This post is part of 23 Things for Professional Development.
Here is the result of my Google vanity search:
I included extra search terms as my names are too common to use alone, and mostly return hits about the eponymous Olympic diver (definitely not me!).Good news though, all these hits are relevant: my LinkedIn profile, a SCONUL Focus article I co-wrote, a profile of my library within the Oxford University libraries directory and my Twitter account.
However, my blog isn’t there, though a search for “Laura Wilkinson librarian” does find it (8th hit). My blog is the main site I would want people to find if they were searching for me.
I don’t think there is anything about me on the results page that I wouldn’t want a potential colleague/employer finding out about me, as I hope I wouldn’t put anything like that on the open web to start with.
I have used the same photo of myself on my Twitter, blog and LinkedIn sites to help keep my personal brand consistent.
I could improve my personal brand by changing my name to something unique. I started to search for name generators and found some pretty dodgy sites, including this one which creates a whole false identity for you. Perhaps I’ll stick with who I am, and try to improve my search engine optimisation, hence all the self-referential links in this post!
One Response to “Monitoring my personal brand on the web”