Branding - Thing 3

I'm starting to relax with this blogging lark. It's doesn't seem half so bad now I'm getting into it!

Branding is one of those things we easily overlook. I have a tendency to sign up to sites and online tools with very little thought as to how I'm going to use them, tie them all together and keep on top of them.

Some of the sites (the ones I can remember!) I've signed up to include Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, Slideshare and Google+ . I mainly use Facebook and Twitter and have only dabbled with the others and use them very occasionally.  All have different profile pictures and very little to connect them with each other. I do try and use my name but sometimes find that it's already been taken by an imposter as surely I am the real jo mather! To get around this I tend to add the first available number at the end (hence jomather2 forTwitter - not ideal but you can't always come first!)

I'm currently involved in a social media project at work and have had to create additional accounts for work purposes (I sense an opportunity for a quick plug, so please 'Like' us?  NPTC Libraries). Guidelines stated that our accounts had to be linked to our work e-mail so I now have 2 Facebook accounts,  3 Twitter accounts (my personal account, one for work and another I signed up to during a social media training session!), this blog and this morning I unwittingly created myself a Google+ account when creating a You Tube account for work.

In terms of my profile, I do like to keep the personal and professional separate and I tend to use Twitter more as  a professional tool. Facebook is slightly different as I most definitely use my personal page to connect with friends and family. I don't think I want people that I communicate with for professional or work purposes to see my 'lighter' side. My privacy settings are quite high so I'm more difficult to find on Facebook and I quite like it that way.

So to remedy my branding issues I've tried to link all my 'worky' stuff together, so if you find my blog you can find me on Twitter and vice versa.
I've changed my profile picture on my Twitter account so it's the same as the one on this blog. It's the photo we had taken in work for official use and appears on college moodle and library pages. The next step is to change my Twitter background so I've got a visual connection with my blog page.

Lastly, I googled myself (admittedly not the first time!) and there are surprisingly more Jo Mather's out there than you'd think. My Twitter account came up on the first page but all the Facebook search results were for imposters. My Flickr photostream of birthday cakes I've made came up on page 2, which I wasn't expecting (possibility of a lucrative little sideline?). I had no results for my blog so I'm going to have to work on improving that. If I search Google images it appears I'm a world class baseball player.

If I'm feeling brave, I may ask someone in work to comment on my branding. But for now, I'll leave it as it is and tuck into the jaffa cakes.