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Awareness and Implications Of The Digital Self in relation to Employability

A study on effective practices in digital presence to improve employability

A study submitted in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the degree of

MSc Digital Library Management

at

THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

by

Matthew Kibble

September 2015

1

Abstract Background:

Digital identity is a keystone to employability in the modern technological age. Social

network profiles are a representation of ourselves that employers can use to find and assess

candidates, but many are unaware of the information and attitudes they are looking for.

Aims:

To collate a current industry standpoint on the use of social media for employment and

potential employment purposes, also known as social­hiring, through the use of corporate survey

analysis, evaluation of literature and current education practices in the field of online digital identity,

and information professional practices. The final result will be clear and concise recommendations

on how those looking to improved their digital identity to better their employability can do so.

Methods:

The research was split into three phases, that of literature research and secondary survey

data­analysis, followed by in­depth qualitative interviews with information professionals currently

engaged with their digital identities, completed with discussion comparing the results of the first two

phases followed by the evaluation including the recommendations.

Results:

Trends and similarities could be seen in both the survey analysis and the interview

responses, however the opinions and practices of social recruiters and professionals varied

considerably. Three main platforms were identified as being top of the list to social recruitment, all

experiencing a growth in use over the last 5 years. The concepts of Branding, Networking, Conduct,

and Stereotyping represent important steps to improving a professional digital identity.

Conclusions:

Recommendations built using the literature and the interviews are given to those wishing to

improve their digital identity for employability and general professionalism purposes. The study

suffered from too little time being available to improve certain sections. Further academic work could

be performed on the social networks themselves for a larger opinion of their usability, as well as

using the Delphi study methodology mentioned in the selection of research methods

2

Acknowledgements

Thank you to my family and other half Sarah for supporting me through this last year’s endeavours. Though it’s been rough at times, I’ve got through thanks to you all.

Special thanks to Sheila Webber for all of her help during the development of this dissertation, and to the participants of the interview for contributing their time and knowledge

to the study.

3

Table of Contents

1. Introduction and context Research aims and objectives

2. Literature review 2.1 Social Networking and Digital Identity

2.1.1 Psychology of Social Networking 2.1.2 Digital Identity 2.1.3 Legality 2.1.4 Commodity

2.2 Hiring Practices and Job­seeker Trends 2.2.1 Survey Literature Characteristics 2.2.2 Social Recruitment 2.2.3 Trends over time 2.2.4 Mobile ­ Awareness of profile presentation

3. Methodology 3.1 Research Design 3.2 Selection of research Methods 3.3 Limitations 3.4 Ethical aspects 3.5 Interview Construction 3.6 Interview Process 3.7 Data Analysis

4. Results Interview Results

5. Discussion 5.1 Platforms 5.2 Content & Conduct

6. Conclusions 6.1 Recommendations 6.2 Recommendations for further Research 6.3 Personal Development

References Appendixes

4

1. Introduction and context This research will address how employers are currently using social media and online

resources to assess potential candidates during the recruitment process; as well as current

opinions and practices of information professionals who are currently engaged with and

developing a digital identity.The main topics of study, taking into account research already

performed on social networking site, will be ideas such as what uses and limitations certain

sites have over others, and how best for professionals to build a digital identity in the current

market.

Information will be drawn from literature on the topic of social­hiring, though this is a

relatively burgeoning area in terms of academic research. Research of hiring managers and

interviews with existing professionals, including their personal recommendations, will be

conducted with the intent to help new professionals develop their digital image.

The need of this research has come about from the apparent lack of any course or

tuition being available at the University of Sheffield that teaches students awareness of how

information posted can be seen and used by companies; and how to use differing social media

to their professional advantage. In an interview with Dan Schawbel (Hall, 2013), whose

company 'Millennial Branding' conducted a survey on student use of different social networking

sites in 2013, he noted that “the LinkedIn numbers are low because students aren't thinking

about networking until after they graduate” and that students don't feel they can work with the

system as most do not have a professional career to present.

Whilst most of the research conducted within this study will mainly only be relevant to a

western demographic, it will also be useful for those who have moved or plan to move into

western society. The growing population of international students within the UK (HEFCE, 2015)

means there will be more learners who are unaware of the current social recruiting climate, and

thus need the additional tuition on how to use it to their advantage.

Research aims and objectives This study is qualitative in nature. Two core research aims are posed to help clarify the

research problem, and each core aim involves follow up objectives.

Aims:

To collate a current industry standpoint on the use of social media for employment and

potential employment purposes, also known as social­hiring, through the use of

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corporate survey analysis, evaluation of current education practices in the field of

online self­promotion, and information professional practices.

To provide clear and concise recommendations for those looking to improve their

digital identity to better their employability options.

Objectives:

Review literature on improving social media practice studies. However, it should be

observed that most material currently consists of surveys and business insider articles,

as opposed to academic papers and peer reviewed studies.

Qualitative research analysing; evaluating and contrasting current corporate surveys

on social­hiring within the last five years to produce a list of social networking sites that

employers are using to influence decision making during the hiring process, and to

identify key areas potential employers are monitoring.

Researching teaching blogs and academic papers concerned with social media

presence training.

Using information collected through surveys and literature; interview information

professionals that use social networking to promote themselves and discuss how they

approach different platforms of media to build their professional portfolio based on

experiences and personal opinions.

Analyse results to support information from initial research and present findings

Aspects of behavioural psychology should potentially be addressed, especially with

regards to differing opinions of different social networks and generational opinions, however

this will be secondary research, only undertaken if the project span permits.

LinkedIn and Facebook will be the two key platforms observed within this study,

however Twitter may be included depending on responses from observed literature and the

interviewed professionals.

This research will be valuable for future learners who otherwise would not study or not

be presented with the opportunity to study what their digital image can do for their professional

lives. Presentation of evidence, and making clear and relevant recommendations will be key to

the success of this study, with awareness as the foundation of whether this information is

presented as education for learners, or training for professionals to teach forward.

2. Literature review The literature review will examine two main areas of research. The first being how

6

users approach social networking and digital identities. To better understand where digital

identity originates, it is important to assess the platforms they are built through and how users

treat and interact with such services, including issues such as privacy and self­disclosure. This

also extends to current training practices which educators use to better understand users

opinions of the service. Stereotypes, a topic touched on in this study, actively influence what

employers may want to see of digital profiles and it is important to observe movements to break

away from these outdated habits. Users should also be aware of the legal attributes to use of

these services and how it can affect their prospects, including the value of their information as

a personal commodity.

The second section will involve analysing social recruitment ­ The concept and ideas

based on engaging with social media and networks for recruitment and talent attraction (Alder,

2011) ­ and current corporate and job­seeker trends. The main objective of this study is to

assess what platforms are and how they could be used by both parties in the current job

seeking market, what information employers are looking for, and how that information is being

used. To better understand where companies and other job­seekers are orientating their

resources, annual surveys have been compared for areas of activity growth and decline. This

also relates to the growing trend of mobile job hunting and social recruiting, a topic that should

become more prevalent in the coming years. Also, a statement regarding the characteristics of

the analysed survey data has been provided to acknowledge the possible bias of these

corporate sources.

All information has been collected through academic papers, case studies, corporate

surveys and various reports, blogs and articles on the topics.

2.1 Social Networking and Digital Identity

2.1.1 Psychology of Social Networking As of current, the motivations of users for developing their social network profiles seem

to rely on the psychological and physical features that they are built around. An example such

as Joinson's (2008) study report that motivations such as shared identities, social investigation,

content sharing and social connectivity are key reasons for social network use. Similarly,

Bumgarner (2007) identifies aspects of personal expression, social utility, collective

engagement and monitoring as motivations too. Feuer (2011) suggests the reasoning for the

rapid embrace of social networking is “intrinsically personal” and satiates a fundamental need

for social interaction and a feeling of belonging.

Special & Li­Barber (2012) conducted a more in­depth study, based in a small

south­eastern university in North Carolina USA, into motivations of undergraduate students and

7

Facebook, and how they treat self­disclosure and how that influenced their overall experience

of the site. The study method involved participation of students in an extended quantitative

survey with sections drawing on ideas and methods of scale based on the literature. The two

key explanations outlined were that users who were actively engaged in developing their profile

and users who gave higher levels of disclosure had higher levels of satisfaction.

It must however be noted that these results will have fluctuated since their release as

large scale issues surrounding online privacy have been reported since the study was

conducted.

Looking beyond the dominant group of social media users ­ Millennials ­ it’s also 1

important to understand perspectives from later generational perspectives. Smith & Kidder

(2010) provide personal experiences of these generations, MBA students that they have

lectured, in relation to their treatment of Facebook in a hiring environment. Generation X­ers , 2

having experienced the social media burst during the midst of their careers (some of whom

were no doubt hiring professionals), saw disclosure on Facebook as a sole responsibility of the

user and all information not protected was fair gain for background­checking. Boomers on the 3

other hand chose to either empathise with younger users, sighting the platform as a potential

bias when reviewing candidates, or they stood heavily on the side of constant monitoring of

users, termed as “Helicopter­parenting”.

Whilst this study looks to provide insight mainly to those newer to career and digital

identity development, it is important to understand the mentality of those who readers will

almost certainly be interacting with.

2.1.2 Digital Identity Digital identity defines the separation between how users express and present

themselves online against how they are in real life. The lack of governed social values within

the digital populace offers users a unique experience to present themselves as they actually

are (Camacho et.al., 2012). This can also be incredibly beneficial to people as disclosure

practices and how the collective react to them can also teach users social etiquette through

implicit means. The study conducted by Camacho et.al. (2012) at the University of Rovira

assessed users awareness of privacy features and digital identity with regards to Facebook.

Students were initially asked questions about their awareness, then with the use of the

application “The Museum of Me” (Intel, n.d.) to present a digital gallery of what information was

actually visible to other users. The consistency of positive response to the applications

portrayal reflects that users are in fact quite aware of the content they post and what their

1 Millennials ­ typically defined as those born between the mid­1980s and late 1990s 2 Generation X­ers ­ typically defined as those born post baby boomers; averaged between early 1960s to early 1980s 3 Boomers ­ typically defined as those born post World War II; between the mid­1940s to late 1950s

8

digital presence actually looks like, though participants did express a desire to “be themselves”

rather than tailor their presence to fit a criteria.

A similar application called “Take this Lollipop” (Zada, 2011) was released to the

masses to bring attention to the same issue, whilst doing so with a much more malicious

undertone. In an interview with the New York Times ‘Bits’ Blog, Zada (Wortham, 2011)

commented that, “When you see your personal information in an environment where you

normally wouldn’t, it creates a strong emotional response...”. The underlying principal of these

two studies was regarding becoming aware of what information users disclose online and how

a user’s life was being portrayed virtually.

