Is it Possible to Portray Professionalism Online?

Before answering, another question is: What other version of yourself do you want to share on the Internet?

Online platforms are automatically thought of as social sites to connect, post, share, and like the newest dance trends or cute animal videos. Emotions, thoughts, politics, positivity, and negativity can all be viewed on a screen with just one scroll. With so much information and feelings happening at once, it can get people into trouble. The Internet and various social media platforms are often not viewed as a way to professionally network in your fields of interest. However by creating and actively using a professional account, or accounts with various social platforms, you stand out to future employees and co-workers. When used correctly and to your advantage, the online possibilities can expand greatly!
The term ‘portray’ is a strong and yet hesitant word to use in conjunction with the Internet. Who, or what, are you showing? Does it include your individual self, family, pride, your interests, job, or career? We, as humans, have many different and complex personas that each have their own place in the roles and places in the community. One of these identities includes showing our professionalism online in order to be easily accessed and assessable to others within the same communal field. Portraying a professional persona online is how future readers, employers, and interviewers take you seriously. Although maintaining a level of professionalism in person is tricky enough, it can be just as easy to translate it online!
Often, professionalism is only seen through LinkedIn, Academia.edu, and ResearchGate. Yet, there are numerous social media sites can be used to further your career! In 2017, Kidd published an article that focused on how to use the resources effectively. You can utilize the social platforms to connect interests, find information, and network with those in your field. By using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and even Tumblr for professional utilization, you can create an endless database that has a professional identity. With these types of accounts, it is best to leave them open publicly for anyone to view. Obviously those within your network should be able to see your posts, but also students, those in related fields, anyone who has similar interests, and someone with curiosity.
Another way to portray professionalism online is to Google “tips for professional networking”, where you will receive an infinite amount of results. Although opening an account separate from your personal life is easy enough, it’s how to maintain it which is the tricky part. First connect with those already in your community, then broaden the network with alumni, vendors, professional organizations, and future employees related to your field. Facebook, Twitter, and other blogging opportunities are endless, and you don’t want to limit yourself or your networked audience. Microblogging is popular through Twitter for those quick promotions of infographics, blogs, YouTube videos, or article links. A full-fledged blog is for those on Blogger who expand more about what they shared on Twitter and can also include reviews on published work, ideas, and reviews about current projects all within your field. By remaining active in your career through social media, it shows the network that you are genuinely interested and dedicated.
Instead of viewing professional networking as a requirement and daunting task, it helps to think of it as game. Every day when you access your accounts and join discussions, you receive points. Each comment and share are worth more points, which circulates new ideas within your network. The more “points” you earn, just with any game, the more valuable you become professionally. Thus, making you larger and more prevalent in the network! If you put in the effort to take care of your online professional image, then others will treat you with respect and you will reap the rewards.
Branch out from the typical sites considered “professional” and include other social media sites in your toolbox. Don’t be afraid or limit yourself on the number of postings, adding to discussions, or sharing new ideas within the networks. By maintain your accounts and imagining that online networking is a game, you create an impactful and professional identity. Also, by Googling more tips and reading Kidd’s article, you create more chances for yourself to grow. Go against the social stigma about using social media only for your personal self, and instead use the resources to portray professionalism in your favor!

Sources

Kidd, Dustin. “Social Media Freaks: Digital Identity in the Network/ Society”. Westview, 2017.

Kumok, Zina. “Making Connections: How to Create and Cultivate Your Professional Network”. GoodCall. <www.goodcall.com/career/professional-network/#section5>.

Robert, David. “5 Reasons Your Professional Network is More Important than Your Job”. The Robert Half Blog. 20 Dec. 2016. <www.roberthalf.com/blog/salaries-and-skills/5-reasons-your-professional-network-is-more-important-than-your-job>.

With the possibilities of the Internet continuously expanding, it is noticeable how easy online companies begin and then grow into something so much bigger.  Due to this new way of building an enterprise, there is the concern of online monopolies.  By definition, a monopoly is “a single supplier” that “controls 25% or more of a particular market”.  (Economic Online) Although this type of economic capitalization is heavily regulated in the United States, the government may grant a monopoly status to a firm that provides a scarce resource, copyright, images, or service. (Economic Online) However through innovated technology, corporations are allowed free reign to dominate and control the ever-changing web. (Ehrlich) In relation to social media, there is becoming a thinner distinction between advertising and consumer influence. (Auerbach, Ehrlich) To ensure consumer privacy with equal opportunities of resources and services, Internet monopolies should be controlled and reduced.

