Janet Aronica

Describe yourself. I could describe my friends, my family, my co-workers, and my dog with eloquence and accuracy. But me? I think that’s hard to do subjectively. If you’re hard to describe, you’re hard to define; and if you’re hard to define, you’re really hard to brand.

Each and every single one of us is a complicated, exquisite constellation of sometimes contradicting traits – the fabric of our individuality. I have a suspicion that you are just as multi-faceted as me. I like high heels and sweatpants, Tom Petty and Rihanna, reisling and cabernet, the city and the beach. How do you streamline that? How do you take that personality and translate that into a brand?

It’s been said that life isn’t about finding yourself – it’s about creating yourself. You could create any brand you want. I could’ve made a site that presented me as cutting edge and credible (http://www.ben-grossman.com/), or a sexy social media maven (http://tastyblogsnack.com/). But the truth is: I don’t want to be anyone else because it is just too damn fun to be me.

That whole “just be yourself” mantra is pretty vague and useless as far as advice goes. I think that when it comes to branding, yes, be yourself – but with purpose. Identify the result you want to get from your involvement in social networks and present yourself accordingly. Don’t hide who you are, but accentuate the things about you that will render the result you want.

My intended result: I want a PR job. The hardworking, talented, ambitious “go out and get yourself an internship” side of me is the side that will get me a job. So I’m going to post my resume, blog about PR stuff I do, and show that I have a vested interest (or rather, a passion) for this industry. I’ll even go so far as to capitalize most of my words and avoid dropping f-bombs. I’m a professional, duh.

On the other hand, boring people don’t work in PR. I don’t necessarily have to hide the silly, square peg side of me. It’s good that I think outside the box. (Actually, I cross the street to find the nearest triangle. Then I run a few laps around the triangle before I sit outside of it Indian style and pick daisies while I brainstorm.) My dream is that my creativity and willingness to think different will one day lead to a really great job opportunity.

So specifically how am I branding myself in this way?

• Blog posts: My goal is to take time once a week to produce well-written posts that have great content and lots of personality. I added the WordPress widget on LinkedIn and will Tweet about new posts as to draw traffic/attention.

• The waitressing blog: I’m keeping it. It’s funny and honest. That’s a worthwhile side of me to share. But I’ll only Tweet about the ones with minimal cursing and innuendos ( in case people judge me for that sort of thing.)

• Design: This website was inspired by a lot of things. I got general design ideas from a bunch of themes on Tumblr, and CCS’d the WordPress Cutline theme to make it look this way. As far as color goes, my initial inclination was to do Victoria’s Secret pinks, magentas, and fushias. However, I am acutely aware that I come off pretty girly when I talk about boys, puppies, and shoes. There is no reason to reinforce that with Hello Kitty color schemes. Because that would be like, OMG totally overbearing and stuff lol haha <33333.

• To N or not to N: My full name is Janet (Jan – it) Nicole Aronica (A-ron-ick-ah). I introduce myself as Janet Aronica, but I sign my name as Janet N. Aronica. I flip between the two. I considered if this was a problem when naming my domain one thing and writing my name at the top of my resume as another, but then I considered that maybe Janet Aronica is an abbreviation for Janet N. Aronica. Or maybe it’s an interchangable nomanclature – like The City versus Circuit City. (And seeing how well that’s going for them…) Today versus The Today Show is another example.

So there you have it. That is the personal branding I’ve developed so far. A last thing I’m trying to develop: A catchy salutation. Here’s one for this week:

Eat your veggies. Tip your waitress. Tell your mom thank you. - JNA