On rebranding myself
Today I had one of the weirdest feelings I’ve ever had in my life. For the first time in a LONG, LONG TIME I felt the strong need to publicly emphasize and publicize that I have a PhD in the face of people. Never had I felt this strong, gut-wrenching feeling of frustration. There is one particular tweet that triggered it, and it was one that wasn’t even sent to my personal Twitter account, but one sent to my research twitter, coming from one of the environmental non-governmental agencies I follow, EcoJustice.
@raulpacheco you should chat w Dr. Elaine MacDonald, our resident toxics expert – her latest Great Lakes toxics work: http://bit.ly/7ShjU9
This tweet, completely and utterly safe and decent, sent me into a really intense internal debate on whether I should delete my personal accounts for Twitter and this blog (ok, and I will admit it also made my blood boil). For those of you who *don’t* know, I’ve conducted scholarly research for over 10 years on environmental policy. I have been one of the first scholars who have (successfully) compared information-dissemination policy instruments in North America (Canada, US and Mexico). I am one of a handful of academics who studies the way in which countries, regions and municipalities govern their wastewater (most of the researchers on water focus mostly on water scarcity). I am one of the very, very few researchers who have studied urban and industrial restructuring and their environmental consequences in an integrated framework. AND I have a PhD. I studied hard and conducted rigorous empirical research to get that little piece of paper. So when somebody sends me to talk to “Dr. So and So” about toxics, clearly I’m doing something wrong. Because I *am* an expert in toxics policy. I have 10 years of research and the publications to back this up.
Admittedly, I rarely tweet about my research on my personal account. And I’m pretty sure many people who started following me on my personal account are sometimes puzzled as to why I don’t post more about my own research and my teaching. While I’m a very versatile man, it does irk me when people see me as “just a blogger” or “a media outlet”, or even “a popular Twitterer”. I need to do something about this, and the more I think about it, the more I think it needs to be shutting down completely this blog and my personal social media presence.
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Sounds more like your raulpacheco persona isn’t doing its branding job than a call to cease-and-desist on another account!
Let’s see, the tweet was sent to right persona and was contextual. You probably even know the referenced work or author. But you (i.e. raulpacheco) hadn’t made EcoJustice aware of your credentials maybe?
I understand your problem, and its one reason why I don’t go for multiple ids, But sometimes they are necessary and useful. perhaps you also allow your HB604 tweets to too often overlap with your other persona by cross-referencing and discussing ‘raulpacheco’ type topics under the HB604 persona. A little more schizophrenia might need to be exercised
Sounds like you got an introduction there, not an insult. And it’s hard for anyone who follows any of your accounts to miss the fact you have your oft-mentioned PhD.
If you want them to address you as Dr. Change your Twitter handle to @drraulpacheco.
I agree with Jen that it sounds more like an introduction. I like connecting people with similar interests not because I think one can teach something to the other but because I presume they might be interested in meeting.
I have three twitter accounts. I’ve contemplated merging them into one account too. My intention was to have three distinct contexts for my tweets. I’ve not been able to make it work. I think it’s like trying to compartmentalize our lives into work/play/home. They intertwine.
Thanks everyone for the comments.
I think what made me begin to rethink the whole branding is the fact that for me, particularly this 2010, my academic research and teaching are substantially more important than any participation in social media (as an individual or depiction of my personality).
Of course, I try to strike a delicate balance between being an academic and having a personality and allow people to access it. One thing I don’t want to stop doing is highlighting local events and worthy causes. And I don’t think there’s space for me to do that in my research blog, so I see the need to maintain this one.
Breathe, hun.
That someone else has credentials doesn’t imply that you don’t.
Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t evaluate and continuously calibrate your varied social media identities; what I’m saying is that you SHOULD, and your strong reaction to what is basically an innocuous referral to another expert in the same field seems to indicate that this may have been on your subconscious mind lately.
Any person worth knowing is sophisticated and layered, and you are more so than most. Not everything you own will fit in the pockets of your favorite jeans, and not all of who you are will comfortably fit in one identity or brand. I agree with Paul that Dr Raul Pacheco needs more love from you. It needs more input and expression and interaction. Which means, because you are human and have only so much energy, that Hummingbird604 may get less attention.
God knows, the era of 15 posts a day to raincoaster.com are in the past, but I’ve built a career as a professional blogger on my own sites and others’ and to do that I had to pull back on raincoaster, always my first love.
But remember, your first love wants you to succeed.
Maybe you should separate business and pleasure. When you’re writing about personal things on your personal blog then the credentials don’t matter.