The corporations that have quickly gained monopoly momentum online include the well-known Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft.  In recent events, including net neutrality, these major platforms are now being exploited for their scheming and abusive influence over consumers.  Google and Facebook have ‘gobbled up’ “about 85 percent” of internet advertising dollars and are found to have influence in politics. (Cooper) Another monopoly example is Amazon who bought out Whole Foods Market, which made policy makers worry about other web-based companies expanding into the “brick and mortar world”. (Ehrlich) Though these are now major networks expanding their reach by merging with others, they are able to morph into other markets creating more power and outreach.

There is the irony that these online-based corporations had their startup due to the open market, and now they are monopolized in their own particular market.  Facebook began with Ivy League students, Google was a basic search platform, and Uber originally began as a luxury car service.  Now, these firms are global and threaten the existence of other companies such as MySpace, Bing, Yahoo, and the general taxi service, respectively.  The monopolized businesses utilized networking innovation and the growth of online consumers in order to become such vast platforms.  With more attraction to these sites, they find expansion easier with online marketing and advertising opportunities.

Auerbach has a conveying argument of how online companies collect data about consumers based on what they ‘click’ on the Internet.  He highlights the point that in 1990s when web ads and click-through rates were first monitored, people used induction to realize and form the belief that it was wrong.  Though is it drilled into the newer generations about online privacy and protection, it seems still that anyone and any service can use the Internet to find out everything about a person’s interests, past purchases, income, own a home, rent, have a car, etc.   With microtargeting becoming a global concern, there is a reappraisal of online markets using collected data and demographics to identify consumer interests. (Auerbach, Ehrlich) Sites that do this type of conniving include monopolized media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, and Amazon.  The data collected from consumers are then analyzed and used by advertisers, internet marketing companies, and political campaigns to further their reach into consumer markets. (Ehrlich, The Economist) Using mobile application to order a pizza?  The pizza place already knows your address, your phone, your previous orders, how much you paid, how much you tipped, and what your favorite toppings are even before you click ‘Order’.

By limiting these companies previously mentioned, there are many positive economic and consumer effects.  First, there would be a growth in competitive markets both nationally and globally. (Economic Online) With this comes safer advertising, entrepreneurship, product efficiency, and increased employment.  The surge in competition also allows consumers to have the freedom of choice with lower and fairer prices, as monopolies dominate the pricing charges. (Economic Online) The general economic welfare will be influenced by the consistent, competitive markets and the availability of supply and demand by consumers.  Also with the limitations, the invasion of privacy into consumers’ lives are reduced allowing for independent advertising not based on collected data. (Economic Online)

In rebuttal to the argument, online monopolies are argued that they are not “real” due to their Internet basis. (The Economist) Dominant monopolies also have advantages that can have constructive attributes economically.  Monopolistic companies limit the waste of resources and allow for high innovation efficiency.  This then leads to technological progress and high profit generation that would help regulate the national economy.  Firms are continuously modernized through ‘creative destruction’, which is when older companies “would eventually be replaced by more efficient and effective” technologies with an open transitioning process. (Economic Online) Another economic advantage is the monopolies first starting small, then “penetrate overseas markets, earning a country valuable export revenues” increasing the influx of revenue.  (Economic Online)

As ruled by the government, the benefits of regulating monopolies outweigh the existence of the monopoly powers.  To reap the rewards of open markets online, there are many individual and combined solutions that can be instilled and lawed. (Economic Online)   The prevention of company mergers, buy-outs, and other forms of combined markets allows the various markets to remain independent.  Price regulations set by federal governments are a popular form of limiting monopoly power. (Economic Online)  First is the rate-of-return rule, which monitors and limits, by an overseeing body, the average price of a product or service.  The other option is the price capping that forces “forcing the monopolist to charge a price, often below profit maximizing price” (Economic Online)

For the corporations currently in the position that are considered as a monopoly, regulations can be instilled in order to limit their influence on consumers.  Here again, price regulations and advertising policies can be implanted by a governmental level.  On online media platforms, data collection and invasion of privacy needs to be banned.  Another alternative is splitting a corporation up into smaller, independent platforms. (Economic Online) An example of this type of regulation can be done with Microsoft, which can be divided into retail and wholesale businesses. (Economic Online) An additional option to reducing a monopoly is to open the business to be under public and nationalized control.  In order to determine reform, the United State Supreme Court decided that a company would be found a monopoly “it abused its dominance to the detriment of consumers” in a particular market. (The Economist)