LinkedIn as a social networking site is a far less discussed topic outside of those such

as Facebook and Twitter. Access to relevant digital identity training for students and young

people represents a minimal landmass of information in a sea of potential. Most education of

this nature is limited to those on business and/or marketing orientated courses, with small

deviations into economics (Gerard, 2012; McCorkle & McCorkle, 2012). Gerard (2012)

discusses how a module of their course was built around discovering and experimenting with

LinkedIn to better a student's portfolio and network of contacts. Overall, students found

themselves becoming more aware of themselves as potential professionals and how they could

improve their digital and real life image by examining co­workers and experts profiles.

However, a third of students did not find the site to be particularly useful when it came to

networking, a somewhat odd result considering the implicit nature of both the site and the

assignments, resulting in Gerard's recommendation of providing a more active introduction to

the site, including a “skills inventory” or “personal skills assessment”.

A notable element change to digital identity in the last decade, especially with regards

to jobs that provide front­end services and promote workplace communities, is adapting to

current social themes and deconstruction of stereotypes. In 2015, there have been numerous

campaigns in support of changing public views on certain career types. The

#ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign (Lang, 2015) looked to bring to light some of the

misapprehensions by both the public and employers about women in the field of engineering

and how they are both consciously and unconsciously being segregated as less capable in

comparison to the stereotypical male engineer of White or Asian ethnicity. The dialogue

created by this campaign mainly revolved on the issue of sexism in industry, but it also

contributes to the practicalities of digital identity. Would tailoring your digital image to a

stereotype be beneficial to your job prospects, or is it better to break the proverbial mold to

make yourself stand out?

One other such career involved in adaptation has been that of the information

professional or Librarian. Murphy (2012) suggests that conversely emphasising oneself as

‘cool’ and in­line with current social trends in fact validates the librarian stereotype, noting what

is actually needed isn’t flash or a life story but solid evidence that people are successful in what

9

they do and how they did it, at least when the resulting resource is intended to help those

wanting to enter to profession. The article makes reference to the Library Roots/Routes project,

however the information contained within this project has expired and the majority of

contributions are no longer publicly accessible.

Costa & Torres (2011) discuss the importance of consciously developing ones

personal digital image/footprint. There was also discussion on the ideas of open and closed

activity; whether your work/profile should be visible or not. The aim is to create as much

openness with content whilst still maintaining a lower vulnerability of that information being

abused. Interestingly, a similar study Costa & Torres (2011) were involved in, PELICANS

(University of Strathclyde), found that students were unconcerned with authoritative figures

checking their networks if they'd given express permission to do so. PELICANS also reported

that some social networks imply this level of engagement like blogs, open access platforms

and professional profile sites, where as Facebook is mainly considered to be a personal space.

Costa & Torres (2011) also report on importance of indirect digital identities. Every

person has some form of digital identity, no matter how fragmented, whether it be through

direct or indirect participation. Tagging, school records, mentions by third parties and any

comments made on blogs or articles can be traced back to you in some way or another, even if

you were not the one who created them. Smith and Kidder (2010) discuss from an employers

standpoint the need for hiring professionals to be aware of instances of exaggeration and

falsification within users profiles, such as friends creating photoshopped images or details

being altered for comedic effect. Whilst agreeably this does fall to hiring professionals to

distinguish these errors, monitoring of ones own digital identity should be a significant priority

for anyone engaged in professional development, isolating instances that maybe miss construe

or be unjustly used against their employment prospects. Whilst the study was mainly Facebook

based in it’s research, much could be generalised to apply to both LinkedIn, Twitter and other

digital profile platforms.

In summation of their study, Smith and Kidder (2010) conclude with a final piece of

cautionary advise to those engaged in developing their digital identity:

“Be attentive to what your online profile says about you; focus on presenting the

identity of someone that would make an excellent employee.” ­ Smith & Kidder, 2010

2.1.3 Legality Guerin (2015), a contributor to the law advice site NOLO, addresses statistics of

companies searching user's online profile, highlighting elements that they cannot legally use in

their decision making, such as ethnicity, pregnancy, or political/religious views. It's also noted

10

that some employers may attempt to request user passwords from prospective and current

employees to better examine their personal profile, the reasoning behind this being that

markets are now more competitive. Whilst this idea is supported by Wilson (2014), another

reason is presented that there has been a growing trend over the last several years of users

publicly shaming or ranting about previous places or people of work, a major deterrent for

potential employers. Whilst legally, every person has the right to personal privacy, laws outright

banning the practice of hiring decisions being made using social media, whether candidates

agree to comply to their use or not, are inconsistent across the developing world.

A separate legality to take note of is the FCRA (USA) and Consumer Protection act

(UK) which both in turn require companies to have written consent before retrieving candidate

information through background checks (Federal Trade Commission, n.d.; Legislation.gov.uk,

1987). Terms and conditions of job applications will almost certainly in some way cover this

consent, however it does mean any candidate can ask to review what information was used.

Lusk (2014), an associate at Lamb McErlane, ascertains that a revised data protection act or

additional data protection law will be required to fully prevent employers from abusing

information discovered from social media profiles, both with regards to consensual and

non­consensual methods.

However, despite these legal foot­holes, employers do control the distribution and

management of jobs and hiring, and being considered for a job should be seen not as a right

but a privilege (Smith & Kidder, 2010). Managing privacy functions and practicing discretion will

deprive any need to involve legality, though awareness of data protection law changes and

platform terms and conditions alterations would also be advised.To give some context, an

online survey commissioned by Skandia (Rimmer & Musson, 2011) showed that only 7% of

adults read the Terms and Conditions of products or service before signing up. By not paying

attention to these privacy settings, users are leaving themselves susceptible to exploitation and

allowing personal information to be harvested. They are also not utilising platforms

appropriately as they don't know who can see the information they post.

2.1.4 Commodity Over the past decade, it’s come to be general knowledge that Digital Identity is our

most/ if not one of our most valuable commodities (McEwan, 2011; Willcock, 2011; Seljan et.

al. 2007).

Selijan et. al. (2007) conducted a study among students at Faculty of Humanities and

Social Sciences in Zagreb, attempting to ascertain reliability of e­identities. The study

concludes that there is a vital need to educate students on management and responsibility of

their online identity, citing that twice as many students (14%) would be willing to sell their

identities than to give them away/share them. Whilst this study mainly represents what could

11

be described better as electronic personas rather than digital identities, there is a clear idea

that information, factual or fictional, is a personal commodity even amount younger users.

2.2 Hiring Practices and Job­seeker Trends

2.2.1 Survey Literature Characteristics It should be noted that portions of the information contained within the collected

surveys data have been created or investigated to promote a sponsored and/or commercial

product. As such the information may represent a certain bias towards one product over

another, in example TheLadders (2012) directly compares it's own service against LinkedIn

and some of the quoted data could be seen as directive towards promotion rather than fair

comparison.

Another point is that data contained within these surveys has been orientated,

collected and processed by American based companies, and whilst respondents have not been

noted as limited to national participation only, the results may be skewed towards an American

job­market perspective.

2.2.2 Social Recruitment As a much more recent phenomena, the academic study and peer­reviewed research

on businesses using social networks to judge prospective employees is minimal. Most

information is based on surveys, both quantitative and qualitative, to gain knowledge of the

current state of corporate engagement. An article by Snowdon (2011) outlined several rules of

social recruitment for job­seekers: having a digital identity is a necessity, build yourself as a

brand but be cautious, communicate with employers, assess networks, and research what

information can be found about yourself. It is hoped that this study will further support and

extend on these rules.

A survey conducted by Harris Interactive © on behalf of CareerBuilder (Grasz. &

Erwin, 2013) presented percentages of companies using social­media to examine candidates

before hiring them, and what were the most frequent reasons for dismissing or approving a

prospective employee. Of the 2100 companies who partook in the survey, 39% of active hiring

managers and human resource professional said they used social­media sites to examine

potential candidates.

A similar study done more recently by Jobvite (2014), examining 1855 companies,

contends that this number has now in fact reached over 93%, and that using social networking

sites to research applicants is now ‘the norm’. Of the currently available networks, LinkedIn

12

(94%) and Facebook (66%) were most frequently used for social recruiting.

Nikoloau (2014) provides a study examining the differing activity of professionals, both

those looking to hire and those looking for employment, between professional social networks,

such as LinkedIn, and personal social networks, such as Facebook. The main hypotheses

presented proposed that LinkedIn was in every situation the preferred medium for professional

development of the digital persona. Some notable factors with regards to this study was that:

younger users were more extensively engaged with Facebook than LinkedIn in comparison to

older users, and job seekers were less inclined to see the different application abilities between

the two sites in comparison to recruitment professionals.

From personal experience observing the development of Facebook as a social

platform over the last half a decade, this disparity to how users treat and engage with their

profiles as a means of sharing information and opinions is highly evident. The issue however is

with regards to the types of information being divulged. The consensus from hiring

professionals and companies (Jobvite, 2014; Grasz & Erwin, 2013) is that the following

information types will almost certainly negatively impact your application:

Use or discussion of drugs/narcotics

References to firearms

Posting of explicit or inappropriate media

Discriminatory comments on race/religion/etc.

Poor grammar and communication skills

And images of alcohol consumption ­ however this trend has been in decline over the

last 3 years [Jobvite: 2012 ­ 47% | 2014 ­ 44%] and is considered a neutral factor by

around half of hiring professionals.

Interestingly the posting of political opinions was mostly seen as a neutral factor to

applications, though this maybe due to current laws regarding discrimination against using

such factors in hiring decision making.

A more recent report by Grasz (2015) continues to support the elements above, with

an additional reason for rejections being “Bad mouthing of a previous employer or employee”,

an issue mentioned previously by Wilson (2014). Whilst a proportion of users feel use of

Facebook to be a private platform, the shareability of the information posted defeats this ideal

(unless privacy settings are applied). With regards to voicing concerns about employers or

colleagues, it is advisory that if you would not say this information directly to them, reconsider

putting it online (Landau, 2009), as it may still reach them. This applies beyond termination of

employment.

Grasz’s (2015) report also outlines some positive elements that influenced a third of

the surveyed companies to hire personnel, these being:

13

Background information supported the job qualifications

Great Communication Skills

Creativity

Personal site conveyed professionalism

Personality was seen as a good fit to the company

Fabrication or augmentation of personal details or skills represents a large issue within

social recruiting (and recruitment in general), with some 27% of Facebook and 31% of Twitter

users admitting to inflating their skills to improve their digital resume (Jobvite, 2015), supported

by an uncited statistic by AOL Jobs (The Society of Human Resource Managers, 2012) who

similarly reported a 26.5% response to the same effect.

