Introduction to Social Media
Week 11- Blog about the logic of digital footprints & establishing a positive online reputation.
This week you will:
- Create a blog post on digital footprints.
- Blog about establishing a positive presence online.
- Practice providing feedback on week 10 blog posts using the intellectual standards.
This week you will create 2 blog posts. First, you will blog about digital footprints. You will also read with a purpose and blog about about establishing a positive presence online.
Next, this week you provide feedback to other learners week 10 posts, using the intellectual standards.
The goal is to work up to the higher higher levels of reasoning which are; logic, significance and fairness. Let's do it!
Please remember, before you begin your activities, read and watch this week's topic summary content.
Whenever you learn, let go and have some fun, don't take yourself too seriously.
The Internet sees the good, the bad and the ugly. The keys to social media success are being honest about your identity, being thoughtful about your posts and understanding the long-term implications of your behavior online.
We live in an ever-changing culture, and culture is changed precisely by the positive ideas we engage with and the ones we choose to share.
A positive online reputation is the best way to promote yourself if you are proactive and do it right. Don’t assume that it will happen by default.
Digital Footprints
How do you use the Internet? What footprints are you leaving behind? Did you know the Internet can be friend or foe and, it’s your choice?
Check out these individuals who were fired due to inappropriate posts:
Yet, having no online identity can be detrimental. According to Forbes, employers have hired candidates because of something positive they have seen on a social media site and therefore….’those who are silent or invisible online may be at a disadvantage’ (Smith, 2013).
How can you use the Internet to encourage employers to hire you based on the content and images you post on social and professional networking sites?
- Limit negative consequences.
- Keep private things private, while assuming nothing is truly private.
- Even teens know that it’s unwise to post pictures of himself chugging beer or dancing shirtless, and can’t control the pictures other people post of you.
- You can, and should, put privacy setting on all content you want to share only with a select group of friends and family.
- Wait... Facebook and other sites are constantly changing the rules about how much you can protect your content, and your friends can forward embarrassing pictures of you without your consent.
Like it or not, if you use the Internet you have an online identity. Some people call this your “brand.” What’s a brand? Think about a brand of soft drink, or computer, or jeans, or a band or a sports team. You probably have a certain idea about each one – what it’s like, who buys it, and so on. Maybe you wear a branded t-shirt sometimes because you like what it says about you. That’s what your online brand is: it’s what people think of you based on what they see about you online.
Big companies spend millions of dollars making sure that you see their brand the way they want you to. You don’t have to put that much time or money into it, but there are a few pretty simple things you can do to make sure that the “you” people see online is how you want to be seen.
SEARCH YOURSELF
A good place to start is to use a search engine to see what information about you is easily available. Try searching for your name – but don’t stop there, especially if it’s a fairly common one. Think about the search terms someone else might use if they were looking for information about you. Would they use a nickname? Your middle name or initials? A likely misspelling of your name? Maybe they add your hometown, or your school, or where you work or some of your hobbies. Type your name into the search bar and see what other search terms are suggested. Also, you can try putting “yourname”.com (or .ca) into the address bar and see if anyone else has registered that site. If not, it’s probably worth a few dollars each year to register it yourself, even if you’re not going to use it right away.
Do the same thing with any social networks you’re on. Someone may have created a spoof account with your name, or there may be someone with a similar name that people might confuse you with. Make sure to do an image search of your name, too!
IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, ASK TO HAVE IT TAKEN DOWN
If you don’t like what you find, the first step is to try to get it taken down. It may be surprising, but just asking the person who posted it is pretty effective: according to one study, four out of five Internet users who’ve asked someone to take material down were successful. If that doesn’t work, you can find out which ISP hosts the site and ask them to take it down. ISPs will usually only do this if the material is defamatory (untrue and hurts your reputation), if it’s hate material or if what the site is doing could reasonably be called cyberbullying.
OUT WITH THE BAD, IN WITH THE GOOD
If there are things about you online that you don’t like – or if searching for information about you leads to information about someone else who people might think is you – then you need to make sure that there’s enough positive material about you online to drown it out. Blogging, posting videos, commenting, leaving online reviews – anything that leaves a mark online is good so long as it sends the message you want. Don’t worry that everything you do has to make you look good; so long as it doesn’t make you look bad, it’s building your online presence and overriding any bad stuff that may be out there.
If there’s another person online that people are mixing up with you, think about using a variation on your name. For instance, if there’s another John Smith who got caught selling fake Stanley Cup tickets, you may decide to go by Johnny Smith or John Q. Smith instead of trying to tell people you’re not him.
BUILD A BASE
An important step in building your brand is to have a home base online. This could be a website or a blog (but don’t use a social network profile as your home base – we’ll explain why below) – what matters is that it’s a place where you control your message and where everything you do online links back to. Why is that important? Because a lot of search engines count links when they’re doing a search, so the more you link back to your home base, the higher it will rank in any search for you. If you registered a website with your name, like we talked about in “Search Yourself” above, that’s the perfect place to make your home base.
You can have a “home base” picture, too: that’s a picture of yourself that you like (if you don’t want to use a real picture, there are lots of places online where you can create a cartoon version of yourself) that you use anytime you’re asked for a picture online – social networks, commenting systems and so on. Having a single picture that you use everywhere helps to build you identity online.
DON’T LET YOUR FRIENDS CONTROL YOUR BRAND
Why not use a social network profile as your home base? Because you don’t have full control over what happens there. Friends can post to your profile, comment on what you post, and link to things that you have no control over. You also can’t ever fully control your privacy on social networks because you’re counting on your friends, and their friends, to make good decisions.
