As anyone may have guessed, I'm a fan of the whole personal branding thing. I'm no Dan Schawbel (hey, who IS except, well, Dan Schawbel), but I feel it's overall a positive thing -it's about establishing and communicating identity and building a presence. Sometimes it can get overdone (especially when one treats it like PRODUCT branding), but I feel it's a good thing overall – it makes people aware of themselves and how they present themselves.
And if you're a fanboy, fangirl, geek, nerd, etc. guess what, you are probably FAR better at it than you realize, because fandom socializing in the online days has massive elements of personal branding.
So guess what – you're probably pretty good at it.