Social recruiting does in part allow hiring professionals to ween out falsified

applications. In one study, 24% of hirer's found candidates had lied about their qualifications

through social media research (Grasz & Erwin, 2013), whilst another study conducted by the

Society of Human Resource Managers (2012) reported that the number of actual resumes that

contained falsifications was closer to half (53%). Factors cited as false information included:

Misleading information (78%)

Fraudulent qualifications (21%)(2)

Inflated salary claims (40%)

Inaccurate Job descriptions (33%)

2.2.3 Trends over time To better understand a market, it is vital to observe its trends and changes over a

period of time; whether this is annually, monthly, weekly, etc. depends on the market. Jobvite’s

Social recruiting and job seeker surveys (Jobvite, 2012; 2013; 2014; 2015) have been

monitoring corporate and job seeking habits consistently over the last 6 years. The full list of

released statistics can be found transcribed in Appendixes 1.

What is immediately observable is an overall increase in the use of social networks

over the last half a decade for recruitment purposes. Between 2010­14 LinkedIn and Facebook

have seen a 20% increase in use for social recruitment, with Twitter behind at 15% (peaking in

2013 at 55%). Other sites included Google+, personal blogs and Youtube, however these

appear to be more novel and may represent more job specific candidate markets.

A key disparity observed with regards to the Job Seeker survey (2015) statistics, is the

proportion of seekers who do not use or are engaged with LinkedIn when 94% of employers

say they use the service to recruit (Jobvite, 2014). This is especially apparent of those who are

lower earners | <25K ­ 10% | 25­49K ­ 18% | and there is a distinct trend of those with lower

14

levels of education being less likely to have engaged with the service, with only 51% of

graduate degree level students and 20% of high school (further education) level of lower.

A consistent trend of around 3 in 4 hiring professionals reported that they had

successfully hired a candidate who was identified or introduced using a social networking

platform, with 93% in 2014 saying it was likely they would view a candidates online profile

during the vetting process, and 55% claiming that information found through social networks

influenced their decision (up from 44% the year previous). When comparing LinkedIn and

Facebook as methods for seeking and acquiring jobs, LinkedIn clearly represents the superior

platform with the majority of companies admitting to hiring through the service, a distinction

observed by Nikoloau (2014) previously. However, this has dropped considerably in the last

year (Jobvite, 2013 ­ 92% | 2014 ­ 79%). Even accounting for discrepancies between the

respondents of one year against another, this change is dramatic and could be contextually

seen as a need for other profile platforms to be utilised along site it.

2.2.4 Mobile ­ Awareness of profile presentation Mobile social recruitment and job­seeking is another high value area. Around half

(47%) of millennials use their mobile phone to perform tasks such as job searching and

updating of profile information (Jobvite, 2015), whilst over half (57%) of recruiters currently

invest no resources into mobile ready career sites (Jobvite, 2014), though it is expected this will

decrease as 51% of employers claimed to be planning increased investment in the technology.

Research carried out by TheLadders (2012), displayed that recruiters only read a

resume for approximated 4 to 5 minutes, with key areas of usability being the format with which

the information is presented, followed by the readability and professionalism of the content.

Adaptability of profile information, not limited to visual design but also information

content, needs to be assessed. LinkedIn with it’s social sharing capabilities make it invaluable

to those applying for jobs, with many companies and site already allowing for LinkedIn profiles

to be used instead of CVs. However the success rate of candidates that have used this method

is yet to be proven or statistically supported.

3. Methodology A qualitative study was decided upon due to the topic’s hypothetical nature and

objective to build results comparing primary and secondary data in a systematic way (LSE,

2014). In essence the study is to find meaning and reasoning behind professional digital

identity development using differences and similarities between populations, those being

15

job­seekers and hiring professionals. Both these perspectives were required to gain a full

picture on the topics, platforms, and practices discussed.

The research was split into three phases, that of research and secondary survey

data­analysis, followed by qualitative interviews with information professionals, completed with

discussion and evaluation including recommendations.

3.1 Research Design The first phase of research was to draw in quantitative data from existing surveys

surrounding hiring professionals and social recruitment (Jobvite, 2014; Grasz et.al., 2013;

Nikolaou, 2014). Using secondary analysis of the data, we would then observe what sites they

are using, and what information they are/are not looking for. Research on current job seeker

trends was also observed to better understand current user engagement and habits with sites

and services. Data analysis has also be done with regards to how students practice

self­disclosure and privacy management.

The second practical phase consisted of in­depth qualitative interviews to explore

current trends of information professionals and their opinions on how best for beginner users to

approach their digital presence. Questions were built using the research from the surveys,

specific features of the particular sites in question, as well as suggestions brought forward from

the literature (Gerard, 2012). LinkedIn and Facebook were to be the two main social

networking sites being discussed, however the study looked for alternatives too, such as

personal blogs and websites and what features are most important.

The intention of the interviews was to draw on personal experiences of a select few

professionals; experience related to developing their digital profile, what uses and opinions

they hold for various social networking services, and how those developing their digital

presence should present themselves to achieve an optimum job seeking response.

The third phase was to analyse the results of the interviews and the data gathered in

the surveys to produce a set of recommendations for users to best approach social networking

awareness and to give supported statements on current professional trends that will support

their employability prospects.

3.2 Selection of research Methods As stated previously, the research phase of this study mainly involves analysis of

secondary data sources during the literature review, collating and comparing trends and

variances from corporate survey sources and professional blog articles. Most sources have

been independently retrieved through global search engines and the StarPlus Library

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catalogue, using search terms such as social networking, hiring, social recruitment and job

seeking trends. Literature has also been suggested by third party contributors such as

supervisors and colleagues. Academic papers were assessed with regards to relevancy to the

project, and sections of the literature review were based around their related topics.

The search term ‘social recruitment’ was a byproduct of researching through corporate

surveys allowing to further synthesise relevant results, including looking into webinars and 4

business reports.

The chosen method for the practical phase of this study is that of a small scale

in­depth qualitative interview with professionals currently engaged in managing a professional

online profile. Interviews provide a prominent usefulness for gaining personal experience or

stories from behind a participant's experiences (McNamara, 1999), seeking to cover both

factual and semantic information (Kvale, 1996). The process is to be semi­structured in nature,

to allow for set questions based on the initial phase data trends to be presented and

interviewees questioned on whilst also allowing interview to be restructured and additional

questions asked should any prominent points become apparent or issues occur, errors which

should be addressed during and after the first interviewee completes the section.

The Delphi study method, a method for structuring and identifying trends through a

group communication process (Stitt­Gohdes, Crews, 2004), was considered as an alternative.

The initial phase analysis would yield statistical trends which could be matched up against

relevant industry practitioners, creating a panel of experts who would provide responses to the

trends and queries based on the data, with reasoning behind their response being required. All

results would then be analysed to compare them to the initial trends, anonymize, and

presented to the interviewees as a whole to allow for a group perspective on the queries and

allow for those who wished to change or augment their responses to do so. This group

mentality would in an optimum environment eventually provide a group consensus with each

query.

The key pitfalls of this method involved a mixture of time dependency and limited

scope. Coates (1975) presents the view that the Delphi method is almost a last resort for

dealing with issues of high complexity, and that one should “expect very little of it compared to

applicable analytical techniques.” The process of collating appropriate participants, in an

amount significant enough to meet the parameters of a qualitative data collection, whilst

managing interviewee availability within the initial and subsequent interviews, analysis and

presenting each data set would have involved a much lengthier process than was available for

this study. Linstone and Turoff (2002) identify two weaknesses that correlate to the issues

presented, those being:

4 Webinar ­ The combination of Web and Seminar ­ a session involving presentation and discussion on a topic through use of online facilities

17

The demanding nature of the Delphi and that participants need to be considered more

as consultants than volunteers and should be compensated as such

The imposing of monitor views and preconceptions resulting in a strict format which

doesn’t allow for contribution from alternative view points

3.3 Limitations Due to the relative time frame that this study took place in, consideration was taken

into account as to whom would be available to respond to interview requests. Sufficient time

had to be allowed for candidates to chose an appropriate and available date/time. Precautions

were also taken to decide not only whom will be available, but provide accurate and honest

responses. Unfortunately despite best efforts, a total of three candidates were available for the

interview period, others being either on academic leave or travelling during the assigned week.

The preferential goal of this study was a candidate count of between 5­10, however the data

acquired by these three interviewees was rich enough to support the study sufficiently.

Reaching potential candidates through travel proved impractical, especially as the

majority were abroad, thus all interviews were conducted using the Skype video and instant

messaging application. Additional software was brought in to record the conversations for

review and transcription purposes. This method however was not without fault, as difficulties

were experienced maintaining a connection during one of the interviews, so much so that the

video function was disconnected to allow for better sound quality. Despite the applications

efforts, in this particular instance the interview was moved to a telephone conversation, though

this too suffered from a bad reception. The recording of this particular interview was also

disrupted and the file corrupted, however despite some information having to be recovered

post interview via email, notes taken were sufficient to advance the study.

On a final note, during review of the results, some questions were deemed irrelevant

the the study objectives, an issue that may have been altered had there been a pilot study to

begin with, and thus were not included in the discussion. However, the data retrieved is still

informative and has been recorded for potential external use.

3.4 Ethical aspects The research that this project undertook can be broadly defined as the use of existing

knowledge to develop, design and construct an improved product. A researcher conducting

human subject research should be aware of the ethical issues surrounding topics of

questioning and inquiry. Before any study, interviewees should be briefed regarding the

purpose, nature and procedures of the study; allowing for appropriate consent to the

information they provide. All recording equipment must have be addressed prior to use.

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Information that is sensitive, both professional and personal, to the participant were not to be

addressed at any point. No vulnerable groups were to be directly involved at any point within

this research. Participants may have declined to answer specific questions, and had the ability

to withdraw from the session at any time, for any reason. In compliance with the University of

Sheffield's fundamental principles of research ethics (UoS, n.d.), participants were not to be

exposed to unnecessary levels of risk, personal information and data would not be disclosed

without consent and all information collected was to be stored securely.

For this research, ethics approval was required from the Information School Ethics

Board. The research ethics application was submitted within 4 weeks before the research, to

account for the average 2 week waiting period plus possible issues. Informed consent was also

to be required and a signature provided by interview participants before the interview. This was

done through a clear consent form presented at the start of all studies. As the final study

contained no participants under the age of 18, the research did not need to gain consent from

the participants’ parents or guardians. Copies of the Ethics Approval letter and the Consent

forms can be found in Appendixes 2 and 3 respectively.

3.5 Interview Construction The interview was conducted in a three stage structure. Responses to the first section

influenced inclusion of the third section due to relevancy of experience. The first section was

intended to ascertain information regarding experience the candidate had had in relation to

employment and roles. The information required consisted of the following points:

How long had the interviewee been employed in their current role?

