1. ‘Digital Tattoo’ What does yours say about you.
[Notes on March 2015 upgrade -
Basically this session looks at how you can present yourself online, and has been developed with employability in mind. It starts by looking at the negative impacts of what people have put online, but the heart of it is really the positive side of things – how you present yourself in the way that you want to. We’ve run this session with students for quite a few years, and we’ve decided to run it for staff both as a starting point for thinking how you would present these ideas to your own students, and hopefully it will be of some interest to you on a personal level too.
It’s becoming more important how we present ourselves online. As well as viewing the information on job applications, employers are commonly searching online to find out more information about those who have applied.
Recent research by ACAS indicates that between 40 and 45% of employers look at candidates online activity. Previous research by Microsoft reported that for many employers a positive online presence influenced their decisions about who to employ. [ [
Also recruiters are also using online services such as LinkedIn to identify people who might be suitable for jobs and looking for work, so it is definitely worth making sure that your online presence gives the impression that you want it to give.
Also from the perspective of people who want to work in professions – whether that is teachers or medical professionals, they’ll be expected to behave in a way that is expected of someone in that profession. What you put online can damage your reputation and the reputation of your employer, so it is important to consider what you put online.
We start the student sessions with examples that relate to the students, and the type of job they might be applying for. The idea is to grab their attention. Like I said before this session isn’t meant to dwell on the negative, but this side of things is still important.
Examples
General: Paris Brown was appointed as a 17 year old UK Youth Police and Crime Commissioner. The Daily Mail went through all her tweets of which there were about 4000 (according to found where had used a word that could be considered racist and a homophobic word on Twitter a couple of years earlier, and she lost her job. She was probably just like all her friends but because she was talking online, it could be used against her.
Nurses: Photos on Twitter of them being a bit drunk and messing around when working at Christmas, but it looked very unprofessional and they lost their jobs last year. [
It’s easy to find examples online, but it can be hard to verify the details. These two are well documented ones, which is why I’ve used them here.
‘Digital Tattoo’
What does yours say about you.

2. Part 1 Your ‘Digital Tattoo’ Part 2 Presenting Yourself Part 3
Your Online Networks
We’re going to start off by looking at what people could find about you online. We’re calling this your digital identity, some call it your Digital Tattoo as it can be difficult to remove once it is there. We’ll then talk about what you would like people to see.
In part 2 we’ll look at ways you can create an online presence using things like social network profiles, or your own web site. Something that you point people towards.
Finally in part 3, we’ll look at ways in which you can become involved in online networks of people in the area that you want to work in. This can be great for both showing your expertise in an area, and learning from others about the area and its culture.

3. Part 1 Your ‘Digital Tattoo’
So first we’ll have a look at what is online about you now. If someone searched for you, what would they find? Do you have a suitable profile that you could direct potential employers to?
[Handouts]

4. Part 1 Your ‘Digital Tattoo’ Basic Pipl.com Cluuz.com Google.co.uk
Advanced
Onlineidcalculator.com
[TASK]
So we’re going to take 5 minutes to search online for ourselves. These search engines are examples of what you can use. You’ve likely used Google before, but the others we’ve got here are ones designed to help you search for individuals
pipl.com - tries to automatically create profiles for lots of people
cluuz.com - tries to link related search results together making it better at identifying results about the same person
reppler.com - tries to search through all your social media accounts to analyse what is there
onlineidcalculator.com - tries to help you link through the information in more detail
So have a search and keep a note of what you find. This is a good activity for groups of students, as someone usually finds something they want to hide and are willing to talk about in the group. [Use Vague Examples]
[Walk round when the task is taking place. Start conversations if required while respecting privacy] [Use the following questions as an outline for discussion after about 5-10 minutes depending on how the task is going]
How do you react to what you have found? - [Gives people a chance to talk about what they found] [Are they already thinking about how they want to present themselves]
Which of your stuff is public and which is private? Who would you like to see what? [Might lead into conversations about privacy settings - When it comes to employability we start considering a bit more about what we make public and private, and what we promote to different groups of people. I put videos that I make for work on the same YouTube channel as ones that I create outside work. Is that a good ideas, or should I get a new account or use Vimeo to show off my best work. Same with Twitter, I’ve only got one account.]
Notes
The point is that all the stuff that is out there is saying something to the world, whether we want it to or not.
If there is nothing out there about you, you might want to create something good for people to find or that you can direct people towards, and that’s what we’ll talk about in the next section.
With Facebook Graph search all public posts on Facebook are very searchable -
Right to Be Forgotten – For searches in the EU you should be able to request that search engines don’t find links to certain articles that you don’t want people to see – Google form [ – You need to fill in the form providing the URL of articles that you don’t want to appear when your name is searched for, and provide a digital copy of a form of ID.
Reppler and Lab42 (2011)
Most common reasons for rejection were (and so things to avoid having publically available)
Lied about qualifications
Posted inappropriate photos
Posted inappropriate comments
Posted negative comments about a previous employer
Demonstrated poor communication skills
Most common reasons for hiring someone after search
Gave an impression of their personality and organisational fit
Profile supported their professional qualifications
Profile showed creativity
Reppler.com
PeerIndex.com
Klout.com

5. Part 2 Presenting Yourself
So this isn’t just about hiding unprofessional pictures of ourselves. It’s about taking control of what people see when they search for us. That can involve having a profile or website that we actively direct people to.
When creating online profiles it is worth thinking about the ‘brand’ that you want to communicate. This can be difficult to think about in detail before your career has started, but doing so will give you direction in how you present yourselves and develop your skills.

