Social Media and Online Identity

An online identity is a social identity that a user establishes in online communities and websites. From the first time you log on to a social networking site like Facebook, tweet a message on Twitter, or post a comment on your favourite blog, you're creating an online identity. The more content we contribute to social media sites, the more we grow our online identity.

I have been active on social media for over 8 years now, I created my first social media profile by registering to Facebook, In short I use social media not only for personal use but also to connect with people professionally. When I searched myself on google with the keyword "Kristen Prouse" the only relevant result I found was from Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram it also had 411.ca giving the public my phone number and address. When I did a search for “Kristen Gear” I got the top 5 Kristen Gear Profiles, Facebook but it was not relevant, Twitter, YouTube  and my recent Blog postings. When I did a search for “Kristen Prouse Gear” and I got my up to date Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook profiles. The sadest one was for yourlifemoments.ca an Obiturarie for my step-mother.

When I did the google image search for “Kristen Prouse Gear" I got a couple profile images and a video I did for the CMHA. But what I found most interesting was it even used images that I have pined to my Pinterest account. My “celebrity pic” was Kristen Bell, nice complement. My google Search for "Kristen Prouse" was an image I used for a houzz.com profile and again my Pinterest profile. Finally my last image search was “Kristen Gear" and most of the images were of Kristen Stewart and Kristen Wiig. So most of the information I found on internet was only related to my social profiles. With a couple exemptions of my personal family obituary, home phone and address information.

Having thought about strategies to have a positive online presence, I came across Kirsten Dixon and William Arruda (2007) article, which talks about how determining your message and considering your personal brand will help you build your presence both online and in the physical world.  According to Dan Schawbel (2009), writing blogs, creating a social media resume and starting a wiki under your name will not only help you increase your social media presence, but it will also help you define and maintain your positive online characteristics (para. 6-8). Creating blogs and writing about yourself and others is not sufficient to create and maintain your social identity and as such, you must also participate in online discussions which enable you to connect and become more visible to other. However in order to be more visible, you also need to be transparent and constant with your post. Creating a volume of high ranking positive information will not only help you push your page to the top of your Google search but it will also help you stay on the top of any digital media that may have the same online characteristics. Undoubtedly, all of these efforts will take time to reap its fruits however it will definitely payoff, “ as only 20% executives take proactive steps to increase their online presence. This gives people like you and me an opportunity to stand out by steadily building your brand online and putting yourself on the path to true career distinction” (Arruda & Dixson, 2007, para. 23).

Find out what people are saying about you. Keeping tabs on your online identity by doing regular Google searches of your name to see what turns up. Set up alerts on Google, Yahoo or other search engines to get daily or weekly notices when your name’s mentioned.

What we publish can be traced back to you and reflects our personal character. It's becoming a very common practice for colleges and workplaces to look up potential students and job applicants to find out what kind of person they are, and many people have been turned down because of what they put on the Internet. Instead, why not we use your Internet permanent record to our advantage? Making sure that the only things published by or about us online are good things. Things that show we are an honest, considerate, hard-working person, and someone a college or employer would be honored to have as part of their organization.

References

Schawbel, D. (2009). How to Take Control of Your Google Search Results. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/02/19/control-google-search-results/

Dixson, K., & Arruda, W. (2007). Managing Your Reputation Online. Retrieved fromhttp://www.cio.com/article/142550/Managing_Your_Reputation_Online