If this was shorter than a period of 5 years (point of which most corporate surveys had

begun to publicly divulge research with regards to social recruitment) then to enquire

about their application experience.

Had the interviewee ever been involved in the recruitment of staff or personnel?

Whilst most experiences of this nature potentially could predate use of social

recruitment, it was deemed appropriate that those with experience could contribute to

what information hiring professionals were looking for.

The second section was designed to discover personal experiences, preferences and

opinions of social networking platforms and applications; information from the perspective of a

professional who is already engaged in developing their digital image. The queries presented

would contain a mixture of open­ended questions on use and preferences, as well as opinions

on statements and theories brought forward from the literature review. The information required

consisted of the following points:

Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter represented the main three social networks of choice

for job­seekers and social recruiters (Jobvite, 2014; Jobvite, 2015).

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How do the professionals engage with these sites?

Do they engage with any other forms of social networking or digital profile

building?

What are their benefits?

Which are the most/least important on a professional level?

How often do the professionals develop their digital identity?

Reflecting on the information from the surveys on social recruiting, it could be

determined that, overall, LinkedIn is seen as the more effective professional

recruitment platform than Facebook. Would they agree with this statement?

Have interviewees had more success in terms of developing their personal profile

through face­to­face interactions or online networking?

Commenting on the stereotyping case studies (Lang, 2015; Murphy, 2012), have the

interviewees ever altered their online behaviour to match these trend ideals?

What tips do they have for new professionals and/or persons building a digital identity?

The third section is intended to support ideas brought forward regarding social

recruitment and hiring, however questions should account for the minimal time that social

recruitment has been an accepted tool for hiring. The hypothesis for this section is that most

answers should trend along side and improve on the data collected in the corporate surveys.

The information required consisted of the following points:

Had the interviewee ever used digital profiles to vet their candidates? (pre or post

interview)

Using responses from Social Recruitment Survey (Jobvite, 2013; Jobvite, 2014), in

their professional opinion, indicate between positive, neutral or negative how elements

of a candidates digital identity would affect their candidacy. Factors such as:

Spelling or Grammatical errors

Images or references to Alcohol Consumption

Volunteering or donation to Charity

Politically themed posts

Profanity

Multiple elements have not been brought forward from the surveys for various reasons.

‘References to guns’ has not been included due to the varying nationality and locations

of the interviewees, possibly generating a biased result. ‘References to religious views

or symbolism’ have not been included due to illegality of using this information as a

source of dismissal (Guerin, 2015). The overwhelmingly negative majority for

references to drugs and posts of a sexual nature (Jobvite, 2014) validated no need to

further question this element.

Ranking of four attributes of an applicants profile in terms of importance:

Qualifications ­ the official completion of an accredited course

Skills ­ a demonstrable technical ability or proficiency with a tool

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Experience

Attitude

Term definitions have been provided for Qualifications and Skills due to variance in

how they can be interpreted (Miller, 2015).

Finished interview questions can be viewed in Appendixes 4.

3.6 Interview Process Individuals were chosen based on quota convenience sampling (Gravetter & Forzano,

2015) with those chosen representing information professionals currently engaged in digital

identity development. All communication prior and post interview was conducted via a

designated University of Sheffield email addresses to limit personal data security issues. Each

candidate was suggested by the study supervisor, whom also made initial informal contact to

verify their interest in participating. Once a list had been culminated, each candidate was

contacted formally giving a short summary of the interview topics, available date and time slots,

and a brief statement regarding ethics of the procedure. After confirming a slot, candidates

were sent the consent form with the criteria of it’s completion before the interview could take

place.

Before each interview, Skype and the recording software were tested for technical

problems (mainly audio and video) and questions were printed off to limit sound feedback to

interviewees from tapping of keys.

At the time of interview, each interviewee was welcomed, a statement regarding the

ethics being observed during this study was repeated, interviewees were asked if they would

prefer their responses to be recorded anonymously or not, and the questions were begun.

Upon completion, the interviewee was thanked, the question regarding anonymity was

repeated, and the call was ended, which in automation stopped the recording.

Once interviews had been completed, notes taken during the event were transcribed

electronically into the results table [see appendixes 5] whilst recordings were examined for any

missed information and for interviewee quotes.

3.7 Data Analysis The two sets of data within this work, survey and interview, were summarised into key points

using tables.

The analysis of the survey records was condensed to statistics that would be relevant

to both the study topic and the intended study recipients, namely job­seekers [Appendixes 1].

Omissions were made regarding any information that would not influence the readers potential

to develop their digital identity. As part of the Trends of Time section, responses of similar or

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exactly the same questions were colour co­ordinated to better allow for reflection.

The interview responses were condensed to: the social platform involved in the

response, followed by bullet­pointed key information [Appendixes 5]. This was to better

compare the data on a global study scale, rather than just per question. Quotes were also

transcribed regarding specifically interesting or influential information provided by the

interviewees.

During the discussion, the information collected in the interviews and the survey data

analysis was used to compare against the ideas, trends, and recommendations brought

forward from rest of the literature review.

4. Results As mentioned previously, the results of the secondary data analysis have been

included in the literature review. Ideas, questions and observations have been brought forward

to build this qualitative interview to test the data against those who are experienced in digital

identity development, and have found success using social networking applications in a

professional capacity.

Interview Results The full table of results can be found in Appendixes 3. Questions will be referenced

using their associated section number and letter, whilst attendee answers will be referenced

using their associated interviewee letter.

Twitter most certainly represented the majority in terms of overall experience and

positive contribution to the interviewees digital professional presence, with various functionality

such as the consistent feed of informational resources, the accessibility of it’s messaging

service and it’s Tweet chat functionality being some of the key reasons for it’s effectiveness. 5

The ability for constant interaction and exchanging of information both via desktop and mobile

interfaces, whilst comparable to Facebook, provides a public facing platform displaying

constant engagement at a near daily rate. Another intrinsic feature mentioned by interviewee C

[Question 2E] was the break down of societal blocks, allowing for a diversity of users to

connection with each other globally. As a source of information, the interviewees noted Twitter

as mainly providing:

5 Tweet chat is a term used to define a live organised even where users of the social network Twitter are invited by a singular user to ask questions regarding a topic or theme, or it involves creating an identifiable phrase known as a hashtag (#) to which any user can contribute to a conversation topic, even start a dialogue and build contacts with an authority on that topic (Cooper, 2013).

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Advertisement and sharing of jobs, opportunities or events

Keeping up with technological, political, and literacy teaching trends

Tracking organisation and colleague developments

Exchanging of ideas and concepts

LinkedIn stands secondary, however represents a much different experience for all

interviewees. Whilst information sources such as job advertisements and tracking of

organisations and colleagues are mentioned much like Twitter, the eponymous nature of the

service and professional reputation of the site creates a less rapid and more constructive

environment for professional digital identity.

Whilst it was unanimously agreed upon by the interviewees that LinkedIn was superior

over Facebook as an effective professional identity tool [Questions 2G], critique was given with

regards to some of it’s functionality. Attendee C notes a lack of search definition against:

Voluntary and Paid roles, Part­time and Full­time work, and Academic and Private sector work;

all of which play against LinkedIn as an optimum job­seeking application. Attendee C also

discussed a personal experience involving the use of LinkedIn’s messaging system to relay a

job opportunity to a previous student, whom they otherwise could not find (user was

anonymous on Twitter) or contact directly (Facebook required a friend request first).

Attendee B, having been active the most recently in terms of job­seeking, suggested

taking these functions of eponymous profiles and unrestricted dialogue, and using them for

researching not just opportunities but the people associated with them. Some examples might

include:

Line Managers

Previous holder of the position applying for

Team or Department members

The objective of this endeavour is compatibility, not just in relation to a potential colleagues

personality but how you yourself will fit when working with them.

Facebook however appears to stand in very little favor amongst the interviewees, all

citing the platform as more for private use than anything professional (outside of organisation

group pages). Interviewee C in question 2F and interviewee B in 2A mention Facebook’s

inability to allow communication with another user without ‘friending’ them first, a connection

seen as something much more personal than is needed. Both Twitter and LinkedIn do not

require a confirmed connection for communication to take place. Interviewee B expressed

serious issues with some of the business practices of Facebook and it’s subsidiaries such as

Instagram, an image sharing application that came under public and media scrutiny in 2012

when it was discovered during a terms of service update that they could license any images

posted using the platform without the users consent or financial reimbursement (BBC, 2012).

The interviewee [B] also mentioned a “lack of freedom to managed online identity”, which was

in relation to the inability to delete a Facebook profile once created, only to ‘deactivate’ it.

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Blogs were an evident part of each interviewee’s digital identity, some being used for

presenting research or areas of self reflection, whilst others saw it as a professional portfolio of

work and career journeys. On reflection of responses, it's clear that each interviewee is

engaged with a combination of platforms that best suite their professional needs.

The frequency of which users should update their professional profile [Question 2D]

varied depending on the intended content and the user themselves. Significant alterations such

as changes of employment were seen as vital and required immediate management, despite

their preferably infrequent nature. Attendee A and C both expressed frequent management of

their LinkedIn profiles, but less so for blogs.

Discussing stereotyping of the information professional community [Questions 2I], all

interviewees had in some way actively engaged with displaying themselves outside of the

stereotype, though not necessarily consciously. Adaptations included were: the adoption of

Twitter as a networking platform, the participation of social media campaigns involving posting

of visual media, and promoting services using current online applications and programs. In

example, two of the attendees (B and C) are actively engaged in Second Life and have used it 6

to present lecturers, connect with others, and display themselves as engaged with current

technology. A similar trend mentioned by attendee C was the movement of various education

professionals to engage students using the video game Minecraft , extending ideas and 7

themes usually taught using MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course).

Question 2J represented the pinnacle ideal behind this study, examining what

professionals considered key tips for those setting up their professional digital identity. In a

longer study, the optimum method would be to reinforce these suggestions through quantitative

methods, however even as stand alone responses they represent a valid and invaluable

perception. Topics identified by these responses can be separated as such:

Branding ­ both interviewee A and B discussed ideas related to personal branding,

including: research and limitations on the platforms used to present yourself,

consistency of your ‘brand’ across platforms, and an awareness of how branding is

determined based on a 3rd party perspective, quoting Jeff Bezos (founder of

Amazon.com) ­ “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the

room.” (May, 2012)

Communication ­ interviewee A and C defined personal philosophies when

6 Second Life (n.d.) ­ an online virtual world created by Linden Lab. marketed as a creative and exploratory community of self­expression. Users create avatars along with digital personas and then communicate with others, participate in games, and interact with physical elements in virtual spaces built by both the developers and the users. 7 Minecraft (Lamont, 2014) ­ a sandbox virtual reality game created by Mojang, designed as a creative adventure platform where players can either explorer randomly generated content or build their own world using square block (and various other mediums)

24

communicating with others, both professionally and personally. Interviewee A idealised

communication through any application to be very responsive, advising to reply to any

messages as soon as received, if not within the day. Interviewee C idealised the

sharing of ideas, quoted as saying, “Share what you have and give to other people and

you’ll be amazed what you get back.” Described as a philosophy of instructional

librarians, the objectives included: sharing of ideas, offering help, and asking for

assistance.