Governments are now realizing the size, power, and dominance of platform corporations over people.  Regulators now call for reform of the Internet’s market to include privacy rights, advertising limitations, monopoly bans, and data collections. (Ehrlich) Recently, “writers have called for Amazon to be investigated on antitrust grounds”, Google was fined $2.7 billion dollars for it’s biasing search results, and networks buying out of other companies all have economists worried. (Ehrlich) Despite the concerns by the consumers and citizens, federal policymakers are stuck on the net-neutrality debate. (Bourreau) The main concern is allowing Internet traffic open equally, with no “discrimination with respect to the type of content, service or application and the identity of the data transmitter”.  (Bourreau) Though social sites are free, the growth of Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) has grown tremendously, giving platforms the possibility to charge for data use and to throttle bandwidth unilaterally. (Bourreau) However, the opposing and most popular argument is that the Internet was created neutrally, and should remain so unrestricted.

Corporations that are based online have exploded in availability, with new and unanswered questions about how to move forward.  The powerful, Internet monopolies have people more focused “on privacy than on market dominance”. (The Economist) However there is no doubt that Google has become “the ultimate digital monopoly”, along with Facebook and Amazon.  (The Economist) Due to these powerful corporations, the consumers have their privacy targeted and exploited through the social media.  Also, both national and global economies are having repercussions from the monopolies, with limited competition, restricted market output, and removing the freedom of choice for consumers.  Using the reasons and examples outlines, Internet monopolies including social media, should be controlled for the sake of the people and global economies.

Resources

Auerbach, David. “You Are What You Click” The Nation. 13 Feb, 2013. <www.thenation.com/article/you-are-what-you-click-microtargeting/>.

Bourreau, M., Kourandi, F., Valletti, T. “Net Neutrality with Competing Internet Platforms”. J Ind Econ. 30 March 2015. 63: 30-73. doi:10.1111/joie.12068

Cooper, Ryan. “Google is a monopoly- and it’s crushing the Internet” The Week. 21 April, 2017. <theweek.com/articles/693488/google-monopoly–crushing-internet>.

Ehrlich, Ev. “Break up the Google-Facebook-Amazon web Monopoly”.  USA Today.  19 Oct, 2017.  <usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/10/19/google-facebook-amazon-time-to-break-up-web-trusts-ev-ehrlich-column/759803001/>.

“Everybody wants to rule the world” The Economist. 29 Nov, 2014. <www.economist.com/briefing/2014/11/27/everybody-wants-to-rule-the-world>.

“Monopoly” Economic Online: News Comment Analysis Theory. <economicsonline.co.uk/Business_economics/Monopoly.html>.

A popular discussion through professions are online social platforms and how they are a representation of oneself.  As Brake put it, there are both deliberate and inadvertent self-disclosure types that share some level of information.  In each case and no matter the online settings, there is little to no privacy on the Internet.  On “the web” it is important to identify yourself as an individual who is both personable and professional.  In order to categorize myself using these terms, I reflected on my use of social media and determined that there is more of a representation of a “real” identity than of an academic one.

Through the popular platform of Facebook, it is observed that I have more postings about herself, friends, and family.  There is little to no mention of academics at Longwood University, other than having the location listed as my education.  There are instances where the personal and schooling mixed, as when with friends at school, but nothing providing specifics. For example, “How can I focus on school work when there is the Olympic skating, CAPS hockey, and Jenna singing all at once?!? #USA” (Facebook) It appears that through social media, posts are about thoughts and emotions about school, sports, work, family, and friends.  These are shared mostly through written messages, but sometimes through pictures as well.  There is nothing negative or demeaning on her Facebook, as everything is positive and trying to be funny.  Such as, “It’s only fitting to play “Highway to Hell” while stopped in 95 S traffic.” (Facebook) being a way of finding humor in an otherwise annoying situation.

Through another media platform, Instagram, is noticeably where I share pictures about my past and present, either of by myself or with others.  It is here too that I mostly leaves academics out of public eye, with only a few pictures of her major’s class.  For example, “Pool workouts for class is always fun.” (Instagram) Other pictures shared range from working, to friends, family, pets, and of my minor travels.  The Instagram account is more secure and private than Facebook, where you must send and get accepted a friend request to view any postings.

The Twitter account is used less often than the two previously mentioned social medias.  When I do ‘tweet’, it is with more honest feelings that are not shared through Facebook.  Such as, “I slipped and fell in the shower this morning. Life is good.” (Twitter) This is most likely due to there being a different audience with no family members on the platform.  My Twitter account is the most public out of the others, due to the same reason of having a different audience view the platform.  This, in hindsight, is questioning as literally anyone can see the posts and judge based only off of what they perceive.  Though being open and honest are good qualities, the account should be more private taking into consideration of the fact that any audience member can view it.

