At the same time, there are definitely people who take it too far and those people drive me bananas. Personal branding is great if you have something to say, and if you have ideas; if you're just trying to promote your SELF but you don't have original ideas to promote, it gets really old.

And to answer your final question, what do I do when I think someone has gone overboard on the personal branding thing? I have absolutely no hesitation about unfollowing them on Twitter and/or unsubscribing to their blog. They have every right to do what they want, but there's no reason I need to read their content if it's too self-promotional.

I've experienced some of the same things that you have in recent weeks, and that's what inspired me to tweet those questions in the first place. You're right that you can often tell when people are being fake and uncaring, but sometimes it's the people who used to be real and genuine, and I find that even more frustrating. I totally agree, and you phrase it so well: Success that makes you change who you are to achieve it is not success at all. Thanks for making such a great contribution to the discussion!

To answer your questions, dear god yes personal branding can go too far. In the past month I've encountered people who solicited my email under false pretenses on Twitter only to inundate me with sales pitches, written posts with sensational SEO laden titles which detract from the entire point of the post, RT's of the same post over 20 times, writing juvenile posts attacking other bloggers after reaching out to them under false pretenses, asking questions on Twitter for open @replies and then never engaging in conversation…I could really go on. The great thing about when personal branding goes too far is that you can usually tell because people are just obviously fake and uncaring.

I believe that success that makes you change who you are to achieve “it” is not success at all. Like the blatantly false and shallow self-promotion of personal branding gone too far the success is nothing more than a thin sheet of ice you'll eventually fall through. I've unfollowed and unsubscribed to many a person who whored themselves to a point of ridiculousness.

I love this, we should be loving people using money instead of loving money and using people. Amen to that!

It's also the plethora of experts, as you and others have mentioned. The difference between someone like you, who writes about a subject he enjoys and is knowledgeable about, and them, is that you don't tout yourself as the all-knowing source of Middle Eastern affairs. You feel that you have knowledge to share that will be valuable to others, and that's a great thing. Thank you for the long comment, verbose is welcome here

The second point, is something I totally understand. It's hard to share your personal life with the blogosphere, and I get that some people don't feel comfortable with it. But, I don't think that people who do share aspects of their lives are branding themselves. So, not doing so isn't a lack of personal branding. I hope that made sense!

Again, I have no problem with people who want to promote their personal brand online. The part that bothers me is how it's done sometimes.

Thanks for contributing to the discussion!