Lost in the HQs

Lost in the HQs

Friday 17 August 2012

Thing 3: Consider your personal brand

My personal brand and online identity was something I have spent quite a long time agonising over!  Although my primary aim for starting the blog and twitter was for personal development in my professional work, I was aware the professional networking would be an inevitable by-product of this.

  • Name used - I confess I spent quite a while trying to think up a name for online CPD profiles.  I wanted something that included my first name, but didn't necessarily give my identity away.   I'm not very good at thinking up bon mot's, especially when I'd told myself how important it was, and read all the blog posts emphasising the importance of a brand and a name!  In the end I went with my first name and something relevant to my interests: Helen_HQ. HQ in the LoC classification scheme covers Gender, Family and Sexuality Studies books.
  • Photograph - Ah yes, the 'what constitutes a professional photo?' conundrum.  I confess I have slightly more piercings than the average person, a couple more tattoo's and occasionally a pink/purple/what I choose streak in my hair.  When I go to interviews it's long sleeved shirts, clear piercing retainers and hair a 'normal' colour.  I wasn't quite sure how to approach the photo for this.  I have initially gone with what I consider one of my 'safer' photos: facing away from the camera etc.  Now I'm a bit braver I'm tempted to change to a photo I prefer I will ponder on this for a week or so and see.
  • Professional/personal identity - I'm still getting into the swing of twitter and blogging.  For the moment, most of my posts on these platforms have covered library related themes.  I have a couple of blog posts saved in drafts that cover the 'HQ' aspect of the online name, however I haven't yet worked out whether to post them.
  • Visual brand - My theme is to be based around purple (my favourite colour), I also have the same picture of books in the HQ section for my blog and my twitter account.  I intend to use the same photo for blogging and twitter, although I'm not quite set on what photo to use yet.

Activity

I have quite an unusual surname, so I have always been aware of controlling what comes up in Google searches as it could potentially be very easy for an employer to find me.  My LinkedIn profile is the first search result that comes up.  This is good as I created this so I would have an online professional presence.  The other search results concern the few other name-twins that I have (in Australia and the US).  On the second page my role in the library I work in comes up.  My facebook page, blog and twitter don't appear in the results, which I am happy with!

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