Thing 5: Personal Brand

The last time I considered my personal brand for 23 Things for CPD I spent most of one morning making sure that I used the same names in each place. So across the social media world I am known as 'Walker Abroad.' It can be a tad confusing as people may expect my name to be my handle. But Elaine Harrington works in a library and yet I am more than someone who works in a library. I am walking abroad through spheres of knowledge and interests, and the world at large. The name also reminds me of a children's book. The characters said 'the walker is abroad.' I just can't remember the name of the book. It's the down-side to reading too many books! On that morning some two years ago I thought about what picture to use and not surprisingly, for me at least, I chose clouds. Maybe it's something to do with the ephemeral nature of social media or the transience of human existence. Maybe I'm reading too much into things, maybe I haven't quite embraced the need to make myself known. These are things that I puzzled about the first time round as well! At least I'm consistent across all platforms.

I Google myself on a regular basis; it's not just about what other people see but what I'm happy with of myself being available. There aren't many 'Elaine Harringtons' out there. A few writers (there must be something in the name!). I think Google has learned that 'Elaine Harrington' who Googles herself in Cork really is the Elaine Harrington who lives in Cork and not the one who lives in Dublin.

It's interesting then that Social Mention doesn't have the right me at all! Perhaps 'Elaine' doesn't exist in their database as there I'm called 'Edward Harrington Heyburn.' Despite the fact that Social Mention is searching content from across the universe and I've added additional search terms: library, Cork it makes little difference. Clearly the Social Mention universe and I exist separately.

Onto MIT's Personas Project! Perhaps I'll have more luck with this! It's a polite website as it asks for my first and last names please and the countdown begins: 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1...Result: The network is  overloaded! I could start to worry but I think that I'll try it later. How many people from #OxEngage are writing up their blogs over lunch?!

I know the one platform that I'm most dissatisfied with is Linkedin but I can only blame myself for not adding content. At least now that I know it I can tackle it!

Can There Really Be a Thing 0?

I've just started working on #OxEngage's 23 Things for Researchers and it's funny how things change over time or as I become more familiar with technologies. When I first started blogging I used Blogger as I thought it was easier. Then through work I started using Wordpress. As I was already familiar with Blogger using Wordpress was infinitely easier and now I think I prefer Wordpress! The functionality is handy but I'm going to leave Things Bright & Shiny just where they are!

Using both Blogger & Wordpress meant that it was very easy to set up a Tumblr account. I wanted to become adept-ish at using Tumblr and thought that the best way to do that would be to use every day for 30 days. A challenge then? Well challenge accepted! 30 days of using Tumblr for taking photos of the sky. #Skyphoto was born! Unfortunately by the time the 30 days had ended I had become addicted to #skyphoto and didn't really stop. I wasn't able to start #treephoto on Tumblr as I was still looking up! Six months on I've put the sky to one side and started on #treephoto in earnest. Doing 30 Days of Trees is probably best in the autumn anyway.

Note: 23 Things for Researchers is part of #OxEngage's Social Media Programme to Michelmas. There's such a cool interesting line-up. I was I was there!

A Second Round of 23 Things

The last time I used this blog was in the summer and autumn of 2012. I worked on 23 Things for CPD and it taught me a lot about social media and general thoughts about librarianship. Once the course ended I let the blogging slip to one side. I concentrated more on Twitter which seems to be working out some. I tried 23 Things for Productivity but ironically that didn't work out.

This time I'm going to try again. Oxford is running a 23 Things for Researchers and it's open to non-Oxford staff. I learned so much from the last 23 Things I did that I think two years on it's time to update my skills.

Let it begin!