sinister alert box I’ve ever seen on a hand-held device” “Brian Solis would like to access your location. Allow?”

And while I couldn’t bring myself to actually download his application, I did check out it’s info page in the app store (and took some screen shots for your enjoyment). Who does this guy think he is? What’s up with all the strange facial expressions? CREEPY.

On a side note, if there are any aspiring photographers and iPhone developers out there looking to work on a pro-bono project, I’ve got a proposal for you.