Managing Your Digital Footprint

Have you ever Googled a potential employee? An ex-boyfriend or girlfriend? A co-worker? Your digital footprint has the ability to convey a lot of information about you – do you know what it’s saying? Just as a business strives to manage its online presence, so should you – and below are 10 strategies to do so.

1)      Establish Governance – While the idea of governance sounds like it’s for a business or educational institution – it can translate to the personal sphere as well. Whether it’s a husband and wife talking about their kid’s online presence or individual – it’s important to give some serious thought to how you want to manage your online presence. For example, before you open a new account on a social media site, think about what you plan to post and who you plan to interact with. (Hootsuite, 2013)

2)      Develop a plan/strategy – After you have established governance, you need to develop a strategy. For example, if you’ve identified that you only want to use Facebook for personal use what is your plan when your boss issues you a friend request? It’s worth taking the time to think about what you’ll say and how you’ll say it. (Hootsuite, 2013)

3)      Write Your Own Blog – One strategy to creating a positive online presence is to make sure you are controlling the content, and a blog is a great way to do that. A blog that has the right keywords and tags can help ensure that content you want is at the top of search results. (Manchester, 2013)

4)      Establish an online presence – If a blog isn’t your thing, there are lots of ways to get a positive presence online. Consider publishing an article about a topic in your field of expertise - website editors are in constant need of new and fresh content. This is a great way to gain a reputation within your industry. (Morrison, 2011)

5)      Promote Your Profile – Whether it’s a blog or a link to your professional profile – you can help make sure it gets noticed by linking it everywhere - on business cards, brochures, and in the signature line of every email you send. (Fletcher, n.d.)

 

6)      Keep your personal and work life separate. Make sure that you don’t use work email for personal means. Create a separate email account for personal correspondence. (Manchester, 2013)

7)      Regularly check your digital footprint – Google yourself regularly. You may consider setting up a Google alert so you get notified if there is information with the keywords you specify posted online. (Grovo, 2013)

8)      Social Media Cleanup – Even if you are being responsible with your social media posts, it’s a good idea to clean up sites you no longer use anymore (think My Space or Friendster). Delete or deactivate the account, make it private, or remove as much information as you can from the profile. (Grovo, 2013)

9)      Keep account names and handles professional. Your name and account handle or email address is the first impression others will have of you online and HotStuff334@emailaddress.com may not be the best first impression. A safe and usually easy choice is to use your full name or a variation of it. (Morrison, 2011)

10)   Use a standard biography. Lots of social media sites and account setup areas ask for a biography or "About Me" section. Writing a standard biography will help to save you time and ensure you represent yourself consistently on every site. (Morrison, 2011)

References

Fletcher, L. (n.d.). How to Quickly Build Your Online Presence . Retrieved from Blue Sky Resumes: http://www.blueskyresumes.com/free-resume-help/article/how-to-quickly-build-your-online-presence/

Grovo. (2013, September 19). Clean Up Social Networks. Retrieved from Grovo: http://www.grovo.com/online-reputation/clean-up-social-networks

Hootsuite. (2013). Securing Your Organization in the Social Era. Retrieved from Hootsuite University: http://learn.hootsuite.com/webinar/social-media-governance

Manchester. (2013). Managing Your Online Presence. Retrieved from Manchester.edu: http://www.manchester.edu/osd/career/documents/OnlineJobSearch09.pdf

Morrison, T. (2011, June 15). 5 Shortcuts for Creating a Positive Online Presence for Your Job Search. Retrieved from Yahoo Voices: http://voices.yahoo.com/5-shortcuts-creating-positive-online-presence-8594421.html

 

Digital Footprint

I recently saw a story on the Today Show that chronicled the digital footprint of one of their interns for a day. Some of the “prints” were obvious – such as posting a status on Facebook but others I hadn’t initially thought of such as going through security to get to the subway or having a traffic camera scan for facial recognition. I was reminded once again of how connected we are and how much information is being tracked.

Sometimes I love my digital footprint, like when I connect with an old high school or college classmate on Facebook. Sometimes I am terrified of my digital footprint, like when I hear a story about child predators and I think of all the photos I have of my kids online. I’m a “mommy blogger” and while I am careful about what I post I know my digital footprint is larger than most.

I have done Google searches on myself in the past so I wasn’t really surprised by anything I found while researching my digital footprint this week. However – I get frustrated with Facebook because as their site continues to change I feel like it exposes more and more and my “public profile” without me realizing it. It reminds me of this comic I saw (on Facebook no less).

photo credit: someecards.com

The Process of Learning

I’m the webmaster at a technical college and our content management system is Microsoft SharePoint. I’m a SharePoint enthusiast so if you choose to read my posts be forewarned I will be talking about it a lot.

As I thought about the concepts of connectivism, personal learning networks, and communities of practice I realized I use all three whenever I’m faced with a tough challenge with technology – specifically with SharePoint because there is such a robust online community of users. I created a PREZI (first time creating one – go me!!) to illustrate how each concept connects to my learning, but I’ll summarize it below as well.

 

Connectivism – I often don’t have the SharePoint knowledge I need – but I know where to get it. A search engine is my first stop. I switch between Google and Bing and use different keywords to narrow my search.

Community of Practice – Twitter has a HUGE SharePoint community and I’ve used the hashtag #sphelp and people who I don’t know have tweeted back tips or pointed me to resources. So cool.

Personal Learning Network – I’m part of SharePoint user group that meets online and virtually where other SharePoint enthusiasts brainstorm, network, and share resources. Nerdiess at its best.


References
Theories for the digital age: Connectivism - Steven Wheeler
http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2012/10/theories-for-digital-age-connectivism.html
Is Twitter a Community of Practice? - Daniel Hooker
http://danielhooker.com/2011/03/twitter-cop/
How to Create a Robust and Meaningful Personal Learning Network - Brian Metcalfe
http://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/how-to-create-a-robust-and-meaningful-personal-learning-network-pln/