Experimentation ­ as mentioned in branding, researching the platforms used to

present oneself should be a serious and constant endeavour, but this also means

experimenting with new platforms. Features to consider include: privacy, company

history, longevity and sustainability of its function, and purpose of the platform as a

product. Interviewee B and C both mentioned their use of Second Life in both growing

their networking reach and influencing their digital identity.

Researching into Job or career specific platforms will almost certainly be a positive influence on

ones digital identity. Both interviewee A and B were engaged with Academia EDU and all

interviewees had some manifestation of a blog containing research (though the application

used varied).

Progressing to the third section, whilst two had been involved in hiring personnel, no

interviewee had been involved with social recruitment practices. Despite this, both were asked

to comment regarding their professional stance on elements that might influence a hirer’s

decision [Question 3B]. Responses were as followed:

Spelling/Grammar errors and profanity were concisely viewed as negative influences

Images of Alcohol consumption were negative but with a small amount of discretion

Politically themed posts were neutrally influential, dependent on the tone used

Volunteering or donating to Charity were neutral, though it was advised that the two

were not synonymous and that volunteering could be considered a positive if viewed

as relevant experience to the position

Whilst separated by questions, two of the three candidates made reference to variation

in social recruiting strategy when considering the grade of the job being applied for. Interviewee

B mentioned during question 3A that whilst they had not used social recruiting to vet their

candidates, this was due to the entry level status of the role and an ethical principle of allowing

a fair procedure uninfluenced by external resources. However had the role been at a higher

grade, an example given as management, they would have certainly investigated their digital

presence. Likewise interviewee C for question 3C noted that, for a starting professional looking

at an assistant or supporting role, this will almost certainly affect the importance of different

attributes of a digital profile, those including: Qualifications, Skills, Experience and Attitude. The

reasoning for this response was that persons applying for a managerial or senior roles would

be considered more favourably when presenting relevant experience, where as a new

25

professional will not have/will have far less experience. Therefore it can be established that

applicants should deeply consider what employers expectations are of attribute importance

based on the role being applying for.

An additional observation to the results is the increased detail that interviewee B gives

with regards to question 2A. The interviewee in question has in fact produced written and

presentation literature on the topic of digital identity and employability through social media

previously, which almost certainly represents the reasoning for such detailed responses as

they will be more familiar with the platforms.

Interviewee B also provided valuable insight into using social recruitment from a

prospective employees perspective, using LinkedIn to research various individuals related to

roles being applied for. These might include: Line Managers, Team or department associated

with the role, and possibly even the previous occupant of the job being applied for. The core

object of this endeavour would be to observe career journeys and general workability to

establish if the role would be a positive fit.

5. Discussion 5.1 Platforms

Whilst suggestions will be made during this section, please note that use of social

networking and digital identity construction is largely subjective, built around personal

preferences, and no one method will suit all. Using the information gathered it should however

be said that LinkedIn is one of the first platform users should be invested in to build a

professional presence. As pointed out by the interviewee results and literature, the platforms

job seeking and profile display (TheLadders, 2012) functionality may not represent the pinnacle

of efficacy, but its consistently high probable use by employers to perform social recruitment

(Jobvite, 2014), the accessibility of its messaging system and an inherent reputation as a solid

professional profile building platform suggests it is a must­use service. This is further supported

by the platform’s use in education (Gerard, 2012) where awareness of professional identity and

methods for improvement both saw positive development.

With that said, it’s concerning that students and those teaching social media

awareness have not put more attention into LinkedIn, as there is a considerable lack of it’s

engagement by younger users. The data contained within the latest Job­seeker survey

(Jobvite, 2015) supports Schawbell’s (Hall, 2013) statement that low numbers of students are

engaging with LinkedIn. The percentage usage increasing depending on the level of education

completed also supports the statement that students are/were not considering networking until

post­graduation, however even at post­graduate level the engagement percentage is still far

lower (67%) than the 94% of hiring professionals using the service (Jobvite, 2014)

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Twitter as a service to present a detailed profile is limited, however the value of this

social network is based more in its recording of engagement and attitude towards a user’s

professional development. Elements such as who you follow, how you interact with others,

what information you post or reblog , defined as retweeting on Twitter, can create a far more 8

meaningful web presence to prospective employers than bibliographic information.

There was a consensus amount the interview respondents that Twitter represents a significant

tool, possibly the best currently, for information sharing and digital identity enhancement.

Similarly an article by Greider (2014) gave five reasons for professionals needing to use twitter,

all of which are reciprocated by the interview respondents. Those being:

Listening ­ Staying current with news, job opportunities, events, etc.

Learning ­ Access to plethora of articles, blog posts, initiatives and research

Marketing ­ The ability to successfully engage with users demonstrates an “ability to

deliver concise and purposeful messages” (Greider, 2014)

Connecting ­ Identical to Communication in the results, Webinars and hashtags

provide a common topic for users to connect and build professional networks of like

minded individuals

Branding ­ Ability to share own content and views on topics, building a micro­blog of

professional attitudes and engagement, whilst also connecting to your personal identity

These rules match well against the advice the interviewees gave, as well as the rules put

forward by Snowdon (2011).

Whilst Twitter does represent a less popular service in the survey analysis than

Facebook (Jobvite, 2014), this maybe perhaps due to its less eponymous nature (i.e. the use of

nicknames or pseudonyms), thus making it more difficult for recruiters to find a candidate’s

profile. In continuing with the idea of branding brought forward from the results, keeping all

professional profiles consistent in elements such as username, location and details (though this

will vary in quantity depending on the platform) will optimise not only personal brands but will

also build search engine optimisation (SEO) to allow employers to locate potential candidates

with greater efficacy.

There were two viewpoints on the user of Facebook: that it was a private personal

space where only those with permission could access someones content, and that of not

involving yourself with the site to avoid these issues of privacy all together. This former camp

does reflect the mentality mentioned as part of the Boomer population and their opinions of

Facebook (Smith & Kidder, 2010), however this only applied to one of the two types of Boomer

opinions mentioned in the study, that of those who are empathetic and cited the platform as a

potential cause for bias, and the interviewees who responded this way did not all come from

8 Reblog ­ the re­posting of content generated by another user with indication back to the original post and/or user.

27

this generation. These mentalities were also somewhat in­line with the PELICANS research

conducted by Costa & Torres (2011). Conversely, the response to ‘avoid the site all together’

reflects against the other concepts brought forward by Costa & Torres (2011); those of

consciously developing a personal footprint to manage information posted by other people

about oneself, as without a profile this is not possible.

Whilst to discount Facebook from a digital identity portfolio may mean reduced risk for

exploitation, companies are, in the majority (66%), still using the service to research candidates

(Jobvite, 2014), and having no profile with the service may still negatively affect your prospects

as it reflects against your engagement with current technology trends.

The interviewees each listed several digital identity platforms outside of Facebook,

Twitter and LinkedIn, displaying a customised selection of available services that met the

needs of their profession, in example the used of Academia EDU, Library Blogs and Google

Services [Question 2B]. This echos the trends observed within the social recruitment surveys

(Jobvite 2012; 2013; 2014) where, whilst the main three platforms maintained their high

percentages of use, more platforms were achieving percentages significant enough to be

included in the published survey results. With this in account, taking time to research and utilise

career orientated services and platforms will almost certainly increase both access to job

relevant information and improve ones digital identity, as employers will be looking for role

relevant engagement. When experimenting with these platforms, care must be taken to

observe the suggestions made in the results.

An observation regarding the differences between employer and employee use is that

the statistics only emphasis hiring professionals using the service for a single task, where as

the interviewees (our representative of employees) find multiple facets of value. In almost all

cases the usage results contrast between those how are hiring and those who are building their

digital profile. In example, Facebook was second highest for social recruitment usage, but

lowest in the opinion of the interviewees.

5.2 Content & Conduct Comparing the latest Jobvite survey (2014) against the interviewees both reinforced

and contrasted the results regarding how hiring professionals react to certain elements of a

digital profile. Profanity, Spelling/Grammar errors, and references to alcohol consumption were

still considered negatively, and Political posts were neutral. Where as Volunteering and

donations to Charity received a far more neutral response in comparison to their positive result

in the Jobvite survey (2014). This could be due to a number of factors, such as confusion over

the mixing of two different activities as one option (volunteering and donating), or a career

culture difference where these activities do not represent as much influence as they would for

other areas of work. It maybe said that the career orientation of the interviewees toward

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information literacy and as information professionals, grammar and spelling errors would

almost certainly rank highly negatively, however reasoning on a larger scale would presume

that a competent level of grammar would be necessary to undertake most modern jobs, as

good communication skills are vital. Users who may not be fluent in the national language or

suffer from dyslexia might find this practice unfair or discriminatory, though through the process

of networking it would be hoped that these users would improve. This also brings back to

another point made by attendee C to ‘ask for help’. Digital identity is not just about building a

profile, it’s about connecting to others and building a network.

Users also need to consider how they present themselves online on any platform. The

research by Grasz & Erwin (2013) and the Society of Human Resource Managers (2012)

regarding falsified information is one of the key reasons that legal advances, such as those

suggested by Lusk (2014), have been slow in adapting to digital identity privacy. Wilson’s

(2014) observation of users publicly shaming others (persons and companies) could also be

considered a contributing factor. Companies had a legal obligation to background check

candidates for possible issues that may make them incompatible with the role. It is a user’s

responsibility to consider the information they put out, how that information can be viewed and

if it is consistent across their entire digital presence.

Regarding stereotyping of the profession, the main objective for campaigning against

the stereotypes is to alter public perception to diminish chance of discrimination and

misjudgement through misinformation. The interviewees’ response was not necessarily about

changing any concept of physical appearance but about engaging with users through modern

methods, such as Second Life and Minecraft. Much as Murphy (2012) discussed, this

movement was more about adopting new technology to show a better understanding of user

needs, thus improving ones personal image and professional digital profile. Using Twitter,

profession specific sites and blogs to discover new techniques for professional development

are what is truly needed to break stereotypes.

6. Conclusions The aim of this study was to collate an current industry standpoint on the best use of

social networks and social media to improve a person’s professional digital identity. The end

result would be a selection of recommendations that would be built using a mixture of literature,

secondary data analysis and primary qualitative data from professionals currently engaged with

their digital identity.

