Thinking about my brand

This is something I had already begun to think about when I first started CPD23. It took me weeks to come up with a name for my blog and when I finally did it was down to a collaborative effort with colleagues. Retrospectively, I think this is mainly down to overthinking this personal brand thing and setting my ambitions too high. Realistically, I just don't think I will ever be one of those SuperLibrarians who keep the rest of the information profession up to speed so I think it's OK not to have a super creative and individual online presence for now. This doesn't mean that I don't want to join in the conversation but I'm relieving myself of some of the pressure which prevented me from continuing my blog last time round. Instead I'm viewing this as more of a personal exercise. I can always develop my online presence at a later stage if I find that I take to blogging.  
For now I'm concentrating on creating consistency in my online presence. I resurrected my Twitter account, created a uniform username and linked my social media accounts. Now for the Google test.
I typed my full name into Google and, as expected, was not hugely successful in finding any information about myself. My name is so incredibly wide-spread (perhaps not my spelling but even Google doesn't seem to care about that). Narrowing down the search results by adding 'Oxford' eventually brings up my LibGuides profile. Interestingly I get the most correct hits when I drop my middle name and just type 'Rachael Scott, Oxford' into the search engine. I'm pretty happy with the results: my LinkedIn profile, my employer's website and my LibGuides profile.

The personal/professional brand division is a little more blurry for me. I use most social media as a means of communicating on a personal and professional level and going by my limited experience of Twitter, others seem to be doing the same. Facebook, on the other hand is entirely personal and I use LinkedIn to connect on a more professional level. I think, as long as I am aware that whatever is posted online is available for others to see, including current and future employers, I don't see the lack of division between personal and professional brand a huge problem.