So I’m taking 2013 to make a lot of changes in my everyday life and continue through with some changes I made in 2012. For starters I’m waking up earlier, I’m giving gluten-free living a try and I’m working out a learning plan for things that I want to know more about by the end of the year, mostly development related (post coming soon). I think now’s the time to start making my online self a little bit more standard, consistent, and well… me. I consider myself somewhere between an early adopter and part of the early majority on the bell curve so I have a pretty expansive online presence, even if it’s not all entirely public, like my blog.
I’m going to use this post to help define what my plan is around online/social/cloud me. One of the things that will be true across the board is that I want everything to come through in my own voice, which is something I’m working on here.
Facebook – (/brandonbica)
- This one is the easiest. I have my privacy settings (currently, unless they change them for me) set to be friends only, or friends of friends for some things, so I’m basically myself on there already. Sports, random thoughts, photos, checkins with friends, food, insights by BicBert, social commentary and other witticisms. Anybody who had never met me, but was somehow a Facebook friend, would have a pretty good idea what to expect from me in real life, and that’s kinda what I’m going for.
Twitter – @bicb
- When you can’t be bic A, bic B. I’m actually pretty sure that I’m @bica also, but I don’t have any idea what the password is, or the email associated the that account either for that matter.
- I wasn’t really an early adopter here, I definitely came to the party way late, not quite late majority late though.
- Even though this is public I still generally feel like it’s a good representation of me. I may have censored myself in the past though.
- I’m more than happy to cross-post to Facebook. Anything that can be put on Twitter is safe for Facebook, but not the other way.
- My RunKeeper runs are linked to Twitter, this is more about putting pressure on myself to make sure I continue to run.
- “If you didn’t see the sarcasm look again.” This is my Twitter bio. Anybody who knows me can vouch for the authenticity of this statement. I also point to my about.me, which hasn’t been properly updated yet.
about.me (/brandon.bica)
- Currently not up to date, or where I want it.
- I’m going for a headline the quickly describes me, as I think of myself (ummm.. about me).
- I’d like the bulk of this to be a general description of me, not geared toward anything specific. My Twitter and blog both point to this, so I would like anybody who glances at it to quickly get an idea of who I am, so it’s also important to have my tone.
LinkedIn (/brandonbica)
- Generally this gets used as an online version of a resume, where a resume is a representation of your past work experience and education. For the most part these always seem a little stiff to me.
- My general feeling about resumes is that they tend to be presented in a way to try and get anybody to want to interview you, they’re very general and very vague. I would guess most resumes are thrown together when somebody NEEDS a job, for one reason of another.
- I want to figure out how to present myself in a way that would be attractive to the kind of company I would want to work for. So I need to put thought into that, but I feel like I’ve taken the first step in making this more of a two-way street.
- This also applies to recruiters. Based on my experience, the LinkedIn population has to be at least 75% recruiters. My thoughts on recruiters is a story for another post, but I’m against the throw things against the wall strategy. I don’t think most recruiters are thoughtful about matching the job to the person they’re contacting and instead only think about their percentage. That’s why I’ve added a recruiter CAPTCHA to my profile. It will be very easy for me to recognize a recruiter who passes this test, and that’s a quick way of having the recruiters do the work of identifying themselves as somebody I’d feel comfortable working with.
- I’ve also updated my headline to be more my style “Software Development Professional by day, software development hobbyist by night.”
- Now I just need to work on making the rest of my public profile less starchy.
- LinkedIn obviously isn’t just about job hunting, but networking. I like to meet new and interesting people just as much as the next person, but if I don’t do a good job of being me then nobody will be able to tell if I’m a good person to go grab a beer with to talk about a potential future venture.
Tangential Arguments – Blog
- Maybe you’ve heard of it, it’s kind of a big deal.
- At this point the blog isn’t public facing. There are a couple of ways to stumble across it. Somebody who is really interested in me and clicks a bunch of links through my other networks may find their way in here.
- General purpose of the blog is to help me start writing more habitually. I think it will help me define the tone and voice that I’m looking for.
- It’s also a good stepping stone and experience builder for when I someday hopefully need to blog, whether it be for a job, a project, or my own public brand.
- I set up a more minimalistic theme. It’s freely available and used by many people on the web. I’d like to personalize the logo a big. I have some ideas that go along with the name, but haven’t gotten around to brushing off my photoshop skills to get that done. It’s officially on the list.
Google+
- I don’t use this often at this point, so I won’t put much focus on this, but I’m pretty sure it would come up in a Google search for me so I’d like it to at least be consistent.
Instagram (/brandonbica)
- I primarily used this as my Twitter photo sharing application, but now that they’ve changed their display options, I’m not really sure I have a reason to continue to use this.
Foursquare
- I don’t use this anymore, but I’ve recently heard a lot of good things about it so I may consider checking into it again as long as it fits in with everything else.
For the ever changing online face of Brandon Bica, check me out, I’m hiding in plain sight.
for more profundity or pithy humor follow me on twitter – @bicb
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