Various methods were chosen to research literature, as outlined in the research

methods. The literature included: Webinars, Articles, Survey Reports, Academic papers, and

29

Blog posts. Search keywords were chosen and developed throughout the study, with discovery

of relevant terms such as ‘social recruitment’ being incredibly beneficial to minimising issues of

insignificant results.

Multiple surveys were analysed during this study, including one that had annual

records of the same survey report, allowing for better comparison and support to the final

evaluations. The key platforms identified by employers were that of the three core social

networks: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Other platforms were discussed to provide a wider

palette of options. Information that should or should not be included as part of a professional

profile, or would benefit or adversely affect ones digital identity, was qualitatively backed by the

literature research, the survey analysis and the interview data.

Teaching examples of social media use and awareness were used to better the

recommendations through comparison to successful tutelage and lesson responses. Personal

blogs, articles and academic papers were considered for both methodologies and their

subsequent results and successes. The literature in this area was sparese as this area of study

is still in its infancy and a limited number of educators have produced written work on their

methods.

The interviews were constructed using ideas, supported statement and themes

brought forward from the literature review, with the intent to build a more qualitative set of

results and recommendations for users. Professionals in varying stages of their career were

interviewed and results that coincided with the literature were compared in the discussion,

where as new ideas were considered by relevancy as to their inclusion in the

recommendations. While it is good that the analysed surveys have been supported by the

findings of the interview research, it would almost certainly benefit further to continue the study

with more participants to investigate if more conclusions can be drawn from the research.

6.1 Recommendations The following key elements emerged during this research, and as such will represent

the recommendations towards those aiming to better their digital identity:

Social Networks ­ Experiment and chose what best suites you and your profession

Whilst this study may outline a few social networks, it is clear there is a disparity between

social recruiters and professionals in their usefulness. Of the three main platforms, it would be

advised to engage with at least one or two that suite the needs of the professional and/or

job­seeker. Consider aspects such as usability, networking potential, core functionality,

platform reputation, longevity and how it will improve your digital image.

­ LinkedIn is a great way to start to build a portfolio of professional work, qualifications,

and skills, as well as a less invasive networking function than Facebook. However be

aware that this is a freemium service and contacting those outside your networks (plus

other functionality) is stuck behind a pay wall.

30

­ Twitter, whilst not necessarily as active as a social recruitment tool, provides a quick

and simple way to engage with others in your profession and build a profile that

reflects your interests and level of engagement. The networking and information

sharing capabilities of this platform, if engaged with properly, will definitely assist in

improving your professional identity.

­ Facebook should be considered with caution. If treated as a public platform, conduct

yourself professionally in all posts, engage with companies and use the search

functionality to better prepare yourself before interviews. If treated as a private

platform, manage your privacy settings accordingly to provide some information to

prove existence but limited beyond this. The latter option will still allow you to manage

background digital identity (images or content posted by friends) but consider any

content you post before doing so as there will always be potential for it to become

public.

Experiment with other platforms as well. Those who present experience and skills through

portfolios might consider blogs, where as academics might engage with Academia EDU. Use

the aspects above to evaluate a service before investing too much into it.

Branding ­ Keep consistent and eponymous

When setting up your online digital identity, consider yourself as a brand and your information a

commodity, trying to sell yourself to potential employers. This means assessing your content

from the perspective of users you want to see your information, and creating a consistency of

personality and levels of engagement across your digital presence. This also requires any

profiles intended to contribute to a professional identity be eponymous to build structure to your

‘brand’.

Content & Conduct ­ Be critical consistent and eponymous

Whatever platforms are chosen to present a digital identity, be vigilant with privacy and know

where you stand legally. This may involve searching yourself via search engines periodically to

understand what results come first, and monitoring news and micro­blog outlets for

developments in privacy of social media. Aspects identified by hiring professionals that

supported applicant successes, and should be considered as key areas of development and for

when considering platform use, where identified as follows:

­ Evidence of good communication skills

­ Creativity

­ Professionalism of digital identity

Conversely, a few elements stood out as must­avoid with professional digital identities:

­ Bad mouthing of employers, employees, or co­workers ­ even post termination

­ Any references to illegal activity

­ Grammatical errors

31

Like branding, this means being critical of the content you post online, and possibly even

looking to third partiess to assess your profiles.

Networking ­ Communicate and share with others

Asking for help should never be considered a hazard, as this builds not only knowledge but

connections between professionals. As mentioned by an interviewee in this study, “Share what

you have and give to other people and you’ll be amazed what you get back”. Proving you have

the ability to communicate well (as mentioned above) by evidence of a public facing platform

like Twitter will be advantageous to your digital profile and job prospects. Similarly, monitoring

and visibly engaging with news, events, and current development in your field of work will also

be positive influences.

Stereotyping ­ Show enthusiasm

Breaking stereotypes may have started as engagement with current social trends, but needs to

also involve evidence of adopting new technologies, working methods, and being the best at

what you do and sharing your knowledge.

6.2 Recommendations for further Research As addressed in the limitations, the interview portion of this study was not conducted

with as many candidates as initially anticipated. If repeated, not only would it be recommended

to increase the number of interviewees but also to possibly conduct additional interviews using

the insights collected during the first round (such as the result regarding differences between

the job grades and attribute importance). This research should also be considered as very

American orientated (due to the survey sources) and, whilst the UK is consistent in adopting

US trends quickly, results cannot be considered consistent with other regions.

The Delphi study would have been a viable methodology for this work had there been

sufficient time. It may have even been useful to apply it to the employer research however

finding a suitable population that would eventually return a consensus on a subject would be

much more difficult, and thus require even more time.

Whilst large amounts of research have been conducted against Facebook from almost

all types of population, the negative elements expressed by interviewee C pose deeper

questions regarding LinkedIn’s usefulness. A study from the perspective of professionals on

the services provided by LinkedIn would give great insight not just to potential users but to the

site itself.

6.3 Personal Development At a critical point in my professional career, this research has been invaluable to

myself as it hopefully will be to others. As a millennial, I shared some of the mentality outlined

32

in this research and have since reconsidered aspects such as my conduct, privacy settings and

choices of social networking platform, much to the betterment of my prospects. It will be

interesting to see what other platforms come to light in the future and I’m eagerly awaiting this

years social recruitment results to further my studies in the topic.

Word Count: 11,711

33

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Appendixes Appendixes 1

Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey 2010 Do you or your company use social networks or social media to support your recruitment efforts?

82%

Which of the following social networks or social media do you or your company use, or plan to use, for recruiting?

LinkedIn – 78% Facebook – 55% Twitter – 45%

Have you or your company successfully hired a candidate who was identified or introduced through a social network or social media?

58%

Rate the quality of candidates from these sources: referrals, job boards, social networks, direct sourcing, 3rd party search firms, campus recruiting, SEO, corporate career site, internal transfers.

Referrals – 25% Direct Sourcing – 22% Internal Transfers – 25%

How do you use the online profiles when reviewing candidates?

Always use – 32% Occasionally –38% Never/If Provided – 30%

Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey 2011 Do you or your company use social networks or social media to support your recruitment efforts?

89%

Which of the following social networks or social media do you or your company use, or plan to use, for recruiting?

LinkedIn – 87% Facebook – 55% Twitter – 47%

Have you or your company successfully hired a candidate who was identified or introduced through a social network or social media?

63%

Rate the quality of candidates from these sources: referrals, job boards, social networks, direct sourcing, 3rd party search firms, campus recruiting, SEO, corporate career site, internal transfers.

Referrals – 29% Direct Sourcing – 25% Internal Transfers – 23%

How do you use the online profiles when reviewing candidates?

Always use – 49% Occasionally – 28% Never/If Provided – 23%

40

Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey 2012 Do you or your company use social networks or social media to support your recruitment efforts?

92%

Which of the following social networks or social media do you or your company use, or plan to use, for recruiting?

LinkedIn – 93% Facebook – 66% Twitter – 54%

Since implementing social recruiting, how have the below changed?

Increase Decrease Same

Time to Hire

14% 20% 38%

Candidate Quality

49% 3% 24%

Candidate Quantity

43% 3% 30%

Employee Referals

31% 2% 38%

Have you or your company successfully hired a candidate who was identified or introduced through a social network or social media?

Yes – 73%

How would you rate your social recruiting skill level?

Exceptional – 5% Strong – 25% Moderate – 41% Novice – 25% Non­existent – 4%

How many job opening do you anticipate filling in the next 12 months?

100+ ­ 28% 50­100 – 17% 10­50 – 30% 5­10 – 15% 0­5 – 11%

Through which of these networks have you hired?

LinkedIn – 89% Facebook – 26% Twitter – 15%

Rate the quality of candidates from these sources: referrals, job boards, social networks, direct sourcing, 3rd party search firms, campus recruiting, SEO, corporate career site, internal transfers.

Referrals – 52% Direct Sourcing – 47% Internal Transfers – 43%

How do you use the online profiles when reviewing candidates?

Always use – 48% Occasionally – 25% If Provided – 13% Never – 14%

How would you react to these

41

possible items discovered while reviewing a candidate's social network profile?

Positive Neutral Negative

References to doing illegal drugs

2 8 78

Posts/tweets of a sexual nature

3 21 66

Profanity in posts/tweets

2 15 61

Spelling/grammar errors in posts/tweets

2 33 54

Pictures of consumption of alcohol

1 37 47

Membership in professional organisations

80 10 1

Volunteering/donations to charity

66 22 1

Political post/tweets

2 62 18

Overtly religious posts/tweets

3 53 26

Reference to burning man

3 29 18

Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey 2013 Do you or your company use social networks or social media to support your recruitment efforts?

94%

Do you plan to increase your investment in any of these candidate recruiting sources in 2013 compared to 2012?

Social network – 73% Referrals – 62% Corporate Career site – 61% Direct sourcing – 57% Internal transfers – 45% Campus recruiting – 42% Job boards – 39% Search engine optimization – 37% 3rd party recruiters/search firms – 19%

Which of the following social networks or social media do you or your company use, or plan to use, for recruiting?

LinkedIn – 94% Facebook – 65% Twitter – 55% Blogs – 20% Google+ ­ 18% Youtube – 15%

Have you or your company successfully hired a candidate who was identified or introduced through a

78%

42

social network or social media?

Through which of these networks have you hired?

LinkedIn – 92% Facebook – 24% Twitter – 14%

How do you use social media for recruitment?

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter

Search for Candidates

96%

Contact candidates

94% 19%

Keep tabs on potential candidates

93%

Vet candidates pre­interview

92% 31%

Vet candidates post­interview

35% 18%

Post jobs 91% 48% 43%

Showcase employer brand

65% 47%

Generate employee referrals

51% 31%

How would you react to these possible items discovered while reviewing a candidate's social network profile?

