Thing 11 - Your Professional Brand

Thing 11 was looking at your Profession Brand, thinking of myself as a brand doesn’t come naturally to me, although it is a good way to promote yourself and develop your career. When thinking about your brand it makes you look at yourself and think of your unique selling points.

 Before the holidays I struggled with the idea of branding and I had only written 3 lines for  Thing 11,  basically commenting I had set up a Linkedin account and would look at creating a Bio at some stage. Then I began to think about how other Professions have been branded over time and in people’s mind-set a Doctor, Teacher, Lawyer etc. have built their brand and people aspire to have a career in these professions. I don’t hear many young people saying they want to be a Librarian. We have to encourage Librarians to brand themselves this, in turn its brands the profession and it will hopefully inspire young people to think about a career in a Library.  Many people have the impression that Librarians issue and discharge books and tidy shelves.  As Librarians know there is a wide variety of jobs within the industry, from working in local libraries in communities, school libraries, academic libraries and the various positions within, working in cataloguing, digitising collections, IT support, helping researchers, Subject Librarians etc.

In conclusion by being involved in social media and branding ourselves it also brands the profession.  We can inform people about the diversity within the industry and continually evolving service we provide.  If we are seen to value our profession as a brand, we may inspire the next generation of Librarians.