I must admit I have never really thought about my professional brand in any great depth before! I'm extremely lucky to be in a permanent position, have recently been promoted, and I'm no longer particularly ambitious or looking for a job or a new position! I know that isn't all that having a brand is about, but I'm active on twitter and regularly attend library events and seminars where I network face to face, so I don't really feel the need to have a public presence.
I've been playing around with LinkedIn today, but I have to say I don't particularly like it! There is a lot going on the sign-up page, and in all honesty I don't think I really need to have that much detail about me out there somewhere and in the end I decided to go with and about.me after I checked outWayne Gibbons page!
Setting up the page was very straightforward, though I did upload a profile photo and took it down again pretty quickly! I'm not sure if I will ever be comfortable with my image publicly online for all to see!
Click here to see my page.
Hi
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found my about.me of interest! I like LinkedIn (although it has its flaws), but as a one-stop-shop for online presence and branding, I think about.me is a better choice. And, of course, you can always link your LinkedIn account to about.me, so the only URL you ever have to give people to find you is your about.me address.
There is some interesting research out there that says online presence and branding goes a long way to online confidence....people are more likely to "put themselves out there" on things like discussion forums if they have a brand already made. So your about.me, along with the links you've put on that profile, are a huge factor in how you go on to use your web tools.
The Rudai23 Team