Building a professional digital identity

By @lisaharris for #UptakeICT 16/5/2017

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

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?

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

Online Identity

Lisa Harris, Digital Educator. Connect @lisaharris / L.J.Harris@soton.ac.uk

Finding me online:

TwitterLinkedInSlideshareWeb Science Institute

Innovation in HE blog

mailto:L.J.Harris@soton.ac.ukhttp://www.twitter.com/lisaharrishttp://www.linkedin.com/in/lisajaneharrishttp://www.slideshare.net/lisaharris/edit_my_uploadshttp://www.southampton.ac.uk/wsi/about/staff.page?https://www.efolio.soton.ac.uk/blog/innovationinhe/

About.me/lisa.harris

6

http://www.about.me/lisa.harris

Academic digital networks

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2016/03/04/academic-profile-services-many-mirrors-and-faces-for-a-single-ego/

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2016/03/04/academic-profile-services-many-mirrors-and-faces-for-a-single-ego/

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?

http://observer.com/2017/04/the-death-of-linkedin-social-media-sales-marketing-facebook-business-relationships/https://www.mendeley.com/https://orcid.org/https://www.academia.edu/about

Linking your networks with ORCID

Social networks

Commmunicating Your Research with Social Media: A Practical Guide to Using Blogs, Podcasts, Data Visualisations and Videoby 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

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Communicating-Your-Research-Social-Media/dp/1412962226/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485270908&sr=8-1https://www.amazon.co.uk/Communicating-Your-Research-Social-Media/dp/1412962226/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485270908&sr=8-1

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.

Dont 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

http://chrisbrogan.com/feeding-your-system/https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/social-media/3/steps/168902

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.

Questions for you

Which social networks do you use professionally? What specific value do they provide to you?

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

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/learning-network-age/1/steps/178922

Single IdentityAdvantages:

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 UKs fraud prevention service, recorded 172,919 identity frauds in 2016)

Lack of privacy (you leave a traceable digital footprint).

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/22/pr-exec-fired-racist-tweet-aids-africa-apologyhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/apr/19/online-identity-authenticity-anonymityhttp://www.actionfraud.police.uk/news/identity-fraud-reaches-record-levels-mar17https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_footprint

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

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

A question for you

Which is your preference single, multiple or anonymous digital identities?

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 dont yet exist, using technologies that havent been invented, in order to solve problems we dont even know are problems yet.- Karl Fisch, Did You Know

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmwwrGV_aiE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmwwrGV_aiE

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 candidates professional social network profile

78% had been negatively influenced towards a candidates inappropriate use of social media

More input here from Southampton students on employer expectations

http://www.microsoft.com/privacy/dpd/research.aspxhttp://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/RecruiterNation2016.pdfhttps://www.futurelearn.com/courses/social-media/3/steps/168905

Employer branding its 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

Some student examples

These students studied a Flexible Learning interdisciplinary modulecalled 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.

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/cip/interdisciplinary/modules/index.page?https://onlinewithhaley.wordpress.com/2016/03/13/using-the-internet-create-your-best-chance-of-employmenthttps://vickygilson.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/topic-3-authentic-online-professional-profile-development/https://ellietalksblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/topic-3-building-a-professional-digital-profile/

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 So Paulo, in a recent Pew Internet Report, The Future of Jobs

http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/05/03/the-future-of-jobs-and-jobs-training/

A final question for you

In what ways will you enhance your professional digital profile after this session?

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 Facebooks 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.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/learning-network-age/1/https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/social-media/3/http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/6791/5521http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z9j6nbkhttps://eprints.soton.ac.uk/182817/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07tqvvphttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08m9kvl