Whatever Social Recruiters Say I Am, That’s What I Am:

Shifting from Impression to Reputation Management in the Study of Digital Identity

In his science fiction novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Cory Doctorow (2003)portrays a 22nd

century

society in which money has been replaced by a reputation-based currency of the rather wonderful

term,‘Whuffie’. The nature of social interaction within Doctorow’s fictional worldis characterised by

humandeference to a technology that provides instantaneous assessment ofthepublic esteem with which an

interactional partner is held;a dynamic rating informed by the individual’s cumulative actions and that in

turninfluences the social and professional opportunities subsequently afforded to them.In the following

position paper, I wish to argue that the underlying concept of Whuffie already pervades the digital society as

we know it. I will draw upon my PhD research to date to support the contention that as personal and

professional boundaries continue to erode and data upon social network sites (SNS) becomes increasingly

expropriated for professional means,a fundamental concern for denizens of the digital society is in successfully

regulatingdigital behaviour to avoid damaging employment prospects - for which digital reputation appears to

act as an important proxy.

Towards the Study of Digital Professional Reputation Management

Though intuitively familiar, the concept of ‘reputation’ as a social representation of the self is deceptively

complex in its demarcation from the related concepts of identity and image (Bromley, 2000). On the one

hand,the individual ‘owns’ his or herreputation and as such, can exercise control over it via theperformative

processes of self-presentation and impression management. However, reputation is also characterised as a

‘meta-belief’; a shared set of judgments within a defined community existing as a “collective phenomenon…

not an impression in the head of any one individual” (Emler, 1990, p. 171). Thus, reputation can be

simultaneouslyboth within and outside a person’s control; be more or less representative of the individual’s

self-concept;and be propagated through second-hand behavioural information (e.g. gossip) as well as directly

observed behaviours.Indeed, regardless of its veracity, a core social function of reputation appears to be in

providing others with a way in which to judge thebehavioural consistencyof a person; highlighting the

importance of temporal continuity and audience interconnectedness(Bromley, 1993; Craik, 2008; Emler,

1990).

Such a conceptual overview hopefully illustrateswhy employers may have taken such a keen interest in the

social media activity of current and potential employees. Recent survey figures suggest that over two-thirds of

employers monitor the use of social media on company-owned devices by their workers (SHRM, 2012) and one

comprehensive database of organisational social media guidelines currently totals 247 individual policies

carefully outlining ‘appropriate’ employee use of the technology.Furthermore, as many as 90 percent of HR

professionals and recruiters (Jobvite, 2013; Reppler, 2011)report engaging in ‘social recruitment’; referring to

thesocial media profiles of applicants to inform recruitment decisions. From an organisational perspective,

such practices can be rationalised as a form due diligence, with social media providing employers with

unprecedented opportunity to cheaply and relatively easily assess ‘risk’ that a current or potential employee

may pose to the corporate brand. Yet, the legality, morality and validity of social recruiting iscontentious, at

best. The point remains, however: carefully projecting a positive professional reputation via social media has

become increasingly important feature of self-presentation in the digital society. People do appear to differ in

their knowledge and practice of this endeavour though, as the PhD studies outlined in the following sections

have sought to explore and understand.

Study One: Digital Professional Reputation Management of Higher Education Employees through Social

Media

The first study of my PhD research used a semi-structured interview method to explore how academic and

professional services employees within a Higher Education Institution (HEI) used social media to support the

professional activityunderpinning their job roles. A thematic analysis of fourteen transcripts revealedthat

professional reputation was a core concern for all interviewees in their use of social media, and was achieved

in two principal ways: through the regulation of social visibility (i.e. control over who can see what is said or

done, or ‘privacy behaviours’) and through the regulation of content (i.e. control over what it is that is said or

done, or ‘self-presentational behaviours’). Perceptions of the permanent and potentially newsworthy nature

of social media content appeared to influence an emphasis onthe importance of a proactive approach

toassessingthe visibility and suitability of content prior to publication, rather than adapting content once it had

already been posted and seen by others.

