I grew up in a conservative setting, and in my high school years, I was always wary of the Internet and of the possibility that my name might actually show up somewhere online. I didn’t want to be found or discovered by people I didn’t interact with, and I was hesitant to know that people could possibly find information about me by searching Google.
Once I got to college that mindset began to change, not because I wanted it to at first, but because it had to. All my friends were on Facebook, and that is how they communicated with each other, created events, and made plans to hang out. Without the online connection, it seems like I would have been forgotten and left in the dust.
I soon had several online profiles, and while I kept them private when I could, my online personal brand was being created. In today’s world it is almost a necessity to have an online brand in certain professions in order to make progress in the field, and I believe Library Science is one of those areas. While I still hesitate at being personally accessible, transparency is becoming more and more popular. The idea that transparency can help a company become stronger and gain more customers caught my attention this week, and I am realizing how difficult it is to truly keep things a secret in the business world.
As a possible future library professional, I think that personal branding will become necessary when communicating with potential employers, providing information about an organization, interacting with users or consumers, and more. An employer will expect a professional to be adept in online communication and know how to use tools like Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and LinkedIn. While I believe that a person should be careful online and be conscious of the information that is becoming publicly accessible, developing a personal brand as a professional can help an individual in his or her future career.
Stephanie, I also grew up in a similar conservative environment, and was extremely hesitant to join the social media world. In fact, I remember thinking MySpace was just a strange and unattractive way of communicating with people. Then, when I joined Facebook, I found it to be tedious and time consuming. However, recently, I've also discovered the benefits of being connected via Facebook. My name was on the social invite list, my old friends were happy to 'see' me, and I was able to keep up with the day-to-day happenings of some very dear friends who live far away. I agree with your statement that personal branding will become necessary when becoming a future library professional. The depth of this statement, though, I only just realized after all of our readings this week. Of course, being careful online is essential to our privacy. But, balancing that with being honest and transparent, can create a positive and helpful tool for any business professional.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post, Stephanie. Not to date myself, but when I was in high school the internet was just starting to become popular and social media had not been thought of yet. Before starting SJSU's SLIS graduate program I had always kept the Facebook and MySpace side of the internet at a distance. However, through much experimentation with the different online platforms I have found them to be very useful to keep up with friends and family, as Basya mentioned, and for gathering information on organizations and groups of interest. As you mentioned, you have to maintain the right balance between transparency and privacy. As an information professional and future librarian I think having an online personal brand is important not only for monitoring what content is available about us, but also for showcasing our technology skills and familiarity with that technology. Using these skills and by understanding what a personal online brand is, we can preserve the distinct line between professional transparency and privacy.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is important to monitor and create your own brand. It would be interesting if we could ask someone else to do a search and give us feedback on what they come up with to see where we might need to improve our media brand. Good post.
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