Thing 3 – Branding #cpd23
I’ve always tried to keep a fairly low profile online. I’m quite introverted and that seems to extend to my online presence, I was never really sure whether I wanted people at work to find me and social media for personal use isn’t really encouraged, so I was quite happy being anonymous.
Recently my feelings have changed and now I can see that having a decent online presence is a good thing. Plus I don’t really say anything controversial, so there’s no reason to stay hidden.
I tend to use a variety of usernames online. Like many others I set up my Twitter account with a nickname. I wanted claireb but it was already taken and so is my full name which is surprising as it’s fairly unusual. I’ll stick with @calire (calire is just how I misspell my name when I’m typing too fast.) At least it has the benefit of being short.
I use the same image for most of my online presences. Usually a small piece of the above which was taken at the Comic Book Museum in Brussels back in 2005. I’ve had Mini Moo cards printed with this image. Judging by conversations I had at Umbrella, people associate my Twitter name with the stripes, so I suppose it’s a brand of sorts.
(I know I should have a photo there, but I’m very camera-shy and don’t like images of me online, so this will have to do)
I Google myself occasionally, but my surname is Back which tends to mess with the results a bit. The highest result that’s me is LinkedIn, which makes me think I should do something with it. (Looks like that’s coming up in Thing 6 if I ever get there)
If I add library to the search, there’s a bit more. I like that the second result is to a presentation I did, and the description includes the line “It’s easier to say sorry than ask permission”, although I’m not sure how that would look to potential future employers. Also in that list of results is my name on the minutes of a CILIP Committee meeting and strangely a list of the web authors at my place of work which is listed on the staff intranet.
I’ve only just added my full name to my Twitter profile which would explain why that doesn’t feature highly. It will be interesting to see if that changes in the next few weeks.
Hi Claire,
I certainly associate the stripes with you in my twitterfeed. I really like them, they brighten things up
I never knew until I just read this, where they had come from, they were just stripes – but seeing the whole image now has added an extra something to the snippet of it that appears on twitter, given it a bit of context, and nicely librariany context too.
You are braver than me about your online presence
What made you change your mind? I’m wondering whether I should “come out” after library camp?