Cohen &Kenny (Page 205/06)
For this exercise I looked through my two most used social media sites, Twitter and Facebook. My facebook is completely private only friends are able to view my posts, twitter however is an open door it is totally public. I also used timehop, which is an app that shows you what you posted years back on this date, so one, two or even as far as six years back can be viewed (presuming you’ve had the account that long). I will also add that upon preparing from graduation from my Alma matter my adviser suggested that I clean up my media presence and make a professional accounts and recreational ones. So I did just that, making a twitter handle and facebook page which i could share on my linkedin (I did not make a “professional” instagram I just cleaned up my current one) and then keeping my recreational ones private and free of my real name and email address. For this exercise I will be analyzing the social media pages I created to “brand” myself as an emerging professional.
Does your online identity convey to the audience your future goals and ambitions?
My twitter handle @pezz718 does in some ways convey my goals and ambitions, if you click the link you can see my bio lists that I am a tax preparer, manager, student and mother. So it lists the three main focuses of my life. If you then scroll through my tweets you’ll see that sometimes my activity can be infrequent but the theme is overall the same. I like to share current event articles from various news outlets, sometimes with commentary sometimes without. I will only retweet or post things that are of interest to me or that I have opinions on but I am always careful to word things diplomatically. Last but not least I include tidbits of my personality, my life and what I might be up to at the moment.
My facebook however is somewhat opposite, I post infrequently on facebook and when i do its mainly to update my family or friends in other states on what Ava and I have been up to. In the last year my cluster of posts came around holidays or other milestones, like the first day of school or a personal achievement. Though I don’t post often on my views or beliefs I have posted about going back to school and what i am going for.
Does it tell the audience what you do for a living or hope to do for a career?
On both my twitter and facebook it is fairly easy to tell what I currently do and what I aspire to do. On twitter as I mentioned above my header (right under my profile picture) states what I do, that i’m a student as well as a mother. If you read my tweets going back you can see when I got accepted and signed onto the major here at NYCCT. On facebook it’s easier to see because it lists the school and the major as well as how far along I am. However you have to rely on my status updates to understand where I plan to go with this degree.
What assumptions would someone make about your personality?
I would hope that people would assume that I am, organized, educated, motivated and unique. I share a variety of things on all my pages, current events, entertainment and just my own quirky observations that I would hope there is enough insight into my life to be helpful but not too much where it clouds the line of professionalism.
