Topic 3 – Reflection on how to Develop an Authentic Online Profile

This week’s post centred on how to create an authentic online professional profile and the topic created an interesting mix of responses from fellow students ranging from step-by-step guides on how to create enhance a LinkedIn profile to discussing the various social media platforms available to use for professional profiles.

This topic clearly raised everyone’s awareness of how much employers are now using social media and the information available on the internet to recruit, screen and engage with candidates. There have been multiple statistics used this week in blog posts, with one particular statistic featured on Jake Ellis’ blog that stuck with me was the fact that 2 out of 5 employers use social media to screen out potential candidates. To me, this demonstrates how we can no longer behave with ignorance online in neither our personal or professional profiles. With the growth of the web, I imagine this is a statistic we are only going to see rise further.

LinkedIn was a significant focus this week in how to create an authentic online professional profile for many students. This was one of the main focuses for my post, discussing how we can utilise the tools LinkedIn provides to enhance our professional profile; essentially making it more authentic. Until George mentioned it in my comments, blogs had not been a large focus to my post this week. George questioned why I hadn’t considered blogs in depth in my post, and discussed how he saw LinkedIn as more of a ‘hub’ for our online profiles (professional or otherwise). Whilst I still believe LinkedIn is a professional profile in its own right which we have the ability to make highly authentic, I definitely agree after discussing with George that blogs are another tool we can use to develop an authentic and professional online profile and are something I will now definitely consider as a means to increase my online professional presence and intend for this to be in an authentic way. Personally I would argue that to make blogs an authentic professional profile it would require you to represent yourself, your interests and your views in a consistent manner.

I thoroughly enjoy the comment component to this module, as it allows me to consider elements of the topic I had previously not investigated, and significantly helps to increase my overall knowledge and understanding of the topic. Thanks to the discussions with my fellow peers, my understanding of the topic spans a much wider scope than my personal research alone. I think one of Francesca Gerard’s tweets this week summed it up perfectly – peer learning is great!

I would argue that a lot of posts this week centred on how to develop an online professional profile, and perhaps there was not enough emphasis of the ‘authentic’ element which was in this week’s question. I would argue that I did focus on ways to develop an authentic profile, but I am a strong believer in there always being room for improvement and after having had time to reflect on my blog I feel I could’ve placed a greater emphasis on the authenticity aspect. The key lesson I took from this topic, which was also discussed in the online lecture by Lisa Harris, was to never lie on our professional profiles; it is not authentic and you will be caught out!