Managing your digital identity

Through the course we have looked at the many benefits that social media provide us as consumers. However, we need to look beyond this narrow field and look towards how these platforms can benefit us as individuals and for the companies we work for.  These platforms allow us to have a presence in an increasingly digital world, an ability to talk on a global scale to create a personal brand that opens opportunities never seen before.

Within this new frontier comes new problems as well and learning how to navigate the netiquette of things has never been more important. As mentioned in the YouTube clip by Equalman, “What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube” (Equalman, 2019).

As a tool for organisations and personal use there is no greater access to self-promotion or for a product for free than the signing up for a Facebook account. Yet what most people fail to recognise this is just the first step in a long journey. An online persona must be monitored, nurtured, and cultivated. When collaborating or sharing information with peers or clients online you must be aware of issues relating to ethics and the treatment of those you interact with. As Osborne points out “the data you leave behind when you go online” encourages us to tread carefully on social media and to consider what our online presence might reveal to a prospective employer (Osborne, 2016).

Another important issue to recognise is that not only can your data be monetised for profit, the content you publish online could be detrimental to your future employability.

It is important to know where to find your privacy settings, and how to know if the post or tweet is being sent to a local set of friends or to a public audience.

With this in mind, the use of social media groups on platforms such as Facebook can be an a tool for peer to peer learning. As discussed by Sutherland, academic students using university social media profiles are more likely to engage with the broader university community and potentially less likely to drop out within their first year of study (Sutherland, 2018).

This is just a small list of considerations when planning an online presence for either yourself or for your employer. In either case the shaping your online identity will require planning and continual work and a continuous regulation of the terms and conditions that are required of each platform.

References

Equalman, (2019, January 8). Digital transformation video [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k_G_h41ZaQ

Facebook, (2020). Terms of service.  Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/terms.php

Karen Sutherland, Cindy Davis, Uwe Terton, & Irene Visser. (2018). University student social media use and its influence on offline engagement in higher educational communities. Student Success, 9(2), 13-24.

Osborne, N. (2016, December 2 ). What does your digital footprints say about you [Video  file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVX8ZSAR4OY