Thing 3: Branding

I thought I had got away from things like marketing and personal branding when I became a librarian but it seems not..

So this thing is to consider how I am portayed online and what kind of impression this gives to others. Looking at the recommended reading, much of the advice given on personal branding is really common sense.

1. Assume that current and future employers will be reading what you post online. If you have a personal profile on something like Facebook (which I don't) then either make it private or use a pseudonym. I have a LinkedIn profile, but I use it as basically an online CV.

2. Use a relatively professional picture.I use the same picture both for this blog and my Linkedin profile - Not that I thought very hard about  which photo to use but I suppose I wanted to avoid  using a picture that was either unprofessional or very obviously staged, both can have bad points.

3. An attractive theme or image can give a good impression , and as mentioned in the thing description can help you stand out from the crowd.


As for googling myself, my name is fairly common in Ireland so searching for Colm O'Connor just brought me to a list of LinkedIn profiles in which I am included. Searching for Colm O'Connor Library was more successful, bringing up a my LinkedIn profile, a link to an article I've written, my staff profile here at Mercer Library and some references to work I did at the National Print Museum library in Dublin. A fairly consistent online brand then and nothing I wouldn't want present or future employers to see. I'm fairly pleased with the results though I guess the amount of people actually googling "Colm O'Connor Library" aren't exactly legion!