Month: May 2021

Digital Platforms that Develop Student Professional Network

Largely, digital platforms offer a lucrative chance to network considering that a large number of professionals spend their time online. First on the List is Linked-in. Linked-in is a professional network that offers a platform for professionals to socialise online and even take their professional networks offline if possible. This platform thus offers a chance for students to expand their professional networks since they can easily connect and communicate with individuals within their professional fields. Twitter is also quite important in networking. For example if there is hashtag about a certain conference, students can follow up to check individuals engaging in them and connect professionally. Facebook also offers a chance to professionally network ranging from infographics, discussion groups and trending topics which can be selectively chosen by students based on personal professional needs.

Digital Networking Considerations

What I would consider when creating digital networks as a student include the ability to connect with corporate decision makers as well as the ability to keep up with news and events that revolve around my field of industry. This is because besides connecting, communication is important and when having conversations with professionals, it is important to have sufficient knowledge at hand.

Creating My Digital Identity

The best formula that I would use to create my digital identity would be to have a clear plan on what I would be posting on my platforms. A content ratio would therefore come in handy such that half of my content should be a discussion on industry trending topics. The other half would revolve around the projects that I am currently undertaking as well a few personal experiences. With this, I can manage my digital ID besides the fact that in some instances, I would forget a few details about myself just as mentioned by Reagan & Jesse (2019).

Employment and Digital Identity

I honestly feel like it is inappropriate for employers to use digital content when considering prospective employees for opportunities. This is because our digital identities and content go beyond our current fields. For example, a number of people joined Facebook and Twitter back in junior high school before they could specialise on their current fields. This means that their digital content is barely related to their careers.

References

Privacy, Ethics & Security in Digital Spaces Developing Awareness of Privacy https://digitaltattoo.ubc.ca/quizzes/privacy-and-surveillance/ Regan, P., & Jesse, J. (2019).

Networking Using Social Media

Social media networking entails the process with which individuals build and sustain social and economic relations using technology. For this to occur, social media platforms such as Twitter, Telegram and Facebook since they enable individuals and corporations to interact with each other easily. This way, efficient relationships are built enabling smooth sharing of ideas, messages and information (Psychology Today, 2021).

Participating in Networked Publics

The greatest motivations towards social media networks are normally social and financial. For example, family members that are far apart use social media to keep in touch. Furthermore, people often connect with others who are often strangers but share similar interests through the use of lists, groups, channels and even hashtags. Economically, marketers use social media as a means of building brand awareness as well as sustaining customer loyalty to their brands. This is mainly because social media makes brands more visible to current customers besides attracting new customers to the company.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Networking

Advantages of social media networking include the fact that family members and friends who have no physical access to each other can always communicate. Moreover, it connects individuals with strangers who share similar interests hence creating new partnerships. For corporations, new customers are easily attained. However, social networking comes with a number of loopholes including the fact that misinformation is rapidly spread across platforms. Such cases normally cause personal and brand image distortion. Additionally, creation and sustenance of a company’s image online can take time and also be costly.

Digital Identity

Digital Identity is a combination of information about an individual which are in digital forms. Such information is mainly attained through a person’s digital activities such as facebook likes and retweets in addition to personal attributes such as bank details and email address. Such information is normally used by computer systems to identify foreign agents since identify can be defined as a number of attributes that can be used to define a certain entity (Rannenberg, 2011).

Personal Vs Professional Digital Identity

Being an active user of social media services, there emerges a need for a balance between an individual’s personal and professional expectations. This is mainly because despite most employers being much interested employees’ skillset, they are gradually considering individual social skills and activities before offering job opportunities. This means that, even at the personal level, prospective employees need to stay vigilant and considerate of the comments and responses they post online in order to safeguard their professional image. Furthermore, individuals employed for online marketing programs have been noted to run multiple accounts catering for both personal and professional reasons. This means that such individuals need to be careful whenever posting in order to avoid the possibility of posting personal issues on professional platforms. Generally, personal versus professional approaches to digital ID has encouraged cautious use of social media by various individuals.

Impact of Digital ID’s in Networked Publics

Personally, I really feel like digital Identities on public online spaces are a silent encroachment to privacy. This is mainly because in most cases, the persistence displayed by some sites means that whatever one says today can be sought for and be available even after several decades later. Furthermore, searchability noted in various sites means that anyone can be located at any particular time and most probably be found. Replicability is also quite common in social media whereby posts and media can be copied and pasted across various platforms leading to high chances of misinterpretation. Eventually, the original owner takes all the blame. With such cases being common, repercussions include employees losing jobs for insulting others online or after posting date pictures online after calling in sick.

References

Psychology Today. Social Networking. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/social-networking

Rannenberg, K. (2011). “ISO/IEC 24760-1: A framework for identity management – Part 1: Terminology and concepts”. ISO. Retrieved 2015-12-05.