During library school "the personal brand" is something that was talked about a lot. It was always referred to in conjunction with networking and building your professional presence. To that end, during library school I began blogging and posting on Twitter. I also created a LinkedIn profile during my last semester in library school. I thought long and hard about the names I would use for my blog and my Twitter account. After all, these accounts would represent me.
When I created my blog (in May 2009), I wanted a name that would represent me as a librarian and also would reflect some of my personality. So I started with the URL. I chose librarianjenrae for my Blogspot address because it told the world that I am a librarian and it offered a little personality by using my childhood nickname Jen Rae. The title of my blog came from the Library Foundations (LIS 600) class I took my first semester of library school. During one of the classes the professor said that librarians were the gatekeepers of knowledge. This proclamation tickled quite a few of us in that class for some reason. I guess we are easily amused. Anyway, it became a running joke amongst my library school circle, and when I decided to start a blog, I felt it was the perfect title. I came up with the tagline "I am a lighthouse in a sea of information" myself. I felt it described a librarian perfectly. What else are we but guiding lights to our users, pointing them in the appropriate directions for their information needs? How clever I felt when I came up with that. ;) I do occasionally have good ideas.
I created my Twitter account on March 18, 2009. My original username was JenniferWhicker. I kept that for awhile, but I eventually decided that I wanted something that represented me as a librarian and that also showed off my personality. So I decided to use my Blogspot address as my Twitter username. This way I would be identified as a librarian and it would also be "connected" to my blog.
My blog and LinkedIn account both contain strictly professional musings. My Twitter account is a mix of professional and personal posts. (I am always very aware of what I am posting on Twitter since this account contains both personal and professional information.) I also have a Facebook account, but that is reserved for family and friends so I keep the privacy controls very strict on it, and I do not engage in much library discussion there. I have also chosen not to be friends with anyone I work with on Facebook.
This exercise has really helped me to re-evaluate my brand. I have changed the design of my blog and some of the information I have on it. I have also made some changes to my LinkedIn account. I think it is very important for us as information specialists to be aware of the information that is out there about ourselves. We need to constantly monitor what message we send out via our social media outlets and how that message effects our brand.
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