Thing 11: Your Professional Brand

This Thing was all about cultivating a professional brand. It promoted a consistent look and feel across all forms of social media. I did feel a little uncomfortable thinking of myself as a brand but I think that may be the self-promotion aspect and may stem from my Irish mentality. I also mostly use social media for personal rather than professional reasons so it is hard to switch between the two. It may be necessary to set up separate accounts for work but this also means maintaining numerous accounts which can be time-consuming.

I developed a LinkedIn profile reluctantly myself a couple of years ago as I was asked to teach a session on the benefits of using social media specifically Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I set up my LinkedIn profile as an example for the session. Over the years, I have developed it a little but this course has made me take a closer look and see what improvements I could make. I updated my photo and added in the CPD courses that I attended in 2017, as well as adding the first Digital Badge from the RUDAI23 course (a tip from the TwitterChat). It took quite a bit of time to get to grips with the Open Badges and I did find it took a while to add it to my LinkedIn. I like the idea of them but until they become a little easier to add to Social Media, I fear they may become obsolete or forgotten about. I also think perhaps LinkedIn should add a separate area where you can display Open Badges easily rather than under the Certification. It would be nicer to see the badge itself rather than just the name.

LinkedIn is a useful way to promote yourself and network and build an online CV and keep track of your professional accomplishments. It is something we tend only to think about when we are looking for new jobs but it is an important way to remind ourselves of our accomplishments and keep up our continuous professional development.

Also this course made me think about the message we send out and how others may perceive us. I do see the benefits of personal branding and being in charge of your professional identity especially online. This is an area that I need to work on myself and get better at managing and keep it more up-to-date.