Students in higher education enter class with varying degrees of social media experience, skill, and comfort. Traditional age students that grew up with technology, often called “digital natives” (Prensky) use the Internet and social media with the same facility their instructors have navigating the Dewey Decimal system. However, these same students bring a sense of infallibility regarding online safety and privacy. Nontraditional-aged students possess diverse Internet-usage skill sets, but I have found them to be more aware of privacy issues. In three years of teaching social media, I have yet to meet a student who’s actually read Facebook’s privacy policy.

1. Marketing Management
Association Fall 2012
Educators’ Conference
STUDENT PRIVACY AND
SELF-PROMOTION IN
SOCIAL MEDIA EDUCATION
Sara G. N. Kerr

2. Student Populations
 Traditional Age  Non-Traditional
– Digital Natives Aged Students
– Naïveté regarding – More aware of
Internet privacy and privacy concerns
safety – Somewhat skeptical
– Willingness to try of social media’s
new digital tools role for them
– Often miss the personally
interconnectedness
of social media tools
9/18/2012 © Sara Geneva Noreau Kerr 2012 2

3. THE PRINCIPLE ISSUE IS BALANCING
SAFETY AND SELF-PROMOTION.
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4. Students must learn best practices of
Internet safety and maintaining online
privacy while harnessing the power of
social media to establish their marketing
expertise and find a job.
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5. Internet Safety vs. Self Promotion:
Key Issues
 Fallacy that anything on the Internet is private
 Utilizing basic common sense when establishing
online accounts
 Internet anonymity
 Intellectual Property
 Privacy legislation
 Social media for self promotion
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6. INTERNET SAFETY
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7. The Fallacy of Privacy
 Most students are surprised to learn that nothing is
private on the internet or that nothing is every
permanently deleted.
 Pedagogy:
– Use common sense when posting anything online
– Employ unique passwords
– Create non-identifying email accounts for online account
registration
– Disabling Facebook public searches
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8. Internet Anonymity
 Acceptance and knowledge of tracking and cookies
varies widely among students.
 Pedagogy:
– Define tracking technology
– Adjust each browser’s privacy settings
– Utilize a proxy server, virtual private network (VPN), or
private encryption service
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9. Intellectual Property and Copyright
 Students don’t know what they should cite or can
freely use.
 Pedagogy:
– Creative Commons Licensing
– The Gutenberg Project
– APA and MLA reference rules for online sources
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10. PrivacyLegislation
 Privacy legislation, including SOPA and ACTA,
awareness varies greatly among students.
 Pedagogy
– SOPA(Stop Online Privacy Act)
• Protecting intellectual property or squelching free speech
– ACTA(Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement)
• Standardization of IP rights enforcement
– EU Data Protection Reform
• Known colloquially as “the right to be forgotten”
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11. SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SELF-PROMOTION
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12. Just “Google Me”
 Students and potential employers actively research
one another online prior to meeting.
 Students must learn to manage their digital brand.
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13. Personal and Professional Branding
 LinkedIn
– More than a resume
– Connecting across interest areas
– Conducting employer research
– Profile updates of industry news and personal
achievements
 Blogging
– Display writing skills
– Establish industry knowledge
– Demonstrate analytical expertise
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14. THANK YOU
Please see sara-kerr.com
for this presentation and
the complete position
paper.