Positive Neutral Negative

References to doing illegal drugs

1 7 83

Posts/tweets of a sexual nature

1 16 71

Profanity in posts/tweets

2 15 65

Spelling/grammar errors in posts/tweets

2 33 61

References to guns

1 31 51

Pictures of consumption of alcohol

1 39 47

Volunteering/donations to charity

65 26 1

Political post/tweets

2 65 18

Overtly religious posts/tweets

2 55 28

43

How likely are you to review online profiles when reviewing candidates?

Likely – 93%

Would you reconsider a candidate based on content viewed in a social profile, leading to both positive and negative re­assessments

Yes – 42% No – 58%

What do you look for in a candidate on social networks?

LinkedIn Professional experience Length of professional tenure Specific hard skills

Facebook/Blogs/Twitter/G+ Cultural fit Industry­related posts Professional experience

Since implementing social recruiting, how have the below changed?

Increase

Time to Hire 33%

Candidate Quality 49%

Candidate Quantity 43%

Quality and Quantity of Employee Referrals

32%

Rate the quality of candidates from these sources from 1 to 3, where 3 represents the highest quality

(Percent noting 3 for each) Referrals – 64% Social Networks – 59% Corporate career site – 59%

Applicant­to­hire ratio and average employment length, job boards vs. referrals and company career pages

% of applicants 42% Job Boards 39% Referrals

% of hires 14% Job Boards 61% Referrals

% of hires that stary >3 years 14% Job Boards 43% Referrals

Do you expect the hiring environment to get less competitive in the coming year

Yes – 1.5%

The most competitive fields across the 1000+ companies on the Jobvite platform

More likely for competition in hiring 74% Manufacturing 74% retail 72% technology 63% healthcare

Average Time to Hire – Days 55 Software Engineering 47 Product Management 45 Data Science/Analysis 43 Marketing 41 Project/Program Management 40 Sales and Account Management

44

Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey 2014 Expect hiring to become more competitive in next year

Yes – 69%

How many job positions to you plan to fill in next 12 months?

11­50 – 34% 100+ ­ 22%

Types of jobs hoping to fill? Engineering – 38% IT – 48% Operation – 49% Marketing – 41% Sales – 50%

Why do employees leave your company?

Higher compensation – 61% Better title – 25% Geography – 32% Flexibility to work from home – 14% Alignment with company culture – 19% Long­term growth potential – 44%

How long do new hires stick around for on average?

5+ years – 32% 3­5 years – 38% 2 years – 18% <=18months – 12%

Do you plan to increase your investment in any of these candidate recruiting sources in 2014 compared to 2013?

Social network – 73% Referrals – 63% Corporate Career site – 60% Direct sourcing – 57% Mobile career site – 51%

Where are recruiters finding the best candidates?

Referrals – 60% Internal transfers – 54% Direct source – 51% Inter­to­hire – 40%

Which of the following social networks or social media do you or your company use, or plan to use, for recruiting?

LinkedIn – 94% Facebook – 66% Twitter – 52% Google+ ­ 21% Blogs – 20% Youtube – 15%

How do you use social media for recruitment?

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter

Search for Candidates

95% 17%

Contact candidates

95%

Keep tabs on potential candidates

93%

Vet candidates pre­interview

93% 32%

Vet candidates post­interview

35% 18%

Post jobs 92% 48% 39%

45

Showcase employer brand

59% 44%

Generate employee referrals

51% 32%

Have you or your company successfully hired a candidate who was identified or introduced through a social network or social media?

73%

Through which of these networks have you hired?

LinkedIn – 79% Facebook – 26% Twitter – 14% Candidate blog – 7%

How likely are you to review online profiles when reviewing candidates?

93%

What do you look for in a candidate on social networks

LinkedIn Facebook

Profession experience

97 20

Length of professional tenure

96 14

Industry­related posts

88 27

Mutual connections

93 35

Specific hard skills

95 13

Cultural fit 80 46

Examples of written or design work

83 24

Have you reconsidered a candidate based on content viewed in a social profile, leading to both positive and negative re­assessments?

Yes – 55% 61% Negative 39% Positive

No – 45%

How would you react to these possible items discovered while reviewing a candidate's social network profile?

Positive Neutral Negative

References to doing illegal drugs

2 7 83

Posts/tweets of a sexual nature

1 17 70

Profanity in posts/tweets

5 22 63

Spelling/grammar 3 24 66

46

errors in posts/tweets

References to guns

2 32 51

Pictures of consumption of alcohol

2 43 44

Volunteering/donations to charity

65 25 2

Political post/tweets

2 69 17

How much do you/your company spend on social recruiting?

None – 33% $1­999 – 41% $1000+ ­ 26%

Since implementing social recruiting, which of the following have improved?

Quality of candidates – 44% Quantity of candidates – 44% Time­to­hire – 34% Employee referrals – 30%

MOBILE RECRUITEMENT 51% plan to increase investment in mobile recruiting

How do recruiters engage? Post Jobs ­22% Search for candidates – 36% Contact Candidates – 41% Post jobs on social media – 30% Forward resumes to colleagues – 40%

43% Job seekers using mobile in job searching 59% of recruiters currently invest nothing in mobile career sites

How have you seen improvement through use of mobile career sites? (percentage of companies that saw improvement) Improves time­to­hire – 14% Improves quality of candidate – 13% Improves quantity of hires – 19% Improves quality/quantity of referrals – 10%

Jobvite Job­seeker Survey 2015 Jobseeker research 2015 – What social networks are used for job seeking?

Facebook – 67% Male: Female – 71: 55 Across all income level, Facebook is the

social network of choice <25K – 68% 25­49.9K – 59% 50­74.9K – 67% >75K – 68%

Twitter – 45% Male: Female – 51: 29 Lower income job seekers less likely to

use twitter <25K – 35% 25­49.9K – 19% 50­74.9K – 47% >75K – 54%

LinkedIn – 40%

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Male: Female – 41: 36 Serious lack of low income seekers

<25K – 10% 25­49.9K – 18% 50­74.9K – 34% >75K – 56%

Education High school or less – 20% 4 year college degree – 51% Post­grad – 67%

Instagram – 31% Pinterest – 25% Snapchat – 17% ­ HOW?!

Inflating Skills? Twitter – 31% Post­grad – 20% 4 years college degree – 18% High school or less – 9%

Facebook – 27% 2x men fabricate references on facebook compared to women

Mobile – Which of the following activities have you completed during your job search on a social network and on which device: mobile/desktop? 47% of Millennial using mobile in job search

Update professional information on Twitter – Mobile: Desktop – 15: 16

Search for jobs on Facebook – Mobile: Desktop – 13: 15

Update Facebook profile – Mobile: Desktop – 13: 17

Update LinkedIn profile – Mobile: Desktop – 9: 14

Where do job seekers perform mobile job searches and for how long?

In Bed – 47% During Commute – 38% In a restaurant – 36% On the job – 30% During a meeting – 21% In the restroom – 18% In a gym – 5% In a bar – 8% Under 6 minutes – 20% 6­10 minutes – 32% 11­30 minutes – 28% 31­59 minutes – 6% Over an hour – 14%

Proportion of interview types In­person – 61% Phone – 26% Writing Tests – 18% Lunch/drinks – 16% Panel – 16%

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Appendixes 2

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Appendixes 3

The University of Sheffield. Information School

Awareness and Implications Of The Digital Self in relation to

Employability Researchers Matthew Kibble – makibble1@sheffield.ac.uk – 07540884905 Purpose of the research To explore current social networking practices and opinions of information professionals

and their thoughts and ideas on best professional practices for beginner users to

approach their digital presence with.

Who will be participating? We will be inviting a selected participants (maximum of 10) who are experienced information professionals. What will you be asked to do? You will be asked to complete a brief demographic questionnaire to profile our participant group. Then I will conduct a 30-60 minute interview regarding professional opinion and personal practices on optimization of web presence. LinkedIn and Facebook will be the two main social networking sites being discussed, as well as alternatives such as personal blogs and websites. What are the potential risks of participating? The risks of participating are the same as those experienced in everyday life. All data will be recorded anonymously. What data will we collect? Responses will be transcribed and audio recordings taken for each interview, to prevent data loss during transcription. What will we do with the data? All data will be analyzed for inclusion within the dissertation. After successful completion of the work the data will be permanently deleted from all storage devices. Will my participation be confidential? Information that is sensitive, both professional and personal, to the participant will not be addressed or recorded at any point. You will be asked whether or not you wish to be anonymous. If you wish to remain anonymous, then all data will be anonymised. If you wish to be named, then your wishes as to the form of name and as to what it is acceptable to disclose will be followed. All data will be stored securely on a private cloud drive for use by the researcher/s and their supervisor. What will happen to the results of the research project? The results of this interview will be included in my final dissertation which will be publicly available approximately six months after the interviews have taken place. The results

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may also be included in journal publications. To view the finished work and results, please contact the Information School at the University of Sheffield. I confirm that I have read and understand the description of the research project, and that I have had an opportunity to ask questions about the project. I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time without any negative consequences. I understand that I may decline to answer any particular question or questions, or to do any of the activities. If I stop participating at all time, all of my data will be purged. I understand that my responses will be kept strictly confidential, that my name or identity will not be linked to any research materials, and that I will not be identified or identifiable in any report or reports that result from the research. I give permission for the research team members to have access to my anonymised responses. I give permission for the research team to re-use my data for future research as specified above. I agree to take part in the research project as described above. Participant Name (Please print) Participant Signature

Researcher Name (Please print) Researcher Signature Date

Note: If you have any difficulties with, or wish to voice concern about, any aspect of your participation in this study, please contact Dr. Jo Bates, Research Ethics Coordinator, Information School, The University of Sheffield (ischool_ethics@sheffield.ac.uk), or to the University Registrar and Secretary.

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Appendixes 4

Section 1

A. Current career information – i. What is your current Job Title and for how long have you been in this

role? ii. If this is under 5 years, ask about how they retrieved and applied for

said role [referral, job board, etc.] B. Have you, at any point, been involved with the hiring of staff or personnel? (If yes,

include Section 3 questions)

Section 2

A. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter represent three of the most influential social networks from both an employer and job­seeker perspective. Do you engage in these networks, and if so, what do you use them for?

B. Do you engage with other methods of online professional profiles such as academic

profiles, Youtube and personal blogs, and if so what do you use it for?

C. What benefits would you say you have gained through these services? (E.g. better networking, found a job, created a professional organisation)

D. How often would you say you are developmentally engaged with your online

professional profile, in example updating of biographical information?

E. What information or networking platform is most important to you in maintaining your professional online profile, i.e. what do you engage with most? And why?

F. In opposition, what information or networking platform is least important to you in

maintaining, and why?

