Thinking about personal brand and how to develop an online prescenece / identity I tried to think about how I would like people to view me, given they will have never spoken to me or know my background, all they will know is what they can see. I don't want my personal and professional life to be completely intermingled as I think it is important to keep professionalism seriously as it can affect future job applicants in the world where a lot of employers do Google applicants. I'm not saying I go crazy in my personal life but I do like to keep some sense of mystery about me! I don't lie everyone to know everything about me.
As I have such an unusual name when I 'Googled' myself it was very interesting to see the results. The first thing that came up was my Facebook page. I have this set to quite high security so only my friends and family I have accepted can see my details. Other than that there isn't that much more about me. There are a couple of sites with my fundraising pages as I do fun runs evey year to raise money for charity. Then there are some news articles promoting staff development within the College when I completed my CILIP Certification. All in all I think these are positive things that I wouldn't mind people knowing abut me.
It would be nice to have a more identifiable personal brand but it's something I need to give more thought to. I think I also need a more exciting username as KAF doesn't really stand out. From seeing everyone's blogs there are so many creative people out there with some fantastic memorable names. I just need to reflect and see what I can come up with.
Talking about googling yourself - my new boss googled when they were recruiting! I know it happens 'out there' but still felt shocked when my boss 'fessed up!
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