Thing 3: Consider your personal brand

I've enjoyed thinking about Thing 3. I deliberated over the name of my blog for a while but ultimately decided to call it by my name. I no longer feel the need to hide behind a made up name and am happy to use my own photo, although I am always on the look out for a better picture! I think it's a good idea to keep my online life consistent so have a link from this blog to Twitter and vice versa. Both now have the same photo and I've added a blue spotty background to both pages (the Twitter background looks grey though and I'm not sure why?). I chose the spots because I am slightly obsessed with spotty things, but also it reminded me of Braille dots, indicting my connection with sight loss.
RNIB take their branding very seriously and rightly so - their ability to raise money depends on their reputation and how well known they are. I googled my name with the word "RNIB" and was quite pleased with the results. There were pages from the RNIB website, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as links to journal articles and this blog. My name with "Library" gave more mixed results but then I guess there will be more librarians called Wendy Taylor out there.
I'm becoming more aware of how I want to be perceived online and found the suggested websites very helpful. I'd like to be seen as friendly, knowledgeable and enthusiastic, someone interested in new technology and media but with some good old fashioned skills too. I think this will be a work in progress as my online presence grows by increasing my content and network. I look forward to seeing how it develops!