Managing and evaluating personal reputations on the basis of information shared on social media: a Generation X perspective

Managing and evaluating personal reputations on
the basis of information shared on social media:
a Generation X perspective
Presented by
Frances VC Ryan
2016 ISIC: Information Seeking in Context Conference
University of Zadar, Croatia
Co-authors: Peter Cruickshank, Hazel Hall, and Alistair Lawson
Edinburgh Napier University | Centre for Social Informatics

Frances Ryan | @cleverfrances | www.JustAPhD.com
What’s the research about?
How online information
contributes to the building,
maintenance, and evaluation of
personal reputations
►Personal reputation: Private
individuals, rather than corporate
identity and brand

Two broad research themes
The means by which people evaluate or assess
the personal reputations of others from the
online evidence available to them
How people manage their own personal
reputations through their use of online
information, and to what extent those
behaviours are intentional

►Facebook
►Twitter
►LinkedIn

The literature
Personal
reputation
(Private and professional)
InformationSocial media

Research questions
RQ1: How do individuals build
identities for themselves online?
RQ3: How do individuals evaluate the identities and reputations
of others based on the online information available to them?
RQ2: How do individuals use online information
to build and manage their reputations?
RQ4: To what extent do individuals actively practise
identity and reputation building and evaluation online?

An overview of the data
collection process

Generation X subset
►Fifteen participants
► 13 females; 2 males
►Born 1965-1980
► Average age: 41
►Platforms used:
► Facebook: All
► Twitter: 12
► LinkedIn: 10
►Self-reported SNS use:
► 11 moderate; 4 heavy

RQ1: How do individuals build identities for themselves online?
►Identity (or identities) are based on offline personas

►Naming conventions
► No current anonymous accounts
► Pseudonyms are of greater interest
► Seen as “user names” or “nicknames”
► Point to the “offline” person
“I like to have a consistent social media handle and I hate it when I can’t.
[To me] it’s like a suite of information [about me]. … I like the idea of being
consistent and being open about who I am.” (Gillian)

►Social media use is an extension
of everyday lives

RQ2: How do individuals use online information to build and
manage their reputations?
►Managing the blur between their
private and professional lives
“I'm not Facebook
friends with any
current colleagues …
that’s what LinkedIn is
for.” (Laura)

RQ2: How do individuals use online information to build and
manage their reputations?
►Undertaking some level of
self-censorship
“There’s certain information that I won’t
share, or I’ll think twice about sharing
publicly.” (Gillian)

►Difficult to convey or talk about evaluations
►Views in stark contrast to own
= negative evaluation
►Frequency matters

►Conflicting views of anonymity and pseudonyms by others
► Not completely acceptable, even when it’s understood
“If you haven’t used your real name,
I’m not sure if I want to give credence
to what you’re saying...” (Jacqueline)

►Having an offline connection provides a level of
forgiveness or leniency
“You personalise the information. It’s not just information
… you have [an] emotional engagement to it.” (Sharon)

RQ4: To what extent do individuals actively practise identity and
reputation building and evaluation online?
►Levels of intentional reputation
management varies
► First concern is how information will
be received
►The diary made them do it!
► Participation in the study prompted
considerations of personal reputation
management and evaluation

Do the empirical study findings support
those of the literature review?
Social media users self-regulate their information
sharing taking into account platform and audience
Hiding information related to ‘offline’ identity through the
use of anonymity or pseudonyms is less prevalent than
reported in other studies
Second-level connections (“friends of friends”) are not
regarded as important to the evaluation of reputation as
has been reported elsewhere

New contributions relate to awareness
►People build and evaluate identity and reputation on the
basis of online information
► Even if unconsciously
►Overall levels of active identity and reputation building and
evaluation using social media information vary
► On the whole, they are low
►Individuals rarely consider the impact of information
sharing on personal reputation building and evaluation

Next steps
►Detailed analysis of all 45 sets
of participant data in progress
►Final stages of analysis to be
completed by November 2016
►Main thesis writing over winter
2016/17
►Findings of full study will be
shared in 2017

Full text of paper available
►Full text available
► Conference proceedings
► Information Research (coming soon)
► From Frances after the presentation
Ryan, F., Cruickshank, P., Hall, H., Lawson, A. (2017). Managing and
evaluating personal reputations on the basis of information shared on social
media: a Generation X perspective. Information Research.
Copyright attributions:
Bottom image on slide 8 (Generation X subset): Roy Cook
Social networking icons: Iconfinder (iconfinder.com)
Political signs and ISIC logo used under Fair Use concepts
All other images: Frances Ryan

Thank you!
f.ryan@napier.ac.uk
@cleverfrances
www.JustAPhD.com

Managing and evaluating personal reputations on the basis of information shared on social media: a Generation X perspective

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Managing and evaluating personal reputations on the basis of information shared on social media: a Generation X perspective