Thing 3 Do I have a brand?

Finally our internet is sorted out, so I can get back to working my way through these things.  (There's now a great deal of catching up to do.)

Considering branding is something that, if I'm honest, I've not really thought about before. As I've always worked for large organisations, it's either been a quick fix (ie all our publicity material uses these templates) or I've found it marginally constricting; whilst of course understanding the various needs for a corporate look. (My first thoughts include: immediate identification for the organisation, professional style and a unified look for all departments).  My own brand is not something I've spent any time on.


As I'm beginning to understand there is a great deal of professional use that can be made of online resources, so whilst I try to turn up for work looking vaguely smart, engaged and  interested in what I'm doing there, I suppose that any presence online should reflect that too.  Having said that there are some sections where I really want to keep my personal and work life separate.

Therefore I was very pleased that when I googled my name (first time ever!) my Facebook account was locked down as I use that only for friends.  In fact, perhaps due to my slightly unusual name (and spelling) there wasn't much at all.  An old Twitter account (which I suspect I'll have to resurrect in the next "Thing"), some very old newspaper articles from a previous job and contact details for the current one.   The only thing that did disconcert me was the 192 page; our house would be exceptionally crowded if everyone mentioned lived there!

On the blog I know the title is just what you're not supposed to do, but I'll stick with it whilst I'm learning.  I've played around with the template until I found a colour scheme that pleased me rather than just the basic one, and I have thought about the photo quite a lot.  As I don't want to give folks nightmares, (I'm not photogenic in the slightest) and whilst I'm still really experimenting with these tools I'm fairly happy to be sort of visually anonymous.  However, I do understand that visual images do give very quick clues on screen, so I've chosen to use a compromise. Following Joeyanne Librarianne's advice I've settled on a flowery image which I'll use across all platforms and see how I go from there.

Onto the next "thing" where I'll try to put some of the above into practice.