Thing 4: Storify

I have been looking into Storify. I am not sure I really understand how to use it or why it would be useful for libraries.

I can sort of see the point of putting together a collection of social media stories on a particular topic, I would find it more useful if I could publish my stories directly to my blog, but that only seems to be available for self-hosted wordpress blogs at the moment. Click below to see the story I made.

[View the story "Orla Kiely at the Chelsea Flower Show" on Storify]

Things 2-4

I am having a look at Things 2-4 again to see if there is anything I want to add since I first did them.

Thing 2
I am starting to look at some blogs again to see what other people are up to, I will probably find a few to follow regularly, but at the moment I am still dipping into a variety of blogs.

Thing 3
I have not really changed my personal brand since last time. I still haven’t done anything with this blog as I am still unsure of who I am professionally and how I would want to represent myself.

Thing 4

My previous post about current awareness is not quite so relevant, since I first looked at it I have started using Google Reader to follow all the blogs I like to read. I can keep up-to-date without it taking very much time and never have to worry about missing something from a favourite blog.

I have also found that having an iPhone has changed how I keep up-to-date. It is much easier to check and post to Twitter, and I can catch up on my blog reading, and writing for that matter, wherever I am. I could still make more use of Twitter. I very rarely use a hashtag and don’t search for things via hashtags, so this is something I can explore in more detail.

I will leave you with another random book picture, this time my collection of Persephone Books.

 

Trying Again

OK, so my first attempt at completing this course didn’t go very well, but I am back and ready to try again. As I completed the first few Things last time I can get a head start and try to keep up this time.

You can read my Thing 1 entry from last time here.

Here is a picture of some Ladybird books to look at while I get something else written.

Thing 5: Reflective Practice

I know I am really behind, but I am determined to get through all 23 Things even if it takes me six months!

For my first attempt at reflective practice I am looking at my participation in CPD23. For me the decision was the important part as it has allowed me to take a look at my professional development, this is something I have been neglecting. Finding out more about social media and the number of networks and tools that are available online will hopefully be both useful skills to have and a good way to keep some focus on my career development and where I want my career to go.

I have found the first few Things to be useful for my personal interests as well, and know that I really want to know more so I can improve my personal online brand. I am going start by catching up with the Things and then I will try to take some time to read around the subject and try to put some of the things I have learnt into practice.

I have noticed that I have a level of apathy about my career and professional development. I also know that I tend to rush things when I am doing them online rather than checking them through and making sure I have done everything I can to make the best use of the tools available.

Thing 4: Current awareness

I am already on Twitter (@zoessharp). I don’t tweet very much, most of the time I don’t feel that I have anything very interesting to say.  I do look at Twitter quite a lot though as it can be useful for finding out information, getting recommendations, or finding out about an event. I follow the train company I use so I am aware of any problems that might affect my commute.

I have my blog set up to automatically publish a tweet when I have published a new post, I also do this on Facebook. This is really handy and has increased the number of hits my blog gets. I haven’t used RSS feeds before, but even after playing around for a few minutes I can see how they can be a really useful way of keeping track of sites that update regularly and that you always want to read.

 

Thing 3: Consider your personal brand

I am really interested in Thing 3, I think that I have something of a personal brand, but I am sure I am going to learn so much more and be able to explore my brand and my online presence to make it more coherent and easier to recognise.  For this Thing I will be concentrating on my Zoë’s Crafts brand as I don’t actively do anything online in a professional context (well, apart from this new blog).

Logo: I don’t want to use a photograph of myself to identify my online presence so I have a logo. This came about when I set up a Folksy shop to sell some of my craft items. I wanted potential buyers to be able to identify me if they came across my shop/blog/twitter/Facebook. The logo was designed by my sister based on some of my favourite vintage fabric. This linked in with the type of items I was selling in my shop, I like to make things from vintage fabric. It also links with my blog as I am often talking about the vintage items I have or have recently bought.

Username: I use my name for my usernames, mainly because I couldn’t think of anything that sounded good that wasn’t my name.

Identity: At the moment I really only have a personal identity online, I haven’t really thought about how I would want to present myself in a professional capacity or if I would want to keep the two separate. This might be something I will have more of an idea about when I have progressed further with cpd23.

Visual brand:  My colour scheme is based on the colours in my logo. I have recently changed my blog so the whole theme reflects these colours and hopefully makes for a more coherent visual brand. Here are some screen shots to give you an idea of my online visual brand. I would be really interested to know what you think and how I could improve this, equally if there is anything you think I am doing well I would like to know.

I have had a search on google, I don’t come very high in the search results even when using specific search terms. Just searching for Zoe Sharp brings up many results relating to the crime writer, I gave up looking before I came to anything relating to me.

I found that when searching for Zoe’s crafts I am found, but not very high in the results. If I search for Zoë’s crafts my pages all come up higher. I image that listing myself as Zoë means that search results will miss me as people will be more likely to search for Zoe. This is something I need to give more consideration.

I am conscious of that fact the people might search for me in the future be it for professional or personal reasons so I try to be careful about what I post and the impression I am giving of myself online.

I think the idea of asking someone to look at your online brand and see what they think it says about you is very interesting, however I am not sure I am prepared to deal with what people might say so I wont be asking for this feedback!

I am going to go away now and think more about my professional brand and how I would like this blog to reflect me as visually it doesn’t say anything much about me at the moment.

Thing 2: Explore other blogs

I have been having a look at the blogs of other people participating in cpd23. While there are lots of people who have set up new blogs specifically for this programme I am very interested in the blogs that people have been writing for a long time. I feel that this is something I should have been looking at long before now!

I hope that by reading about other people’s experiences I will learn things that will help my own career progression and everyday work.