Students have so many digital platforms at their disposal to help them develop their professional network, with one of the most common being Twitter from my own personal experience. Other common ones are Linked in, or even something like Facebook to establish connections and promote yourself. Something all of these spaces have in common is the ability to curate a profile that can be entirely cultivated with only what you as the creator would like to show, which I think adds to the appeal of using them.
As a student, I would think the most important thing to consider when expanding my own professional learning network is to keep spaces that are dedicated to being professional, consistently professional. And making sure that if you do have personal media or relationships online; you keep them separate from your professional network. By having this consistently professional space, you are then building up a reputation of being business-like, and curating a digital identity that is likable without being too personal or casual. Potential employers looking into a hiring candidate’s social media is a very likely possibility in our current day and age, and that is why privacy settings and being careful exactly what you are putting out onto the internet is so important. It can be of benefit if you have a professional profile set up on something like Twitter, but it can also hinder you if you have a personal one where you may joke, curse, or talk about crude things with friends.
Using Twitter as an example again, this is why having a “locked” account to maintain a casual or relaxed relationship with friends but having a public professional acount can be of value. Locking your account means that only those who already follow you can see what you are posting, and those who do not follow you have to request to be added instead of being able to openly see everything that is on the profile. Doing this is a safeguard in case someone does go searching for your personal account, and in general, is just another way to make sure those digital identities are kept completely separate. This way, a person can have the best of both worlds, so to speak, and doesn’t have to worry about a potential employer being disappointed or perturbed by what they find on personal accounts while also still having a public, professional account open that they can peruse.
My own VR Map pictured above, reflecting my experience with various digital spaces online.
October 4, 2020 at 9:10 pm
Hey Caprim! The first thing I did after reading your comment on my post was to compare our VR maps. I find it amusing how our placement of Youtube really is in the same spot. I have to wonder if we have anybody that posts videos among our group that’ll have Youtube placed closer to the resident side on the graph, maybe similar to where you placed Facebook. I would guess that slack, class blogs, and Brightspaces will probably be farther towards the institutional for all of us as a group though. I’d be surprised if there’s a way to use Brightspace for personal reasons instead of institutional.
You bring up some great points in your blog post, and keeping our digital identities separate resonated with me. I have tried to set up my Facebook account similarly to how you have set up your Twitter account, with as little visible to those who aren’t my Facebook friends as possible. However, I have been mostly focused on keeping my personal accounts private. When you mentioned leaving a professional account open for potential employers to peruse, I realized that that was not something I had seriously considered doing before. Being able to get the best of both worlds would indeed be nice, and will be something I’ll have to consider moving forwards.
I enjoyed reading your post! It was very informative and I felt like everything was intentionally written and thoughtful. I tend to be more casual in my blog posts so it was a nice change. Something for me to consider next week as well.