The findings indicated that such a prevention-focused regulatory strategy appeared to be particularly

prevalent for employees with more established public profiles that tied in to their professional work,

suggesting a link between reputation and risk perception.Curiously, numerousinterviewees reported exercising

caution even within the confines of their carefully selected, primarily personal and trusted social networks;

suggesting that for some, privacy settings were perceived as a necessary, but perhaps notsufficient strategy of

successful professional reputation management. Findings also hinted towards a possiblerole for individual

differences in impulsivity, self-monitoring, conscientiousness and neuroticism in determining reputation

management behaviours, with numerous interviewees linking their careful approach to using social media with

behavioural tendencies towards cautiousness and neuroticism.

Study Two: Predicting Concern for Professional Reputation amongst Students

The second studyof my PhD used an online survey method to explore the extent to which full-time college,

undergraduate and postgraduate students typically consider career-related consequences, regulate online self-

expression, prevent potential threats to reputation and promote their work-related achievements when using

Facebook and Twitter use. To measure this, an 18-item scale was constructed, demonstrating good levels of

internal consistency. In line with a recent finding that only a quarter of UK-based 16 to 34 year olds are

concerned that their use of social media could harm their future career prospects(OnDevice, 2013), the 257

students surveyed in thissecond study reported thinkingrelativelyinfrequently aboutthe professional

consequences of their posts, with a third reporting never or rarely considering the implications when posting.

Similarly, almost half of the students reported never or rarely posting content with the intention of promoting

their professional reputation, whereas a similar proportion often or always reported finding it easy to avoid

swearing, venting frustrations or avoiding posting without thinking first.

These findings seemed to suggest that it is perhaps not that students don’t think about the consequences of

posting content in general, but more that they just don’t post with respect to a professional audience. Further

analysis of the data revealed that lower scores of impulsivity and higher scores of conscientiousness were,as

predicted, correlated with more frequent consideration of professional consequences, though multiple

regression analysis with all personality measures entered as predictor variables indicated that theoverall

model was not significant.Perhaps of greatest note, an analysis of covariance conductedwith a sub-sample of

just the college and undergraduate students (n = 167)revealed that undergraduates entering the final year of

their studies reported more frequent consideration of professional consequences when using social media

than either college students or undergraduates within their first year of study.

Study Three (and Beyond): Psychological Distance and Reputation Management

The findings of the second study raise a number of intriguing questions about what factors might be

influencing the relative infrequency with which students seem to consider the professional consequences of

their actions on social media. Could it be that students simply don’t believe their posts to be risky to a

professional audience? Or could it be that they perceive recruiters to be unable to gain access to their profile?

Or perhaps the potential of a professional audience judging social media content is just a distant,rather than

immediate, concern? The third study of my PhD will once again use an online survey method and will draw

upon the theoretical framework of the construal level theory of psychological distance (Trope & Liberman,

2010) to explore why job-seeking students within their final year of study may vary in the extent to which they

are concerned about and perceive the riskiness of Facebook content in relation to their job prospects. It is

intended that through understanding the various forms of psychological distance in the context of digital

reputation management, it may be possible to eventually inform the design of interventions that help younger

users of social media to consider the risks of their online behaviour far in advance of potential professional

judgment by social recruiters or future employers. To paraphrase one our most famous bards:thedigital

reputation we are tasked with managing may at times represent ‘a most false imposition’, but yet it is anything

but ‘idle’ or empty. To treat it as such is to neglect the substantial,career-defining potentiality that our digital

identities hold for us.

Bromley, D. B. (1993). Reputation, image and impression management: John Wiley & Sons. Bromley, D. B. (2000). Psychological aspects of corporate identity, image and reputation. Corporate Reputation

Review, 3(3), 240-252. Craik, K. H. (2008). Reputation: A Network Interpretation: 'Oxford University Press'. Doctorow, C. (2003). Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom: Tom Doherty Associates. Emler, N. (1990). A social psychology of reputation. European review of social psychology, 1(1), 171-193. Jobvite. (2013). Social Recruiting Survey Results 2013. Retrieved from

web.jobvite.com/rs/jobvite/image OnDevice. (2013). Facebook costing 16-34s jobs in tough economic climate. Retrieved from

http://ondeviceresearch.com/blog/facebook-costing-16-34s-jobs-in-tough-economic-climate Reppler. (2011). Managing Your Online Image Across Social Networks. Retrieved from

http://blog.reppler.com/2011/09/27/managing-your-online-image-across-social-networks/ Trope, Y., & Liberman, N. (2010). Construal-level theory of psychological distance. Psychological review, 117(2),

440.