That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have any social network accounts: actually you should have an account on any social network a lot of your friends are using, even if you don’t do much with it, just to make sure that you have some control over your identity there. Just don’t link back to it from other places online.
THINK ABOUT WHO YOU ARE IN OTHER PEOPLE’S SPACES
As well as making sure that your online spaces say good things about you, keep in mind what kind of impression you’re making in the spaces you don’t control – other people’s social network profiles, for example, or public online spaces like games and online communities. Being a good “guest” and being a positive member of an online community can be a huge part of building your online brand. The Golden Rule – treat other people the way you’d like to be treated – is a good start, but you can also look for ways to be helpful and contribute to the online communities that you’re a part of.
DON’T MIX UP REPUTATION WITH CELEBRITY
None of this means that you need to spend all your time thinking about every word and picture that you post, wondering how people will see you. It doesn’t matter how many people are paying attention to you online: what matters is that the things you do online build a consistent image of you that reflects how you want to be seen.
Complete the following tasks by Sunday 11:59pm
1. Essential Questions about digital footprints- Blog Post- 20 Points
- Create a new blog post by choosing 2 NEW questions to answer from the list below. Resource: How Clean Is Your Digital Footprint?
- What is a digital footprint?
- What is the purpose of a digital footprint?
- What do you take for granted or assume about a digital footprint?
- What exactly are you focused on about digital footprints?
- What other information do you need to consider to better understand a digital footprint?
- Can you name and explain some of the basic principles of a digital footprint?
- What conclusions are you coming to about a digital footprint?
- If I decided to create a digital footprint what would happen?
- Complete the following for each answer
- Answer the question - 2 points
- Elaborate on your answer in a couple sentences- 3 points
- Provide an example as evidence for your answer. 3 points
- Find, and insert into your blog post, an image you can use online that represents digital footprints.
- The purpose of the assignment is… 2 points
- The key question at the heart of the assignment is…2 points
- To save your post without publishing it, click Save. To publish your post, click Publish.
- Copy and paste the link to your post to this week's ICS119 FACEBOOK GROUP.
2 points deducted if all tasks are not completed by the deadline.
2. Read with a purpose About Establishing a Positive Presence Online- Blog Post-20 points.
Complete the first level of reading- on the paragraph below, from Establishing a Positive Presence Online, and translate the paragraph into your own alternative wording.
- State in your own words the meaning of each sentence as you read. 10 points
- Complete second level of reading- state, elaborate, exemplify, and illustrate the thesis of the paragraph.
- State the main point of the paragraph in one or two sentences. 2 points
- Elaborate on what you have paraphrased (“In other words,...”). 2 points
- Give examples of the meaning by tying it to concrete situations in the real world. (For example,...) 2 points
- The purpose of the assignment is… 2 points
- The key question at the heart of the assignment is…2 points
- To save your post without publishing it, click Save. To publish your post, click Publish.
- Copy and paste the link to your post to this week's ICS119 FACEBOOK GROUP.
2 points deducted if all tasks are not completed by the deadline.
BUILD A BASE
An important step in building your brand is to have a home base online. This could be a website or a blog (but don’t use a social network profile as your home base – we’ll explain why below) – what matters is that it’s a place where you control your message and where everything you do online links back to. Why is that important? Because a lot of search engines count links when they’re doing a search, so the more you link back to your home base, the higher it will rank in any search for you. If you registered a website with your name, like we talked about in “Search Yourself” above, that’s the perfect place to make your home base.
You can have a “home base” picture, too: that’s a picture of yourself that you like (if you don’t want to use a real picture, there are lots of places online where you can create a cartoon version of yourself) that you use anytime you’re asked for a picture online – social networks, commenting systems and so on. Having a single picture that you use everywhere helps to build you identity online.
3. Practice Providing Feedback on week 1o blog posts using the intellectual standards -10 Points
- Provide feedback to 2 different learners blog posts- one for each assignment.
- Go to last week' s Week 10 ICS119 FACEBOOK GROUP to find the blog posts from last week.
- With the week 3 Google Community, click on the link to the learners blog post to read and comment on their post.
- Provide feedback to two different learners blog posts.
- When a standard was not well met: I am questioning the _INSERT THE INTELLECTUAL STANDARD_ of your statement ____________ because _______.
- When a standard was well met: Your statement had _INSERT THE INTELLECTUAL STANDARD_ when you said....
- Give this your best shot. If you are the one receiving the feedback, please don't take it personally. This is about getting practice in providing feedback.
5 points for each comment
1 point deducted if all tasks are not completed by the deadline.
4. Get Your GRADE: Week eleven Self-Assessment - Complete By Sunday 11:59Pm
- You MUST submit a weekly self- assessment to get a grade.
The Power of Vulnerability
Gay Gaddis, the owner and founder of T3 (The Think Tank) in Austin, Texas. Gay cashed in a sixteen-thousand dollar IRA with the dream of starting and ad agency. Twenty-three years after opening with a handful of regional accounts, Gay has built T3 into the nation’s largest advertising agency wholly owned by a women. When I asked her about vulnerability she said, “When you shut down vulnerability, you shut down opportunity.” In the end of our interview she told me that entrepreneurship is all about vulnerability. Every single day.
Have you stopped to think how you can make an impact with social media ?
Original content by Steve Wainwright — May 9, 2012