6. Part 2 Presenting Yourself Your ‘brand’ Online identity Expertise
Personality
Employers
Can you help?
Do I want to deal with you?
Will we get on?
How do you want to present yourself. We use the word brand because it is similar to how a business displays itself to customers – each step of the experience is important and a business would want to display an identity, its expertise and its personality.
In a similar way each step of the process of presenting yourself to employers plays an important part in building a relationship. Can they find what they want to know about you? (i.e. how you can help them achieve what they want to achieve). They want to get the feeling that you can help them, that they want to deal with you, and that you will get on.
These are things that are worth keeping in mind when you build profiles and interact with people online.

7. Part 2 Presenting Yourself Profiles LinkedIn.com Academia.edu Google+
Career/Employment focussed social networking site
Keywords
Make sure your activity and sharing on LinkedIn is work related.
Professional photo. You might want to use the same photo across a range of profiles, so people recognise each as yours.
Endorse people for Skills and Expertise, and they might endorse you back
[See over]
Personal Website
Personal Blog

8. A LinkedIn personal profile would look like this
A LinkedIn personal profile would look like this. You’d have a photo, activity would be work related, and you can put up what is effectively an informal CV.
If you are doing this with recruiters in mind, research shows that you need to make a quick impression as recruiters only look at profiles for an average of 6 seconds and 20% of their time is spent looking at the profile picture. So get a professional looking, high quality photo, and make sure that your key information is easy to find. [
More example profiles

9. Part 2 Presenting Yourself Profiles LinkedIn.com Academia.edu Google+
Good way of showing your publications and following the work of others
Personal Website
Personal Blog

11. Part 2 Presenting Yourself Profiles LinkedIn.com Academia.edu Google+
Primarily a social networking site - and we’ll talk about using those to build an online reputation
You have other opportunities for branding, so try to keep them consistent across sites where possible.
But... useful for linking to a range of other profiles and pages that demonstrate a wide range of work that you have done. People might come across you this way.
Also links to YouTube so be aware that public videos on there can be seen.
Personal Website
Personal Blog

12. Activity

13. About page/profile information

14. Part 2 Presenting Yourself Profiles LinkedIn.com Academia.edu Google+
Website
Squarespace – Just over £5 per month at the moment. Easy to use development tools.
Weebly – Free option
Buy a domain and build from scratch. You'll need to find a reputable host. I’ve used Bluehost because even though they are not the cheapest they give unlimited storage and bandwidth, and as I host audio files on there, that’s quite important to me.
Examples
[Possible task if people have profiles like this] The Online ID Calculator aims to help you see how findable the resources you have created are, and what the effects of that might be.
Personal Website
Personal Blog

15. Demonstrating his work, outside the official institutional web pages.

16. Again the institutional connections are used to demonstrate expertise, but the content goes beyond that and gives you reason to return.

17. Part 2 Presenting Yourself Profiles LinkedIn.com Academia.edu Google+
Blog
Finally it is very easy to set up a blog by itself to talk about things in your professional sphere that interest you. This is only really effective as a stand alone profile if you have the time and motivation to keep adding posts and articles.
You can use free options like Blogger.
Personal Website
Personal Blog

19. This is an example outside academia, but this is a guy called Paul Boag who was a web designer, started a podcast and then a blog to help people who looked after their company web sites. People appreciated the free advice, liked him and so listened and read his work, and eventually he got invited to speak at conferences, wrote a book, and had the profile to become a sought after consultant.
Writing a blog can help you both share expertise, and develop it, because putting advice out there makes you reflect on it and challenge what you are writing.

20. Part 2 Presenting Yourself What do you write about yourself?
LinkedIn Summary
Twitter Summary
Skills, interests, achievements
Examples
So we can see there are a few things to think about when creating a profile. One of the more difficult aspects is deciding what to write.
How to show you are a rounded person. Someone who can help employers, that they trust and that they like.
[Look at examples]

21. Part 2 Presenting Yourself LinkedIn
This is an example of a LinkedIn Summary by someone who works with web content.
Why you might need help, and how I can help you . Other things I can help you with. At the end is a list of skills.
Some say that writing yourself a letter of recommendation is a good way to clarify your strengths and how they would apply to the employers that you want to work for.
Think about the traits, skills and abilities that the ideal candidate for your dream job would have.

