Thing 6

This Thing starts out looking at two social networks that I am (relatively) familiar with. At least Facebook is something that everyone my age has at some point used, and is seen as vital to be a part of whilst at university. For me, now I am no longer a student I feel I use it less. I still enjoy being able to see what old friends are up to, looking at photos and reading their posts, but I don't reveal so many aspects of my life anymore. I do believe that Facebook should be kept separate from your professional life, and I have to say that I have never quite understood why businesses use Facebook - it doesn't quite make sense to me! Taking a library for example, I think using Twitter and a blog to keep followers up to date on news and opening times would make more sense.

I have spoken about LinkedIn previously, and I do think it is a really interesting network. It is particularly useful to me in this job as I frequently come across the profiles of Johnians (members of St John's College, Cambridge) which I can use to update their record in the Biographical database that I work on with the Biographical Office based here in the library. As to helping me find work... it had not yet been useful... but I hope that when people search for me they can find out a lot about my background using this network.


Finally I took a look at the LIS New Professionals Network, which as I had never used it before I decided to sign up and have an explore. There seemed to be alot of different areas to look at, and it was particularly interesting to see all the posts about graduate trainees such as myself, with questions like 'Graduate Trainees 2011-12 where are you going and what are you doing?' I think it will be very interesting to look at other peoples feedback to questions such as this, and to put my own views forward.

Thing 3

To get straight to the point...

When I google my name alone somewhere far down the page appears my LinkedIn profile, but my name must be relatively common as I am definitely not a singer! Adding 'library' to the search definitely helps, with my appearance on the St John's College library and the Cambridge graduate trainees website, CATALOG, popping up as well. However, this blog does not appear and neither does my facebook page (although that is likely to be because of my security settings, I don't want the whole world to see photos of me lying on the beach). I have spent a great deal of time on my LinkedIn profile, so I am pleased that it is easy for people to find that, and likewise with the blogs I have written for the CATALOG website. I feel that everything that appears gives a positive view of my position at the moment, although maybe does not give me a 'personal brand' as such. This could be shown more through my blog here, which to be honest at the moment is pretty boring! This is something I could work on to improve my image and maybe give an idea of the person I am to those reading. So far my LinkedIn photo is probably the only easy to find page that gives an idea of my personality! It would also be great if my blog could appear in the top listings in a google search, and this is something I need to work on.