Considering my personal brand

Task 3 of cpd23 is to 'consider my personal brand'. To do this, I thought I would look at the various ways in which I present myself online. I don't worry too much about potential employers seeing photos of me, because I don't think there are any incriminating photos of me out there - the worst you could see is me grinning with a glass of wine.

On Twitter, I recently changed my name from my real name to dorotheainrome, partly so it matches this blog, but also because I am scared of talking about work under my real name. I don't even really talk about work, but I do use Twitter for networking purposes. To be honest, I should probably have a personal account and a work one, but the boundary is so fluid for me (a lot of friends are also colleagues; personal interests are potential freelance opportunities) that I don't know what would go where. So I just stick to trying not to swear too much. My profile is mainly disclaimer:

'Museum educator with tendency for self-deprecation and being a little passionate (ranty) about politics and such.All views expressed are mine and not employers'

.. which is typically self-deprecating, and shows that I also feel awkward about how passionate I can get!

My Facebook profile has the following as a quotation:
"It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them. How can we ever be satisfied without them until our feelings are deadened?" Yet more George Eliot, this time from Mill on the Floss.

So far it seems I want to hide my identity while on the internet, whilst also showing quite a lot of my personality. Curious.

This also got me thinking about what my personal brand is in person. I recently realised that what I had thought was an endearing quality - telling amusing stories about my inability to get the correct bus etc - was actually me undermining myself. I think I may have started doing this in order to not seem stuck-up or intimidating. I used to be quite shy, and people always thought I was being aloof, but it seems to have backfired, and I am now making a conscious effort not to do myself down, especially while at work.

What do you think your offline personal brand is?

Thing 2: Blogging

I read a lot of blogs. A lot. I use Feedreader to collect them and go through phases. I recently spent far too long reading about unattainably beautiful interior design, crafts and fashion before feeling guilty and finding more work-related blogs. I recently worked on a freelance project researching museums, technology and participation, so still follow a lot of the blogs I found through this.

I love Claire Ross's Digital Nerdosaurus blog because she always seems to be working so hard and her passion for what she writes about really inspires me. She talks about projects in the Digital Humanities that I find very interesting and I think she balances professionalism and personal insight really well.

I'm noticing a theme in the blogs I'm choosing to write about - what I really admire about them is their dedication to what they do. Nina Simon at Museum 2.0 went from working as an educator in museums 10 years ago to setting up her own consultancy and writing about museums, technology and participation to being Executive Director of the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz. She writes about really complicated issues of participatory experiences in museums in a very down-to-earth way (and I used her theories as part of my dissertation on this!)

Right, I need to go away and do some commenting and then I'll report back on what else I've found.

A way to get me writing

I have signed up to take part in the very exciting looking http://cpd23.blogspot.com
which is a 'self-directed course aimed at introducing you to a range of tools that could help your personal and professional development as a librarian, information professional or something else.' I'm a something else, being a museum and archives educator, but think this encouragement in my blogging and professional development will be really useful.

Thing No. 1 is blogging. I have been on internet forums since I was 14 (hello embarrassing nu-metal bands..) written on Livejournal since I was 17, and am a regular on Facebook and Twitter. But I've never quite managed blogging. There is something about the private/public thing, especially when it relates to work that makes me really uncomfortable. I always worry about saying the wrong thing (normally at exhibition openings when I get anxious about free wine making me loose-tongued) and writing about work just seems to be asking for that to happen. So I am never too obvious about where I work - it wouldn't be too hard to guess from where I am and what I do, but I feel better if I don't make it explicit. Especially as I prefer this blog to about learning more generally, and not specifically as it applies to my job at the time (which is a bit of an issue with the increasing popularity of fixed-term contracts!)

I do spend a lot of time reading up about archives/museums/libraries/digital culture on the internet, and I see this project as a way to structure the CPD I've maybe been doing without realising it, and to give me an opportunity to reflect on and share what I've found.

A professional update

I did indeed manage to find a part-time job to supplement the amazing freelancing, and am now working 3 days a week in museum education, which is rather wonderful.

I have come back to the blogging world, and am attempting to be more reliable than I normally am. I never feel very comfortable with publicly blogging about work, so intend to make this blog more generally about issues of museum, heritage, learning and community.