Every Click You Take... Someone's Watching You

In class last week, we spent the first part of class talking about different forms of social media and how they are and are not beneficial to use in a professional setting. Unbeknownst to most, social media is much more than a time-waster; it plays a huge role for businesses to expand and grow. We also spent some time speaking with Cameron Brenchley, Vice President at Collaborative Communications Group, through Google Hangouts. Cameron gave us a general overview of his work, but then spoke to us about the importance of a positive digital footprint. He also mentioned the importance of social media and how to connect with professionals in our field to benefit ourselves in the future.

Many people think what they do or say on the internet will have no affect on their life outside of the web, but this video on digital baggage proves otherwise. All anyone needs to is search you name to see what you have been saying on social media, and if you post inappropriate material, it can really hinder your chances of getting hired. An interviewer can search you during an interview while asking questions, and even if the interview is going great, if you have a poor image online, you might as well kiss your chances at landing that job goodbye.

When most think of Snapchat, they assume there is no benefit for businesses to use it. Although you cannot share things on Snapchat like you would on Facebook and Twitter, you can use Snapchat to give a live look-in on what you are up to, which can be beneficial to businesses on many fronts. Here you can see how Snapchat can be used to further your career. In short, it's a great, new tool that you can use to seek out potential employers, give a look at your life, or make your résumé a "story".

As the years progress, so does our use of social media; we're using it more than ever! However, we need to be even more careful as technology advances because as social media is getting easy to use and easier to share, it is also getting easier for people to steal your identity. Joe Ross shares his views on thinking twice on what you share through social media. In summary he warns on oversharing, sharing location, knowing what to say, cyber-bullying, and scamming. View his full article here.

Chapter one of "Untangling the Web" focuses on curation tools, which are the tools used to establish, maintain, and add value to repositories of digital data for present and future use. The chapter tells us about the past of sharing resources and how it wasn't used much in the past because of how arduous it was for all involved. After blogs were first introduced, Joshua Schechter founded Del.icio.us to enable people to save their bookmarks and share them with others. Tools like Delicious and Diigo allowed users to collect, organize, and share what they found online. These changes made sharing much more personalized, but less private in turn. Today, curation has evolved far beyond just a list of links. It has become less of a "which tool should I use to share" because that question is like asking what car brand is best, it's different for every person. Three of the best curation tools out there today include: Symbaloo, Diigo, and eduClipper. Check them all out and see what's best for you!