Building a professional digital identity
Download as PPTX, PDF2 likes9,283 views
(1) This document discusses strategies for building a professional digital identity, including growing networks through proactive contributions, managing personal and professional identities, and focusing on networks like LinkedIn, Mendeley, and Academia.edu. (2) It notes that employers increasingly use social media to evaluate candidates and that developing an online presence can help one "stand out from the crowd" and enhance employment prospects. (3) The document considers options like having a single identity across platforms or multiple identities to separate personal and professional contexts, and discusses advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
Building a professional digital identity
- 1. Building a professional digital identity By @lisaharris for #UptakeICT 16/5/2017
- 2. Plan • Building your digital identity • Growing your networks – the value of proactive contribution • Managing personal v professional identities • What employers are looking for • Useful resources
- 3. Is the glass half empty? How can we be effective learners/researchers in a world where we are: • increasingly swamped with data • restricted by our filter bubbles to engaging with “people who are like us” • concerned about privacy issues, identity theft, trolling…?
- 4. Or is it half full? By actively developing and managing our digital footprint we can: • showcase our work • build our networks to “stand out from the crowd” and enhance our employment prospects or new business development • Promote “digital citizenship” by • behaving responsibly online to set a good example • Sharing useful resources with our networks • Raising awareness of, or support for, good causes • Calling out fake news, or alarming trends which favour opinion over fact
- 5. Online Identity Lisa Harris, Digital Educator. Connect @lisaharris / L.J.Harris@soton.ac.uk Finding me online: Twitter LinkedIn Slideshare Web Science Institute Innovation in HE blog
- 8. Which network/s to focus on? • LinkedIn (seems obvious but see this Observer piece - The Death of LinkedIn ) • Mendeley – reference management and network building • Orchid – links you to your networks via a single identifier • Academia.edu – over 50 million members world-wide • Others?
- 9. Linking your networks with ORCID
- 10. Social networks Commmunicating Your Research with Social Media: A Practical Guide to Using Blogs, Podcasts, Data Visualisations and Video by Amy Mollett, Cheryl Brumley, Chris Gilson, and Sierra Williams • create and share images, audio, and video in ways that positively impact your research • connect and collaborate with other researchers • measure and quantify research communication efforts for funders • provide research evidence in innovative digital formats • reach wider, more engaged audiences in academia and beyond
- 11. Give before you receive • Developing a ‘digital footprint’ which demonstrates our skills is not an overnight task. Chris Brogan talks about ‘paying it forward’ – meaning we should give before we receive. • Long term benefit comes from focusing on the value we bring to our network, not what we take from it. • Don’t connect with someone on LinkedIn just when you need a recommendation. Share useful information with your network, and you will benefit when you need help in return. • Watch the discussion with Southampton PhD students on paying it forward here
- 12. Identity is complex- what is really new? (1) actual or objective self —the way a person actually is (2) self-image —the way a person sees themself (3) ideal self (self-actualisation) —the way they would like to be seen (4) social self— the way they think others regard them Onkvisit, S., and Shaw, J., 1987. Self-concept and Image Congruence: Some Research and Managerial Implications. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 4 (1), 13 – 23.
- 13. Questions for you • Which social networks do you use professionally? What specific value do they provide to you?
- 14. Single or multiple digital identities? • A single identity is easily identifiable as us across all platforms. • Multiple identities may be used for different contexts (such as professional and personal) or on different platforms • Whichever we choose, we make active choices over what we: • create, post and share, • contribute to communities and social networks, • like and comment on, • respond and reply to or repost/retweet • Some views on this topic from Southampton students
- 15. Single Identity Advantages: • Consistent presentation of image (good personal branding). • Trustworthy (no separation of personal and professional, nothing to hide). • High levels of integrity / authenticity. • Easy for others to find and connect Disadvantages: • The personal and professional, formal and informal are mixed up, which can lead to ‘unintended’ negative effects. • Is it really possible to be authentic online? Check out this Guardian summary of the key issues. • Higher risk of identity theft. (Cifas, the UK’s fraud prevention service, recorded 172,919 identity frauds in 2016) • Lack of privacy (you leave a traceable digital footprint).
- 16. Multiple identities Advantages: • Can separate the personal from the professional • Improved privacy and security • Can manage your identity to suit your contexts • Less risk of ‘unintended’ negative effects Disadvantages: • More profiles and accounts to manage and check • Higher risk of appearing inauthentic or of lacking integrity
- 17. Anonymous identity Advantages: • Increased freedom of self-expression • High levels of privacy and security • Can provide a voice to oppressed or threatened people whose safety may be compromised if their true identity is revealed. • Very small risk of ‘unintended’ negative effects Disadvantages: • Untrustworthy • High risk of appearing inauthentic or of lacking integrity • Enables Catfishing, Trolling, Cyber-bullying and abuse
- 18. A question for you… Which is your preference – single, multiple or anonymous digital identities?
- 19. The challenge A standard CV is no longer sufficient to stand out from the crowd in a global and rapidly evolving job market. “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” - Karl Fisch, “Did You Know” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmwwrGV_aiE
- 21. Recruitment in a digital world According to a 2016 study by Jobvite: • 96% of recruiters use social media in the hiring process • 80% had been positively influenced by a candidate’s professional social network profile • 78% had been negatively influenced towards a candidate’s inappropriate use of social media • More input here from Southampton students on employer expectations
- 22. Employer branding – it’s not all about you! • The best candidates might not be actively looking for a new job (up to 90% of the workforce at any time) • Social media can identify the best talent , encourage conversation and build relationships between prospective employees/employers • Enables recruiters to promote their company as “a great place to work”
- 23. Some student examples These students studied a Flexible Learning interdisciplinary module called ‘Living and Working on the Web’ Building their own professional digital profiles and blogging about the experience is a key aspect of this course. • Haley Fairclough, 2016 Psychology graduate. • Vicky Gilson, 2016 Modern Languages and European Studies graduate. • Ellie Hamilton, 2016 Web Science graduate.
- 24. Finally… “We are now in the transitional stage of employers gradually reducing their prejudice in the hiring of those who studied at a distance, and moving in favor of such ‘graduates’ who, in the workplace, demonstrate greater proactiveness, initiative, discipline, collaborativeness – because they studied online.” Fredric Litto, Professor Emeritus of Communications, University of São Paulo, in a recent Pew Internet Report, The Future of Jobs
- 25. A final question for you • In what ways will you enhance your professional digital profile after this session?
- 26. More Resources • Learning in the Network Age MOOC starts July for 2 weeks • Power of Social Media MOOC started 8/5 for 2 weeks • A detailed First Monday review of Facebook’s position on authenticity of identity • This BBC report discusses the nature of the “dark web” and the advantages and disadvantages that anonymity offers. • Harris, L. and Rae, A. (2011) “Building a personal brand through social networking”, Journal of Business Strategy • These two 30 minute BBC Four radio broadcasts explore the possibility of Online Identity Crisis and what online Authenticity involves.
Editor's Notes
- #13: Think carefully about your digital footprint