This document discusses managing your online image and personal branding. It provides tips on using social media safely and effectively for purposes like job searching and networking. Some key points covered include: - Personal branding is how you market yourself online to influence how others perceive you - Your online profile should appeal to multiple audiences like friends, family, and potential employers - Employers and others can easily find information about you online, so avoid posting unprofessional content or revealing too much private information - Carefully consider what pictures, groups, and information you share online as it can affect your reputation and job/college opportunities

1. My Online Image
What Does Your Online Image Tell the World?

2. Guide to Social Networking
Social Networking Sites
http://traffikd.com/social-media-websites/

3. Image Management
“We post information online in an attempt to
control how others perceive us”
Stephanie Rosenbloom
Putting Your Best Cyberface Forward
The New York Times

4. Image Management
How do you market
yourself to the world?
Online identity management or
“personal branding” is a method
used to generate a positive personal
web presence on the Internet to
influence what others think of you or
how they choose to interact with
you.

5. What is Personal Branding?
o Personal Branding is a way of clarifying and communicating what
makes you different and special.
o It’s about understanding your unique attributes and using them to
separate yourself from your competitors.
o Personal branding is how you market yourself to the world.
o Online identity management or “personal branding” is a method used
to generate a positive personal web presence on the Internet to
influence what others think of you or how they choose to interact with
you.
All of the above

6. Who is Your Audience?
Why do you have an online profile?
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•
•
•
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Friends
Dating
Networking
Jobs
Entertainment

7. High School Student Profiles
Glamorous
Rave Queen
Party Animal

8. Multiple Audiences
Does the e-version of you appeal
to multiple audiences…friends,
co-workers, family members,
future employers?

9. Online Profile and Job Searching
• Would you let your
grandmother see your
online profile?
• If not, you don’t want
a potential employer
to see it, either.

10. Impression Management
• Social networking and dating sites are “like
impression management on steroids”
• They are new forms of communication “people
don’t have a very strong sense yet of what
they’re doing or what the best practices are”
Joseph B. Walther
Professor of Communication
Michigan State University

11. Why does it matter?
• Employers regularly check online sources before
hiring new employees
• Law enforcement checks cyberspace
• Schools and colleges monitor social networking sites

13. Check Your Cyber Image
Online
Links
Dmoz.org is an open directory
which enables you to search
many online search engines at
one time.
dmoz.org

14. Additional Search Engines
CVGadget.com - Person Search Engine
Free People Search - Find People – Wink
Pipl - People Search
Peek You

15. Monitor Your Image
Create a Google
Alert of your name.
Provides email updates of
the latest Google results
based on your choice of
query.
Google Alerts
www.google.com/alerts

16. Online Tips
Nothing is private…avoid the following
• Derogatory comments
• Revealing or risqué photos
• Fowl language or lewd jokes
Use the “block comments” feature on your site – That way
others can’t post inappropriate comments on your page

17. What’s on the Web Stays on the Web
WayBack Machine
www.archive.org
An Internet archive
Where old web pages
are stored.

18. CAUTION
Don’t be a victim of identity theft
Make your information "Cyber Safe”
Minimal contact information makes it harder
for your identity to be stolen

19. How Much Info is Safe?
• Remove your standard "contact information"
Your name, address, phone numbers, unless
you have an unlisted phone number like most
cell phone numbers
• Replace the contact information with an e-mail
address that is harder to trace to you personally,
like one of the Web-based e-mail addresses

20. What About Personal Safety?
Don’t provide potential predators
with too much information
www.komando.com/myspace/index.asp
Click the link
for a safety quiz
Reporting online predators
www.secure.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/CybertipServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

21. Location Applications

22. Location Privacy
Location privacy is the ability of an individual to move in public space
with the expectation that under normal circumstances their location
will not be systematically and secretly recorded for later use.
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Did you go to an anti-war rally on Tuesday?
Are you at a local bar frequently?
Have you been checking into a motel at lunchtime?
Does your auto insurance company know you drive in the metroplex on a daily basis?
Drawbacks of location applications
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•
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You give your location to strangers
Potential employers know the locations you visit
Criminals can target your home while you’re out
 All of the above

23. How Safe is a Private Profile?
• IT’S NOT…
Anyone -- even those without a Facebook account can plug the
target's public account number, called a "Friend ID," into a specially
constructed URL that grants access to private profiles.
• Facebook Private Profile Viewer

24. Life in a Fishbowl?
You can’t control what
your friends post on their
sites.
Be aware of your actions
in public and at parties.

25. The Dark Side of Social Networking
Don’t use social networking sites like this
if you are trying to get a job or into select
Colleges
• Hatebook – Welcome to Hatebook

26. What About Pictures and
Groups?
• Do you want a potential
employer to see the pictures
you post online?
• What about your friend’s
profiles? Are you tagged or
identified on their sites?
• What groups have you joined?

27. Could it Happen to You?
Television weatherman fired after friend plays a prank and posts
an inappropriate picture online.

28. Social Networking and Job Searching
Facebook Job Search Groups

29. My Image
Your online image is
unique…be creative
Don’t post inappropriate
pictures
Use caution in posting
too much information
Have fun but be safe!