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Personal Branding: Being Deliberate About Your Online Presence
Printer-friendly versionTo be perfectly honest, I had never given a thought to my “online presence” until about a year ago. At that time, one of my friends decided to start up two facebook pages. One page was her personal page, which only listed her first and middle name, and included a personal email that she never used for professional purposes. Her second page was her “professional page”. This one lists both of her names and her professional email, so if any current or prospective employer were to search for her, they would find her professional page, which contained lots of educational and career info, links to articles and websites that showed her interests and involvement, and only minimal photos and personal information. I remember thinking at the time that this was ingenious! It allowed her to use facebook as a fun interface to connect with friends and share photos, but also to create a positive online reputation. While it seems like a lot of work to do maintain two facebook pages, I completely agree with the principles behind her choices.
While writing this blog, I decided to Google myself (it’s been a long time since I have done this). I also used some of the monitoring tools Meredith gave us to “check myself out.” My facebook page came up, but it’s private until you become my friend. Other than that, you can see that I’m a member in ALA, that I have a blog for this class, and that I won a couple of freebies in a magazine contest years ago. You can also see a few of my comments from various blogs I have commented on over the years. While it is good that I have nothing negative or embarrassing online, I realized that my presence online does not say much about me. I admire Tracy’s strategic efforts in branding herself online and I am motivated to embark on my own personal branding mission. While I don’t want lots of information about me floating around online, I do want people to get an idea of who I am, what my experience is, and what I am involved in. Since I often Google my professors and potential employers, I need to assume they are looking for me too!
Thompson (2007) makes the point that “you are already naked,” and one person commented on that point to say that “the idea that if you don’t talk about yourself, other people will” is a strong one. It used to be that you would have a chance to “sell” yourself or market yourself to potential employers through an interview, but with the internet as a branding mechanism, I think that marketing of your skills and experience starts even before an interview. This makes you think twice about what you put on the internet. My goal this semester is to create more of an online presence for myself. I am going to create a Linked In profile and start actually using my Twitter account to post links to professional blogs and give my reflections on certain issues in the Library Science field. I would also love to start a professional blog at some point. While Thompson (2007) does mention that you can’t go halfway naked, I also believe that we are all naked anyway, so why not go out there and give people something positive to discover?!
Thompson, C. (2007). "The See-Through CEO." Wired.
- Pamela H's blog
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I never thought much about my
I never thought much about my online presence either (well I kind of had a who cares attitude), but as I draw closer to completing the SLIS program and am starting to gear up to look for a new job, I realize that I may need to be protective of my personal life and professional life bleeding together. Even something as simple as having a professional email address instead of something like goofyhead@emailaddress.com is going to be a chore for me.
I just had to laugh!
I just had to laugh! Goofyhead@emailaddress.com ... I am a big fan of the Disney character Goofy and, thus, my private email address includes his name. When I started the MLIS program, I realized I didn't want school intermingling with home, so I created a professional name-only email address. I soon realized how handy it was to have this professional email as I would run across items I thought would interest colleagues and I'd share them using the professional email address.
Yes, even something as small as an email address can brand us - for better or worse.
Yes, yes, yes!!!! I've been
Yes, yes, yes!!!! I've been on four search committees and can tell you from experience that having a silly email address does look bad. You are very smart to have a professional one that you use for school/work purposes. It's important to most employers that you present yourself professionally in your application for the job, and that includes your email address.
As far as what people will find when they Google you, employers know that you have a life outside of work. It's ok if they find pictures of you at a party or concert or whatever (within reason -- keep your clothes on!!!). I knew my colleague's taste in music before we hired him because I saw his Amazon lists. It becomes more complicated when they find things out about you that could put doubt in their minds about your ability to do the job or be a positive member of the organization. Things like extremely negative comments about the profession or patrons, comments about problems you've had at other jobs, personal issues that have gotten in the way of your work (or could), etc. Those are not things you want broadcasted across the web.
A lot of entry-level positions these days require familiarity with Web 2.0 tools. Search committees expect to find you in these spaces when they Google you, because that demonstrates that you USE them and understand them. They want to find someone who has built a personal brand online, because they know that you'll be able to help them build an organizational brand as well.