G. Analysing information collected from corporate and academic surveys, LinkedIn was seen as a more effective tool for professional recruitment and job seeking than Facebook. Would you agree with this statement?

H. Which would you say is more effective or you've found the most success with and

why? i. Face­to­face networking ii. Online networking

I. Stereotyping in career paths from an external perspective is all too common. In

example, recently there was a viral trend on social media titled #ILookLikeAnEngineer, a campaign to break down the idea that engineers (or the best engineers) are male and White/Asian. There has been a similar movement with career librarians attempting to present themselves as 'wacky' and 'cool' (more so anything opposite of the stereotypical cold, dominating and conservative characteristic portrayed in media) to connect better with a more modern crowd. (though some say this actually enforces the stereotype as it's evident that the act is a media stunt).

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Have you ever made a conscious effort to break away from the stereotypes of an information profession/librarian?

J. What tips would you give someone, not specifically an information profession, on

developing a professional digital presence?

Section 3

A. During any experience you've had hiring or assessing a potential employee, have you used online profiles to vet candidates pre or post interview?

B. Of the following features of a digital profile, please indicate between positive, neutral or

negative how they would affect your opinion of a candidate: i. Spelling or Grammatical errors ii. Images or references to Alcohol consumption iii. Volunteering or donation to charity iv. Politically themed posts v. Profanity

C. Rate these attributes in order of positive influence on an application:

i. Qualifications ii. Skills iii. Experience iv. Attitude

(What are your reasons for this arrangement?)

Appendixes 5

Question /Candidate Name

Eva Hornung (Interviewee A) Eleni Zazani (Interviewee B) Esther Grassian (Interviewee C)

Section 1 ­ Biographical

Ai. Current Job Information

Librarian ­ Trinity College Dublin ­ Jan 2001

Liason Librarian (Engineering ­ Material Sciences) ­ Imperial College London ­ Sep 2014

Retired as of June 2011 Adjunct Librarian ­ Pierce College (LA, California) ­ February 2015

Aii. Application process (if applicable)

N/A Online Application through University website ­ No CV ­ Role requirements statement

Found through Jobs.ac.uk Also using LinkedIn Alert

system

N/A

B. Involvement in Hiring of Personnel (If Yes, include section 3)

No Yes Yes

Section 2 ­ Social

Networks and Digital Identity

A. ­ Engagement and Uses ­ Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter

LinkedIn Professional only Advertising events with

professional organisation

Job offers Not aware of anyone

having received a job offer through this service (in Ireland)

Careful of what is posted as is aware that potential employers may view their profile

Twitter Professional only Only recently adopted

No Facebook: LinkedIn

Eponymous nature of the service ­ no (reduced change) fake or overly fantasised profiles

Twitter Used from inception Exchanging ideas with other

people Sharing information instantly Job adverts ­ internal and

external Event advertisement ­

Broadcasting Building networks Participated, facilitated and

Facebook: Rarely used Personal only

Twitter Constant Learning

Experience News and information feed Organisations and People Keeping up with:

Technology Political

developments Teaching Social media Interesting Ideas

and concepts LinkedIn

the technology Used as part of job and

has a personal account publications

and resources festivals and

events Facebook

Private use only However is used as

part of Academic and Special Libraries presence

Also linked to Twitter

set up Tweet chats1

Online course ­ exchange of ideas ­ MOOCs

Note taking ­ for quotes Direct messaging options

LinkedIn Professional facing network ­

very little private information or personal interaction

Engage in discussion regarding posted work ­ closest point to personal interactivity

Posts blog updates to relevant groups

Job Alerts Have been

approached by recruiters using messaging system

Aware of other professional/s (independent business owner) using recruitment through LinkedIn

Checking colleagues profiles Uses to research various

individuals related to a job opening:

Line Manager Previous holder of

position Team the role is

associated with Looking for career journeys, reputation, general workability, etc.

Facebook Not used at all Doesn’t trust the business

Display of profile Professional contact Candidate Searching

practices and privacy behind the site

Ownership of posted information and data is undefined ­ e.g. instagram being able to sell photos

Communication only works if person/s have met IRL and have befriended them

No option for deletion of information, only deactivation

“Lack of freedom to manage online identity”

B. ­ Engagement and Uses ­ Other Online Platforms

Academia EDU advertise publications

with the aim to begin networking with interested parties

Blog Does not have a blog

but is engaged in other’s

Finds the line between personal and professional being too blurred with this platform

LibFocus Library blog Youtube

Used as a tutorial tool

Blog Posting of researching

Google Scholar ­ Academic Used for indexing of previous

works Youtube

Not used for broadcasting Snippets of exploring

different platforms research Academia EDU Researchgate Flickr

Generating single base of media content rather than posting everywhere

“Exercise in open practice” 2ndLife

Attending professional talks Networking

Youtube Teaching examples Recordings of conferences Testing tool

Google Sites Creation of blogs

Professional Profile Teach Information

Literacy and Critical Thinking ­

Initially a LibGuide but migrated after access loss due to employment change

LLILI ­ Life­Long Information Literacy Initiative

N.B. Google sites took down random sites in 2014, therefore consideration is being made to move back to LibGuides

C. Benefits of Social Network usage

General knowledge Youtube has contributed as a problem solver ­ tutorials

Following of events either directly or through a colleague

This involves consistency of profile

Continuation of organisation work post employment or fiscal changes ­ Migration to free services

Better Networking capabilities information and imagery (profile images are the same across platforms)

“Breaking the 6 degrees of separation into 2 or 3”

Powerful in bringing people together

Devised filters for content ­ well informed for you to develop your own interests

“Sharing culture”

Advertising of Events Blogs ­ but requires

constant feeding ­ Push and Pull Technology

Google Apps ­ Great for collaborations, surveys

Take advantage whilst free

D. Frequency of digital profile development

Academia EDU ­ every two months LinkedIn ­ Consistently

Only at significant changes Often ­ recently updated LinkedIn profile

E. Most important network or information to engage with

Academia EDU Networking capabilities Newsletters Plethora of information

Twitter Immediacy of

information

Twitter The accessibility of having

the application ready on mobile devices

Twitter Ability to Post and alert

those that follow you Events Issues

Diversity of People ­ Global connection

F. Least important network or information to engage with

Facebook Considered a personal

platform More for gossiping and

chatting than professional development

Flickr Least beneficial to

professional image Impractical in terms of time to

benefit ratio

Facebook Personal social networking

only ­ Private life Inability to contact others

without friending first N.B. Mentioning of study involving migration of users from Facebook to Snapchat ­ Looking at tool life­span

G. LinkedIn was seen as a more effective tool for professional recruitment and job seeking than

Yes ­ however is unaware of anyone who’s been hired through either platform

Yes ­ Facebook should be personal only ­ considered to be objective rationale LinkedIn was born professional and therefore has a better reputation amongst professionals

Yes ­ however LinkedIn features could be improved:

Volunteer and Paid jobs should be separate

Distinctions between part­time and full­time

Facebook. Would you agree with this statement?

Categorization of Academic and Private sector work (as private firms will more likely have paid for higher search results)

H. Which have you found more effective; Face­to­face networking, or Online networking?

Face­to­face preferable Ability to read body

language limitations of emotional

connection Online networking does however represent an almost limitless time frame in which to connect with others.

Depends ­ considers issues of introvert/extrovert personalities Face­to­face preferable

Both are effective but face­to­face is preferable. 2nd Life

represents a virtual environment which simulates face­to­face networking

More personal than a webinar

Involves a personality that another person has built or duplicated from themselves

ACL ­ Virtual worlds group ­ monthly program ­ global

I. Have you ever made a conscious effort to break away from the stereotypes of an information professional?

Constantly ­ Most information professionals encountered do not fit the stereotype but all have had to respond to it at some point Considers it more important to act naturally and to work to the best of their ability rather than fit a predetermined ideal

Did participate in the librarian movement ­ Used a combination of professional profile image and 2nd Life persona Considers older generation to currently be the limiter on breaking stereotypes due to their conservative views Progress has taken place but will be a long time before a full break away

Not a physical adaptation However Second Life could be considered an adaptation

Adapting new technologies and engaging in new methods of teaching

Try and attract new users ­ workshops, classes

N.B. Mentions teaching method of using Minecraft to teach digital citizenship

J. What tips would you give to someone, not necessarily an information professional, on

Choose wisely and limit your digital presence

Two detailed profiles should suffice ­ additional sites should

“Online presence is our personal branding” A brand is not necessarily a product but a broad concept ­ “Your brand is what other people say about you

“Share what you have and give to other people and you’ll be amazed what you get back.”

Philosophy of instructional librarians

developing a professional digital presence?

be used for external references

Consider the options best suited to your profession e.g. Academia EDU for academics

Communication should be seamless ­ responses should be returned within a day (at minimal to acknowledge receipt of correspondence)

when you’re not in the room.” – Jeff Bezos Expose yourself the way you want to be seen ­ and be honest Don’t create a persona Keep everything consistent in the message you give about yourself

Share with others Offer to help others Ask for help

Try new Technologies ­ however assess them first as company products:

Privacy Query company history Consider longevity and

sustainability What is the purpose of this

tool? Why is it here?

Section 3 ­ Recruitment Experience

A. Have you used online profiles to vet candidates pre or post interview?

N/A Has been trained to be an interviewer ­ was aware of digital profile checking ­ however chose to avoid due to a mixture of fairness and the grade of the position ­ Only done once Unbiased ­ to keep strictly with their applicational statements Fairness ­ to give each candidate a fair shot at the position without external influence However ­ managerial jobs would have involved social recruitment vetting ­ higher grade roles require deeper forms of vetting candidates, including incorporating digital identities

No ­ involved before common use of social media

B. Please indicate between positive, neutral and negative, how these features of a digital profile would

N/A Spelling/Grammar errors ­ Negative Images of Alcohol consumption ­ Negative Volunteering or Donation to Charity ­ Neutral

Spelling/Grammar errors ­ Negative Images of Alcohol consumption ­ Neutral/Negative Volunteering or Donation to Charity ­ Neutral (possibly positive for

affect your opinion of a candidate:

Spelling /Grammar errors

Images of Alcohol consumption

Volunteering or Donation to Charity

Politically theme posts

Profanity

Politically theme posts ­ Depends on the tone used to express these themes Profanity ­ Negative

volunteering) Politically theme posts ­ Neutral Profanity ­ Negative

C. Rate these attributes in order of positive influence on an application:

Qualifications

Skills Experience Attitude

N/A Experience Skills Attitude Qualification

Entry level candidate ­ Qualifications Attitude Skills Experience Mid­High tier grade candidate ­ Qualifications Experience ­ Attitude Skills N.B. Entry level position would not have as much experience, whereas higher grade jobs would require it