How Being Vain Could Save Your Job: The "Vanity Search"

Up until now, my posts have focused solely on how web technologies can positively affect your students, your classrooms, and your content. But how can web technologies help teachers and students as individuals?

Since roughly 5 years ago, I started hearing about the horrors of "googling yourself". 

Today, our president wields Twitter like a weapon of the Armed Forces. 

Your digital footprint is your new resume.

Read CNN's article "Donald Trump is giving a master class in how to use Twitter" here.

I've participated with countless digital corporations within the past few months alone. LinkedIn, Google+, UpWork, AirBnB, Tutor.com, Wordpress, Blogger, Etsy, Mechanical Turk (Amazon), YouTube, Twitch, eBay, Amazon.com: the list goes on. The list of employers who function within the rapidly growing e-commerce sector is rising exponentially. Even "stone and mason" businesses like WalMart are scrambling for a way to monetize their online presence. In this widening world of digital citizenship, every hiring manager who was once promised fame as a 90's kid is looking for a micro-celebrity. That's right. With 250 friends you can suggest a lot of products. You can become a local spokesperson. The problem is: those of us who have been employed with the same company for over 5 years, those who are just entering the workforce, and those interested in applying to prestigious schools may still be using these social media outlets for solely entertainment purposes without recognizing their level of public engagement.

The Internet Society answers "What is a Digital Footprint?"

Since I'm looking to expand my employment opportunities as I carry myself through graduate school (and only recently left a company at which I spent over 7 years) I decided it was time to do an in-depth look into my web presence. This meant googling my name, checking my profiles as they appear to others, and attempting to locate every account I've created linked to my personal and professional (opposed to purposely anonymous) accounts. 

Rather anticlimactically, when I egogoogled, there wasn't much to be found. And what was found was fragmented. I have a terrible habit of forming multiple accounts for multiple sections of life (i.e: facebook settings to separate coworkers, family, and friends; a separate email for personal and professional communications; etc). Moreover, and rather unexpectedly, I see more people who aren't me showing up when I search my relatively "unique" name. This does not necessarily mean that I'm producing less "content" than other people with my same name, but it does likely mean that I have not optimized the sites that I do engage on so that potential employers see the most qualified version of my "digital self".

Lucky for you, over the course of the next several weeks, I will be discussing the steps I undertake to solidify my online reputation, expose myself to new business opportunities, and cultivate my digital footprint.