Digital Footprints Essential in Modern Job Hunt

Published by in socialnetworking, web 2.0 on August 28th, 2010
This is a great article from last week’s New York Times. Share this with your students (as well as fellow educators) in discussions about social media, digital footprints and Internet safety.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/26/education/26SOCIAL.html

H/T Will Richardson.

Sent from my iPad

Posted via email from wesley fryer’s posterous

On this day..

3 Comments »
  • http://www.dconrad3.wordpress.com Dea

    But how can you get rid of a questionable posting? With everyone posting everything, but without full accounts…mixed messages can be sent. How do you suggest overcoming questionable hits that come up on a search but don’t fully represent one’s work or the context of the situation?

  • http://www.wesfryer.com Wesley Fryer

    The best way to take control of your digital footprint is to post regularly on sites YOU own, control, and claim. You can’t take control of things other people post, but you certainly CAN and should ask them to take down (or at least “un-tag” you) in photos you don’t want online. By using a variety of sites to search for yourself and pages/sites which reference you, you can get a sense of what employers and others who Google/search for you are finding and can find. As you post more content AS yourself, using profiles on a blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. on which you use your REAL name, those posts should rise in pagerank. (That means they should come up higher in search results.) Commenting on other social networking sites, using your profile links, will also help to improve your pagerank for your OWN sites which you control and WANT people to see first, or at least primarily, when they are looking for you online.

  • Erin

    My name is Erin Tillman and I am currently enrolled in Dr Strange’s EDM310 class. I will be completing a summary of comments that I have made on your post on September 12th. Please feel free to view My Personal Blog or our Class Blog.

    I believe that social networking has it’s up and downs, just as it was explained. If a person becomes too self involved, a company will find someone with a more professional appearance. Social networking in black and white. It will either get you hired, or get you fired. There is no fuzzy grey in between. “Tagged” photos are becoming more and more of a threat for jobs. With the economy the way it is, it will be easier for an employer to fire the employee based on what they have found and seen online. Therefore, people do need to be careful and know what is being said about them on Internet. Social networking can be a good thing, but can also be an employees worst nightmare.

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