Join Kimberley Barker, MLIS, to learn about personal branding and how to thrive online!

1. Kimberley R. Barker, MLIS
Librarian for Digital Life
Kimberley@Virginia.edu

3. In this session:

4. Presentation
Flow

5. What is personal branding?
• One element of your digital identity
• Reputation
• Social media presence
• Brand

6. What is personal branding?
• The process by which you match your
public image to your inner values, for
the purpose of establishing yourself
professionally and personally.
• “Your brand is a perception or emotion,
maintained by somebody other than
you, that describes the total experience
of having a relationship with you."
-McNally & Speak

7. Consider the following images:

9. Action item
•Read “The Brand is Personal Again”; Gunnar Habitz;
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/brand-personal-
again-gunnar-habitz-cmgr

10. Creating your Brand

11. “But isn’t self-promotion wrong?”
“Promoting myself makes me uncomfortable.”

12. Consider these metaphors:
The party The job interview

13. Opportunities for Brand Expression
• Internal
• Slack/Discord
• Skype
• Email: signature file; fonts
• Performance evaluations
• Phone/video meetings
• Font choice
• External
• Social media platforms
• Email
• Search engine results
• Photos
• Reviews of your work
• Conference/video calls

14. Common Factors across Brand Expression
• Photo(s)
• Name
• Contact information
• Employer
• Title/position
• Biographical/personal information
• Your activity

15. At its heart, your brand should
effectively communicate:
•Who you are
•What your skills are
•What you can offer clients/employers
•Your ethics

16. Action Items
• Ask yourself what gifts you can give
• Make a list of your skills
• Make a list of your degrees and experience
• Ask yourself what you need in the short term
• Ask yourself what you need in the long term
• Ask yourself what you truly want
• Honestly evaluate what other degrees or experience you need
• Make a plan to attain needed degrees or experience
• Ask yourself with what you want people to associate you

17. Consider these logos:

20. Action Items for Creating your Brand
•Choose three cornerstone words that sum up your
brand
•Using your three words, write a three-sentence
mission statement
•Create a Board of Directors

22. Establishing your Brand
Strategy
Determine who is your target audience and
where they’re looking for help (online? In
print?)

25. Action Items
• Research the demographic you want to reach
• Read the Pew Research Center’s “Social Media Use in 2021”:
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/04/07/social-
media-use-in-2021/
• Create a strategy for reaching that demographic
• Decide what digital real estate you need
(unpaid/paid/mix)- no more than three!

26. Establishing your
Brand Strategy

27. All zebras are
animals, but not all
animals are zebras.

28. “What’s the best social media platform?”
•The one that your target audience uses
•The one that you’ll use
•LinkedIn

31. Establishing your
Brand Strategy

32. Action item
•Read “SEO for Dummies Cheat Sheet”:
https://www.dummies.com/web-design-
development/search-engine-optimization/seo-
for-dummies-cheat-sheet/

33. Maintaining your Brand

34. Keep in mind that anything that
can be found about you is part
of your brand.

35. This includes:
Protected and unprotected social
media content
Photos Reviews/endorsements

36. Action items:
Monitor your
presence and
reputation by creating
search alerts.
Post at least 2-3 times
per week.
Remember the 80/20 Rule.

37. We must talk about
Google!

39. Google Truth
•“the automatic acceptance of Google search
results as an accurate representation of
reality”

40. How Google works (the REALLY short
version):

41. Google Results and Employers
• More than half of employers have found content on social media
that caused them not to hire a candidate
• 70 % use social networking sites to research job candidates during
hiring process
• 48% of employers check up on current employees on social media
• 34% have reprimanded or fired an employee based on content
found online
• Source: CareerBuilder, 2018

42. Google Results and Consumers

43. Maybe you should stay away from
social media?

44. NO!!
•57% of employers are less likely to
interview job candidates if they are unable
to find information about the candidate
online

45. Maintaining Your Brand
Digital Privacy and Digital Security

46. Varying levels of security & privacy

47. Privacy & Security Action Items
•Consider BYOW: free wifi isn’t free
•Frequently review your privacy settings on all social media
platforms
•Build strong passwords & change them regularly; consider a
password manager

49. Death and Your Brand
• What are your goals for your brand after your death?
• Nothing
• Tie up loose ends
• One last goodbye
• Activity after your death, aka “post-mortem brand networking”
• What do you think your options are for ensuring your wishes?
• How many of you have taken steps to secure your digital legacy?

52. Resources
• A link to my MOOC: https://www.coursera.org/learn/personal-branding
•
My LinkedIn Learning page: https://www.slideshare.net/KR_Barker
• "The Brand is Personal Again": https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/brand-personal-again-gunnar-habitz-cmgr/
• "Social Media Use in 2021": https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/04/07/social-media-use-in-2021/
• “SEO for Dummies Cheat Sheet”: https://www.dummies.com/web-design-development/search-engine-
optimization/seo-for-dummies-cheat-sheet/
• Press Release Career Building http://press.careerbuilder.com/2018-08-09-More-Than-Half-of-Employers-
Have-Found-Content-on-Social-Media-That-Caused-Them-NOT-to-Hire-a-Candidate-According-to-Recent-
CareerBuilder-Survey
• Local Consumer Review Survey: https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/

53. Resources
• How Women Can Develop — and Promote — Their Personal Brand;
https://hbr.org/2018/03/how-women-can-develop-and-promote-their-personal-brand
• How to Promote Yourself Without Looking Like a Jerk: https://hbr.org/2014/12/how-to-
promote-yourself-without-looking-like-a-jerk
• Your Digital Inheritance: What Happens to Your Social Media Accounts When You
Die?
• https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/your-digital-inheritance-what-
happens-to-your-social_us_589e65a1e4b0cd37efcfe8a4
• 7 Resources for Handling Digital Life After Death
• https://mashable.com/2010/10/11/social-media-after-death/#5txiSW5EtGqJ

54. Questions?

55. www.kimberleyrbarker.com