Branding

I googled myself and found my Twitter account at the top, followed by LinkedIn and Blogger links to my accounts. That I think is quite good. Last year there was only really my Twitter account to pick up. My blog and LinkedIn account were set up for and during cpd23, so in less than a year they have moved through Google's indexing (or whatever it is it does) to the top of the results. Now I have Yahoo-ed myself, that is interesting, the top 2 hits are professional things, a Conference I am presenting at next month and a Conference I presented at last year. I then disappear until 5th, where a presentation I did earlier this year is mentioned. It is very noticeable that none of my social media accounts are present.

As Mistee Mog is my moniker, I've ran this as a search too. Google picks up Twitter and Twitpic, the interesting thing here is that the Twitpic information is very out of date. I don't use it regularly but I have in the last few months sent some pictures from my phone to Twitter, I thought using Twitpic. Yahoo has picked up my Twitter account now and Trip Advisor, which I think i've used twice.

Overall I think my branding has went a little bit awry. What is out there I don't have a problem with people seeing, however the consistency I tried to get last year has disappeared. My Twitter and blog are both lilac / purple (my favourite colour), my blog is without a picture of me, as is my Twitter account which has Mistee Mog on still and my LinkedIn picture is me but at a wedding in 2005 - so out of date. As Google is picking up my Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogger accounts, I should revisit the consistency aspect of my branding.

Thing 3

Branding myself. I looked on Google, Yahoo and Bing. Google produced pages I expected, a few Twitter links, some that were not me but have the same name and the others that were professionally related - a recent presentation and 2 things that are quite old now. Yahoo had results that were not me until about 5 or 6 down, where it has picked up an old professionally related thing and then Bing, very interesting, mostly it was all other people with the same name except for 1, the recent presentation that Google picked up.

Does this bother me? Looking at the things that are actually me - no I think I'm OK with it. You may see lots of mentions to Mistee Mog, who is in fact my cat, alongside it is my name. There may also be a black cat as my profile picture (Twitter account), she is the real Mistee Mog. I've failed dismally in finding a picture for Blogger, I can't find anything suitable in my photos, my Facebook profile picture was taken at the computer with my web cam and went straight to my Facebook profile, I apparantly can't do the same thing on Blogger.

Splitting everything up, Facebook is my most personal profile, Blogger is my most professional and Twitter is somewhere in between. Although I recently went through it and made it more professional and may indeed change my profile picture to me rather than my cat. This will still leave me with the Mistee Mog moniker, so I wonder whether it is worth it.

That brings me onto why I used Mistee Mog to start with, well because it is consistant. If I use my work e-mail address and leave to work somewhere else, it is not defining me anymore and I would have to update various bodies with a new e-mail address (presumably my new work one). By using Mistee Mog, I have something that is still me no matter where I work. I chose this to start with, over my own name, because at the time, it was suggested it was a way of reducing spam (and yes it did work). It was a way of keeping in touch with personal friends only. Then I moved jobs and realised that if I use my work e-mail, I will have to update it everytime I move on, so I started to use Mistee Mog for more professional reasons.

The visual brand - I guess you could say that Mistee Mog currently is part of that. The colour scheme I have never really thought about, I just choose something I like. It does tend to be lilac / purple (I love Joeyanne's purple flowers), as these are my favourites colours. I occasionally venture into a light / pastel pink, which is not my favourite colour but I think works better as a background than others I've seen and certainly better than my next favourite colour - black. This would also make Mistee Mog blend in too much. The green and blue of the blog is OK, it is inoffensive and hopefully accessible. This is my task for the week now, sorting the colours on my various accounts and still trying to find the right picture for my blog.