General feedback on Topic 3

Well done for all your efforts in topic 3 – certainly the most popular topic so far in terms of volume and enthusiasm. Keep it up! Your individual feedback is now posted.

A general points to bear in mind for next time –

Some of you in this topic were rather descriptive, for example in terms of explaining how to use LinkedIn. You can achieve more impact by linking to a key piece which describes how to do this, and keeping your words to discuss which aspects you might find useful/difficult to do for yourself and why.

Please don’t make sweeping statements like “everyone today needs a digital profile” or “everyone is now online”. This is obviously not true! Quite rightly some of you noted that digital portfolios are more relevant for some types of job than others, and even then it would be very unusual indeed for an online profile to be the ONLY basis upon which a hiring decision was made. Yes there is lots of exciting innovation in this space, but don’t get too carried away by the hype! Don’t forget that building, maintaining and customising professional profiles, and growing your networks around this, is very time consuming and not something that can be achieved overnight. And plenty of businesses do still rely on traditional CVs.

Taking a critical perspective (as per the example above) on whatever issue being discussed is definitely a good approach (and by “critical” I don’t mean “rubbishing” the idea, but instead presenting a range of positive and negative perspectives on a topic in order to come to an informed decision)

So now make sure that you apply the points you have discussed in topic 3 to the development of your own digital profiles – remember that the other element of assessed work for this module is to reflect at the end of it on how you plan to develop your own professional profiles.

Reflections on the implications of the topics we cover for marketing are very welcome in terms of making your posts stand out and earn extra marks. For example, think about how marketing a product on behalf of a company can be compared with marketing yourself as a potential employee. If you were thinking of buying a product, would you be more attracted by a glossy advert produced by the supplying company, or a recommendation from a satisfied customer on an online community?  The word “authenticity” was highlighted in the question for a good reason…

As we’ve said to many of you on your individual feedback, now that you are comfortable with the style and structure of the module, why not experiment a little? Try some video or audio input to your posts, for example. Expand your networks beyond the course – reach out to relevant people or companies on twitter, this could be to thank someone for their interesting post that you used, or to follow a company you might be interested in working for in the future.

Don’t forget to use the module hashtag on twitter to share useful posts, build your networks and interact with each other in support of the comments you’ve made on the work of others.

We are looking forward to seeing what you make of topic 4!