Having spent some time rambling on the Ceredigion coast path on Saturday in the beautiful sunshine I have been envigorated to try a post for Thing 3.
I have to be honest and admit that I had never really considered the idea of a personal brand before taking part in cpd23. It has been interesting to look at the recommended reading and at some of the blog posts on the topic and it has certainly made me think. I had also never thought of searching my own name on Google. Having done this I found that I get a mention on the first page due to an article I have written which is mentioned on my CV page of my Institution so this was ok. However I was bit disconcerted to see my photo as one of 7 images displayed for my name. I had never considered my photo being an 'image' that anyone else might want to find or use! More disconcerting was to find the site 192.com which provides all the results for Ann Cross UK - personal details using the UK electoral roll and company director data. I would never consider not being on the electoral roll but the fact that I could find my full address and telephone number online that easily did rather concern me. I also discovered that 25 other professionals on Linkedin have the same name so I am not as unique as I might have thought. Page 4 of Google turned up a presentation I gave at the UC&R/CoFHE joint conference in 2010 again this was part of my professional work so did not worry me.
I'd not considered the perils of 192.com!
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you've distilled the words, 'genuine, honest and authentic' from the literature on branding. I can see that these could be applicable to people rather than products.
I also 'googled' my name some time ago Ann and noted that any other 'posts' I'd made, at various websites over the years, came up. . . I guess that once you make your presence felt on the Web (even in an insignificant capacity) - you're there for all time!
ReplyDeleteSue H gave me a good tip today. I mentioned to her that I was having difficulty posting to some blogs & she said to access the Internet via 'Google Chrome' (instead of Internet Explorer). This is what I'm doing tonight - and it works! Just type 'Google Chrome' into Google's search bar and then download the application.