22. Part 2 Presenting Yourself Twitter
Look at others in your field. These are examples of people who work in my field. They mention their jobs, and a bit of personal information too. They note what interests them.

23. Part 2 Presenting Yourself Create your own LinkedIn profile [TASK]
So here we’d ask student to have a go at planning a LinkedIn profile. You can either put ideas together on the form or log into LinkedIn and create an account. If you have an account have a think about what is on there. Could it be developed?
If you already have a linked in account, have a look at others’ pages and think about what you like about their profiles.

24. Part 3 Your Online Networks
As well as having a static pages presenting information about you and your work, it's also worth interacting with the people in your field of work, both to learn from them and to show them that you are involved in the industry.

25. Part 3 Your Online Networks Forums Twitter LinkedIn Blogs
Social Networking Sites
What to do on them
Connecting with the community is useful for your own learning, which even though you’ll have finished your course still needs to continue.
Share useful links, including to your own blog posts, quality YouTube videos.
Forums – Stackoverflow
Twitter
-I use to follow conference hashtags, make posts that are tagged, and follow attendees after the conference. e.g. SOSLTICE
-Retweet others tweets that you like. People appreciate quality links and appreciate having their own work retweeted.
-Consider having more than one Twitter account if you want to separate work and personal tweets. You just need to use a different address to do this, and it might free you up to post amusing stuff that you like on one, and work related stuff on another. You can manage multiple accounts with software like TweetDeck.
-Tech companies like Microsoft and Oracle will put jobs on Twitter
LinkedIn
My ‘friend feed’ on LinkedIn -
[bring password]
Blogs
Intelligent comments on blogs and websites that are important in your field of work might show potential employers that you know what you are talking about. But it is not just about showing off, it is about becoming part of debates that are going on.
Perhaps start your own blog. The process of writing for an audience, or a potential audience can help you think through issues. It is time consuming, but if you do it well it can be a resource that other people read.
[FINAL TASK]
Steps to take?
What would you like to do with your work and online resources?
You might want to get more of it online so it’s available to share
You might want to create a profile for professional purposes and disentangle your personal profiles from it.
Spend a couple of minutes making some notes about what you will do, and what you will remember to consider.
Blogs
Personal vs. Professional

26. Part 3 Your Online Networks
Advice on Social Networking Site use for teachers.
TES – “A joint Association of Teachers and Lecturers and Teacher Support Network survey reveals nearly a quarter of education staff said they, or a colleague, have been told by an employer to remove something from a social networking site. ATL also warns that there’s a ‘growing trend’ for schools to use these sites to search for information on job applicants.”
The NASUWT in one of the teaching unions and they have advice on their web site related to social networking.
They talk about Facebook privacy settings and conduct
Set to ‘Friends’ - even then things can get passed on
Don’t criticise colleagues - we often talks to friends on social media in a similar way to the way we talk face to face, but don’t forget it’s easy for the world to overhear online.
[Reference -
SNS Freindship with pupils – survey showed 9% of teachers are friends. This does make you vulnerable as you are sharing personal information with the pupils and have access to theirs. Drunken photos that someone tags you in might be seen by the children, etc. Some schools use organizational accounts to link with students [Reference:
Quote from the new teachers section of the TES website on slide
[Reference:

27. Part 3 Your Online Networks
Advice on Social Networking Site use for health professionals.
NMC strongly advises not to:
Share confidential information online.
Post inappropriate comments about colleagues or patients.
Use social networking sites to bully or intimidate colleagues.
Pursue personal relationships with patients or service users.
Distribute sexually explicit material.
Use social networking sites in any way which is unlawful.
Keep an eye out for online communities full of people in your profession where you can support each other.
However the NMC has a code regarding all uses of social networking sites – “The code states that nurses and midwives must "uphold the reputation of your profession at all times" (NMC 2008), while students must "uphold the reputation of your chosen profession at all times" (NMC 2009a). This means that conduct online and conduct in the real world should be judged in the same way, and should be at a similar high standard. Nurses and midwives will put their registration at risk, and students may jeopardise their ability to join our register, if they:”
We use social networks to talk to our friends in the same way we’d talk to them face-to-face – but in reality we have to be more careful because online the whole world can overhear you. Lots of people have got into trouble as they have forgotten this.

28. Part 3 Your Online Networks Monitoring effectiveness Stats Feedback
So when you’ve put the effort in to present yourself online, how do you know what is working well?
Stats on websites (Google Analytics), LinkedIn (number of visits), etc.
There are online services that test your social media influence (e.g. Klout) but in my mind focusing on this can mean you miss out on actually making real valuable relationships. You do this online, and face-to-face by talking to people, being interested in their needs and aims, and helping them where you can. This can be valuable to your career, and having lots of Twtter followers and a high Klout score can be manipulated and everyone knows it.
Use these things as a guide rather than a game.

29. Contact Image Credits Licence peter.beaumont@edgehill.ac.uk
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