Digital Professionalism

Table of Contents

1. About this resource
2. Introduction
3. Module 1: Your Digital Footprint
   1. Introduction
   2. Your Digital Footprint & You [1]
   3. Your Digital Footprint & You [2]
   4. Your Digital Footprint & You [3]
   5. Your Digital Footprint & Your Profession [1]
   6. Your Digital Footprint & Your Profession [2]
   7. Your Digital Footprint & Your Employer/ Placement Provider [1]
   8. Your Digital Footprint & Your Employer/ Placement Provider [2]
   9. Your Digital Footprint & Your Clients [1]
   10. Your Digital Footprint & Your Clients [2]
   11. Action Points
4. Module 2: Managing your Footprint
5. Module 3: Legal Obligations
6. Summary

Your Digital Footprint & You [3]

You can be judged by the company you keep online

• Don't accept Friends Requests from people you don't know on social networking platforms such as Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook. These people will have access to your personal photos and status updates. Accepting friendships from fake profiles can impart kudos to accounts that have been deliberately created to commit fraud, engage in scams and malicious activities.
• Do spring clean your friends list occasionally and consider carefully those you are associated with both offline and online and how their behaviours could impact on you in your career
• Don't post or let others post photos of you online without considering how they would impact on you if they found their way to the public domain. Ensure that personal photos are not being streamed automatically to social networking sites or between the phones and other internet enabled devices you have set up until you have password protected them. Ensure all photos that you are tagged in (by friends or family) are approved by you before they are available to view by others

Consider the impression you are creating

• Do ensure you regularly check and maximise your privacy settings on the platforms you use (such as disabling maps on snapchat). Ask a peer, who is not a Facebook friend of yours, to show you what they can access on your profile
• Disable the map feature on Snapchat as it makes it far too easy to share too much information about yourself, enabling people to monitor your movements and keep tabs on who you are socialising with, where you go and how late you stay out - to stalk you or even break into your home when you are not there
• Don't like or comment on pages or groups that could impact negatively on your credibility. It is never a good idea to make bigoted, sexist, racist, homophobic or other prejudiced comments anywhere, even in satire or jest as they can be infinitely reproduced and taken out of context
• Do identify some interesting groups that could give an authentic taste of you. You could join groups on social networking sites (such as Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter Tweet ups) from your university sporting and professional groups or societies, and study groups

Obsolete / Multiple Profiles

• Don't allow old or obsolete profiles that no longer usefully represent the person you are today or the professional you will be in the future, to clutter up any online search for you!
• Do revisit old profiles on long forgotten platforms and forums and consider editing or removing the material hosted there. If your old profile material and content was found by an employer or client would it usefully reflect the person you are and the opinions you hold today?
• Never be tempted to open multiple profiles on the same site, use a pen name or pseudonym or misrepresent your identity- this has been shown to increase the likelihood of disinhibited and poor online behaviour (Suler 2004). Be aware that everything you post could be accessible for years to come and your anonymity may be only temporary - the true identity of the poster can usually be traced by the service provider

The right frame of mind

• Don't post material (images or words) when you are emotional, tired or are under the influence of alcohol or anything else (particularly on a work night) and don't state that you are recovering from a hangover at work either! Beware of creating profiles on sites that could embarrass you later
• Do engage with friends and associates online and have fun but be really clear in your mind that everything you share online is potentially published in public and permanent.