Topic 3 has definitely been the most challenging so far!
Becca’s exploration of online shaming steered away from Justine Sacco and instead she included a TED Talks video exploring the concept. This allowed me to learn more in an engaging format, something which I mentioned in my comment.
Shriya’s post explored the importance of building a personal brand and its role in creating an authentic digital profile. Her example of Lucy Cronin sparked a debate, myself asking the question of whether it is just as easy for other professionals to gain such social media notoriety as it is for fitness professionals. This was my first experience of debate on this module and was continued in comments on my own blog.
Rofini and Sam’s comments explored the importance of a blog in distinguishing yourself from the competition and as an aid to your online professional development.
Blogging can give you an edge over other professional digital profiles
Holly’s comment made me consider whether we ‘need’ a professional digital presence, something I had previously taken for granted.
Since my blog post I’ve made changes to my own professional digital profiles. Inspired by Shriya, I created an About.me profile; a great tool to link your professional accounts together.
I am a relatively recent, avid user of LinkedIn, however I only have 39 connections and an ‘expert’ profile strength. My learnings from this topic have allowed me to realise this is because I fail to engage through the profile I created.
I have since joined groups on LinkedIn that reflect my own interests and also started posting updates to encourage interaction and promote my profile onto the feeds of those who aren’t yet connected to me.
Applying the knowledge from topic 3 to my own profiles has meant my professional development has benefited from this! I am looking forward to engaging in more academic debate with my peers in topic 4 after Easter.
Word Count: 309 words
Ellis Metcalf 