Personal Digital Identity vs Professional Digital Identity

Personal Digital Identity vs Professional Digital Identity

The Digital Visitor and Resident (V&R) map

In today’s digital age, social media is a powerful tool that is used by people to connect with each other around the world. As time passes, the importance of drawing a line between personal and professional use of platforms increases. In addition to this – many social media users make a distinction between their personal and professional lives by the creation of different accounts. A personal account would include content that an individual would share within a selected group of friends and loved ones (or the general public), while a professional account would include content that is posted with the intention of solely communicating their services, products and promotions to the general public. The Digital Visitor and Resident (V&R) map provides a framework to depict how user preference and habit motivates engagement with technology and the web (Wikipedia, 2020). Figure 1 illustrates my own range of possible modes of engagement over the internet.

 

Figure 1 – My Digital Visitor and Resident map

 

What digital platforms are students currently using to develop their professional network?

Many college students are encouraged by their professors and mentors to start thinking about networking after the completion of  their first academic year. There are a plethora of workshops that are offered by most universities that are catered towards their students, thus, ensuring that they obtain the necessary skills required to set themselves up for post-graduation work. In a world where physical networking opportunities are not possible (or limited), due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for the use of digital platforms for networking purposes became prevalent among students. The most popular networking platform among students in a professional context would be LinkedIn; this is a great way to expose yourself to the thoughts and opinions of experts in the workforce. This platform also offers opportunities for students to browse through job postings to gain an understanding of the requirements and responsibilities they would need to display when they are selected for a job interview. Another important feature of this platform is the ability to give and receive recommendations from and to fellow professionals, which helps to create a digital reputation. With the passing of time since the early 2000s, social media platforms provided opportunities for users to create business accounts — in which users could use the networking tools offered for outreach and brand-building purposes. Some examples of these platforms are : Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Snapchat and WhatsApp to name a few. With these platforms, it is important to note that the users are not pressured to create a professional vs personal account. Regardless of the type of account a user creates, he/she will be able to view, comment, react and share content as they please from personal and business accounts.

 

How can students or individuals expand their professional learning network and build an identity/reputation?

The most effective way to expand your professional network would be to network! It is one of the most fundamental ways in which a student can grow their contacts, influence and knowledge base. I am working at a tech company called Cuboh (based in Victoria) which I came across as a result of networking with the right people, on the right platforms. UVic hosts yearly job fairs for their students, where employers would attend and scout for prospective employees. This is a good way to speak to professionals in your field to gain an insight to their expectations and requirements for an ideal candidate they are hoping to employ. Students could use several outreach strategies to grow their professional networks, some examples of these are : looking for mentorship opportunities by contacting professors, reaching out to department advisors for career development, setting up informational interviews with known contacts in an organization and chatting with customers at a workplace – word of mouth can do wonders!

From an employer’s point of view, digital identity/reputation is a deciding factor on the basis of employing an individual. This ties to the digital footprint we all leave behind on the web, in which I wrote in an earlier blog post (http://lifeandlemons.opened.ca/digital-identity/). Individuals can strengthen their digital reputation by sharing “good content”, leaving constructive and insightful comments, sharing achievements and certifications, and receiving recommendations from people they have worked with. Here, “good content” refers to the quality of the content that one would post, for example, if you post a motivational video about work ethic and honest business practices, you would receive positive feedback from your connections across the platforms. On the other hand, examples of “bad content” would be posting controversial or under researched topics that do not provide definitive solutions. In the current age of misinformation, it is crucial that one would do his/her due diligence on a topic they would like share. Using digital platforms for work sharing purposes would also be a way to build one’s reputation. Blog posts, websites and GitHub projects are some examples of this.

Your digital footprint could be beneficial or detrimental to your career. Most employers review the candidate’s digital footprint, they do this to understand what a candidate is “really like”. This helps them identify the views, opinions and communication strategies of a candidate. This is why it is always important for us to clean up our digital footprint — this can be done by deleting controversial/inappropriate posts or by simply adjusting your privacy settings for each platform. There have been many cases where content from the past has been brought up to the surface by the community. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “black face” photos surfaced in 2019, which sparked worldwide discussions of controversy. Of course, this is a very extreme case, but this is an example that highlights the detrimental impacts that an individuals digital footprint can have on their professional reputation. On the other hand, an individuals digital footprint can portray excellence. If you would take my advice from this blog post, I’m sure you can build a phenomenal digital reputation!

 

References

Wikipedia contributors. “Digital Visitor and Resident.” Wikipedia, 31 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visitor_and_Resident

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