There is only one academic-based online account, which is through LinkedIn.  This generalized professional platform is used the least in comparison to the other social sites and provides the minimalist amount of information about myself.  It appears that this professional network is only used to view articles, news, and topics related to related to my study of interest.  This is a drastic change from the other accounts, where there is enough information to find out what type of person I am.  Another important difference is the bios in each account.  My LinkedIn profile has the bio of “Driven student who wishes to become a certified Athletic Trainer in order to diagnose, treat, and rehabilitate injuries with patient’s while providing education on injury prevention.” (LinkedIn) While Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have the same similar bio along the lines of “Crazy blonde who is constantly on the move. D.C sports fanatic. Swim coach. Future ATC. #LWD19 #blueblood15”. (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter)  It is seen that Longwood University and my major is mentioned in each of the accounts, however there are no further details providing academic updates.  This shows that I am more willing to share information about my real self, than of the educated and professional side.

In retrospect, it appears that I should equally represent the “real me” and my academic identity.  What I found from pretending to be an audience member, is a sense of a lacking interest in my field and instead I am more concentrated on my personal life.  A prospective employer can compare my LinkedIn account to my social medias and assume that I do not care about professionalism because I put more effort into sharing about interests on other platforms.  This viewpoint will negatively affect me in the future, as my academic identity is not conveyed enough to make it known the audience.  With this reflection, I learned that I should start using Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in a more professional way in order to focus on my academic identity.

Citations

Brake, David R. Sharing Our Lives Online: Risks and Exposure in Social Media. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Wangner, Samantha. “How can I focus on school work when there is…” Facebook, 13 Feb 2018, https://www.facebook.com/sprt.sam.doubleu.

Wangner, Samantha. “It’s only fitting to play…” Facebook, 24 Jun 2018, https://www.facebook.com/sprt.sam.doubleu.

W, Sam. Sprt.sam. “Pool workouts for class is always fun.” Instagram, 24 March 2018, https://www.instagram.com/p/BgU6p9tgdpCwrN69GcurkwIdRQ4Wh4URZTVUWc0/?taken-by=sprt.sam.

@Sam_DoubleU. “I slipped and fell in the shower this morning…” Twitter, 20 Jun 8:56pm, https://twitter.com/Sam_DoubleU/status/1009600904436371458.

Wangner, Samantha. “Driven student who wishes to become a certified Athletic Trainer…” LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-wangner-4b2aa891/.

Wangner, Samantha. “Crazy blonde who is constantly on the move.  D.C sports fanatic…” Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/sprt.sam.doubleu. Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/sprt.sam/. Twitter, https://twitter.com/Sam_DoubleU.

I, Sam Wangner, have one more year as a student at Longwood University with a major in Athletic Training.  Since my athletic days and receiving various injuries, I became interested in how the human body responds and adapts to various stressors.  I enjoy and am forever curious about the biomechanics and fluidity of movements before, during, and after injury.  I plan on graduating in May 2018, with hopes of receiving a job with the military, collegiate, or travel team setting.  I will continue education online and complete both a sports psychology and kinesiology degrees.

On campus, I am the LATA club treasurer and volunteer within the Athletic Training program.  After being a Girl Scout my whole life, I am an Ambassador and remain active with former troop members.  Also in my hometown, I am affiliated with the local American Legion and volunteer with hosted activities.  I used to be a swim coach on a summer swim league but due to time constraints, I now just offer private lessons.  During semester breaks, I also work in a physical therapy clinic to meet people and broaden my knowledge.

The English 400 theme is perfectly timed to coincide with both my current student status and future self in the workforce.  My existing identity on campus is unnoticed unless you have met me through athletics or in a previous class.  However I am now transitioning into senior status which includes reaching out to potential internship opportunities, online programs, and job offers.  By completing and providing this blog publicly, it will be a tool to branch out my own scholarly identity while helping others create their own network.

With all the social media platforms and ability to access information, it is important to isolate and put the best version of yourself forward.  Since setting foot on Longwood’s campus as a freshman, it’s been consistently said that “Sam, you need to watch what you post on social media.”  Even to this day when I hear something along those lines I think “Oh no, what was posted?”  See, there are those who panic and automatically think the worst.  With this blog, I will be providing insight on how to network that is individualized and professional.