Hi Meredith, If the privacy
Hi Meredith,
If the privacy settings of an interviewee's social networking accounts are set to levels of maximum privacy so that no content can be seen by outside contacts, is it likely that potential employers will request to connect or become friends with the interviewee on his/her social networking accounts before or during the interview process as a means by which to judge or screen the interviewee based on the content of his/her social networking accounts? Or will potential employers simply be happy to find that the interviewee has social networking accounts, albeit with all content hidden, and leave it at that?
I don't think employers would
I don't think employers would ever do that -- it's a gross breach of privacy. If someone chooses to leave something completely open, then employers will probably look at it. But if they purposely make a social networking profile private, it would be completely inappropriate to "friend" a job candidate.
Given that my name is
Given that my name is Jennifer Rogers, any search for me will come up with hundreds (++) of hits that have absolutely zero to do with me. In my high school, in whatever town I live in...there are always multiples. Considering this, I don't really know what use value an internet search for me would have.
I have opted to not share my
I have opted to not share my full name in my blogs but I think multiple hits is the bane of being a "Jennifer". I thought, upon marrying my husband, my name may actually be unique enough to set me apart from the other Jennifers. I have a Google-Alert set up on my name and about two months ago, Google alerted me to a Facebook posting telling the world that I caught a big fish in some northern state - and I don't live in the north or even like fishing (unless you count holding a pole while reading a book then screaming "ick" as the fish is reeled in by a friend as fishing). It obviously wasn't me
This message is the one that needs to get out to employers: just because you got a hit on my name doesn't mean you got a hit on me.
In your case, something like
In your case, something like ClaimID would be useful to allow you to claim the things on the web that are about you and then use that in your online portfolio so that people can find out more about you and your accomplishments.
Obviously, since I have yet
Obviously, since I have yet to post this week's blog, I have been doing a lot of thinking about this week's reading. You all know from last week's post how freaked out I am by the judgments people make without having met me and, thus, how reluctant I have been to join the masses at Facebook. I suspect Meredith was having a private giggle knowing that this week's lesson was going to give me much food for thought and push me even closer to marketing myself on the Internet.
Pamela, thank you for your post. It is very succinct and very helpful at focusing me on the "if you don't do it, someone else will and it won't be pretty" aspect, as well as pointing out how online tools are the interviews of today. I was determined to wait for face-to-face interviews to sell myself when the time came. I realize now how late that would be.
The ironic thing is I have a LinkedIn profile and have had on my to-do list all summer to go in and polish it up. Layoffs are looming in my world (the third round - it is highly unlikely I will survive this time given my only-four-years tenure) and that is one profile that needs to shine. I think it is time for me to stop putting off the task and put some polish on the profile.
Obviously this topic has hit
Obviously this topic has hit a nerve with many of us who have been thus far reluctant to proactively have an online presence, but as I mentioned in my post, thank goodness I was able to enroll in this class! Not being a real techie type person, I would never have considered taking this class if it were not for Dr. Linda Main's blog which mentioned the offering of this class. Here is another example of how powerful social media tools can be. I am very quickly finding myself less and less paranoid about those pesky privacy issues as I gain more understanding of how this all works and how powerful these tools can be.
I've got some cleaning up to
I've got some cleaning up to do myself. I just reactivated my Facebook a few days ago. Let's say I value personal authenticity very highly, and inversely, I haven't valued "impression management" or " interpersonal politics" really at all in a positive way. So valuing truthfulness, openness and honesty, I have naively posted some rather personal, sensitive ideas online, and not only that but a lot of silly jokes (nothing at all obscene though).
Needless to say, I felt judged for it. It's was a clash between the general concept of transparency and humility on the one side versus the specific role to be played on the other. It should be a balance of the two. To be perfectly honest, I used Facebook for that because it was there. But now I know better. I didn't realize that my postings could make others uncomfortable and thus motivate them to want to understand, not to mention the ramifications for me.
I thought being open about things was a gift of sorts, and that it gave others the permission to do the same. Actually, I still think that...so watch out everybody!