I’ve been thinking about branding, or re-branding in my case. I’ve been using silentseas or variants thereof for about three years on the internet. However, my internet use has taken a turn, and I find the name doesn’t really represent who I am, what I do, or what I want to do.
For those blanking on their modernist poetry, the nickname is taken from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which I adore and makes me cry. Same with the blog title – An Overwhelming Question. However, look at this blog. It’s not about poetry. It’s not about me crying (often). It’s not about the ocean, or eating peaches, or literature (often) or any of that. Plus silentseas sounds passive. “Silent” is pretty much the last adjective that would ever be used to describe me.
At MinneWebCon last month, the Geek Girls had a joke: you know how long you’ve been on Twitter by how professional your handle is. The current trend is towards having a handle that reflects your real name; your name is your brand in many cases. But my name, and not getting down on my folks here, is very common. My nickname is my initials, also taken. I continue to stalk Twitter accounts related to my name, hoping against hope they’ll go dormant for 9 months and I can swoop in screaming “MINE MINE MINE.” Man, I can’t wait to be professional on the internet.
This rolls me into another issue: what do I want to write about? I want to write more, and not just reviews of books I’ve read, which is what this blog has largely turned into. Watch out, bullet points:
Things I would like to write about
- Web content and design
- Education
- Crafty things (Knitting, DIY)
- Baseball
- Japan
- Minnesota/The Midwest
- Travel
That is a pretty broad list with some pretty broad topics. Now, some of those things I don’t think I’d be that good at writing on. Baseball, for instance. I don’t have a head for stats, but I love the Minnesota Twins. But what if the Twins get into the post season, and I want to yammer somewhere about it, but I’m running a blog about content development?
The answer could be multiple blogs. The answer could be a better tagging system. The answer could be different Twitter accounts. There are a lot of answers, though I need to ask the right questions.
More to come!
