Entries Tagged 'Student Online Reputation' ↓

It’s finally turning into spring, which means that across the country thousands of high school seniors are throwing off the shackles of their adolescence and steaming headfirst into that exciting new world we call college. At least, that’s the plan. You see, for some, the decision on where they’re headed still hasn’t been settled.

While most college-bound kids are already filling up their parents’ minivan with dorm room furniture, others are stuck on the dreaded wait list. And that means that unlike their peers, they can’t slack off on their studies and they definitely can’t get into any trouble online that could give an admissions officer a reason to skip their name.

In honor of all the high school seniors that are currently in college admissions limbo, we have a list of three things that you should not do if you want to improve your chances of getting accepted.

1. Clean Up Your Facebook Profile

Facebook is a great way to stay connected with friends, but it’s not always the best choice for highlighting what makes you such a great candidate for admission to college, especially if your profile is littered with inappropriate pictures, juvenile language, and other content that makes you look like, well, a high school student.

When considering an application, admissions officers want to see that students are ready for the responsibility of college, from the work load of college courses to the stresses of living in communal dorms. If your Facebook profile implies irresponsibility, an admissions officer will be more likely to pass you up for another candidate.

Oh, and if you don’t think that an admissions officer can see your profile, think again. According to a study from the University of Massachusetts Center for Market Research, 26% of college admissions officers use search engines to research candidates and that number is swiftly rising. If you keep your social networking websites open in any way, there is a strong chance that someone other than your intended audience will see it.

2. Make Your Blog Work For You

Besides doing damage control on your social networking profiles, there are steps that you can take to proactively demonstrate to college admissions officers your value as an applicant. Were you a terrific art student in school? Set up an online portfolio of your art work. Did you wow your teacher with a short story? Share your creativity on your blog. Are you active in your community? Take a few words to describe your volunteer work and share some pictures.

There are plenty of free blogging platforms on the web that can help you share your good works with the world and you’d be doing yourself a disservice to ignore them. When an admissions officer Googles your name, they should find something worthwhile. So, give it to them.

3. Engage With Your Preferred College Online

More and more, colleges are entering the wide world of social media to engage with potential applicants and showcase their campuses. What’s great about this trend is that it allows for two-way communication between college representatives and applicants. If you become a fan of your preferred college on Facebook, or if you follow them on Twitter, you are increasing your chances of connecting with someone who actually knows something about the admissions process.

Just as job seekers must distinguish themselves from their competition, when you’re competing against thousands of other applicants, you should give yourself every edge possible. Communicating with a representative of your preferred college in a friendly and professional manner may help you form a relationship that can influence your acceptance decision.

There’s no reason why you should have to sit on the sidelines while your fate is being decided. If you haven’t heard back from your college yet, take some proactive measures to get your name out there. Hopefully, if you play your cards right, you can swing the decision in your favor. Oh, and one more thing, once you do get into college, don’t fall back into the same old bad habits. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to start your career, and when that happens, the same things that tripped you up getting into college could trip you up finding a job.

Tweet This Post

For many members of Generation Y, making their way through high school, getting into a good college, or finding that first job is tough enough, so adding one more to-do item to their lists seems a bit burdensome. However, managing online reputations is just as important for those under 30 as it is for those over 30. Plus, keeping a clean online history or polishing up one’s online footprint can only help land that first job or gain acceptance into college choice number one.

A recent University of Massachusetts Dartmouth study revealed that 23 percent of college admissions offices use search engines like Google to research students before even considering them as acceptable candidates. Of those same offices polled, 17 percent admitted to using social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to vet potential students while another survey from UMass Dartmouth shows that 53 percent of Inc. 500 companies reported using a Google search and/or some kind of review of MySpace and Facebook as part of the hiring process.

Most recently a Data Privacy Day survey sponsored by Microsoft showed even more dire numbers, saying that 70 percent of hiring managers in the US have claimed to reject candidates based on what they found. Considering the ramifications behind a poorly managed reputation, and the proclivity of Gen Y to share their lives freely, we thought it would be a good idea to offer some advice on reputation management for college students and recent grads.

On Blogging and Social Media: As one journalist puts it, “imagine that your mother is reading every post you write and watching every move you make.  By the way, she already is.” Keeping your digital nose clean begins with a bit of common sense. Posting distasteful or even questionable items to the Internet can have negative results a little ways down the road or even a long ways down the road so keep that in mind with everything you post. Even harder is making sure other people don’t post items of you you’d rather not have online – not an easy thing to correct. A 2006 USA Today article gives just a few examples of high school and college students who paid the price when their online reputations didn’t turn up squeaky clean. In the four years since then, social media use has become even more prevalent, with Facebook tallying more than 350 million users and Twitter becoming a worldwide phenomena.

An important rule to keep in mind is that Facebook, MySpace, blogs, message boards, and other online tools aren’t private. Parents should relay this message to their children and be conscious of what their children are doing online. Check out Project PRO: Privacy & Reputation Online, a collaborative effort between the American School Counselor Association and Reputation Defender, for tips and ideas on keeping children and adolescents safe online. Without professional help, cleaning up many items that have been posted is a difficult task.

On Tweeting Safely: With Twitter has come a whole new method of sullying one’s online reputation. Adhering to a few simple rules can keep personal information from getting out and keeping Gen Y Tweeters safe. For starters, never give out personal information, including your full name, address, phone numbers, or passwords. Additionally, keep profile information brief and avoid responding to users that you don’t know. Also consider every tweet you send out, including tweets that identify where you are, where you’re heading, or photos where you’re easily recognizable, as tweets can remain visible for many years. Read more tips on safe Twitter use here.

On Finding a Job: We’ve reported plenty on using tools like LinkedIn and Facebook to create professional online resumes, as well as how to drive traffic to these profiles once they’re built. However many Gen Y’ers are still catching on to the concept of using devices like LinkedIn and Facebook, according to an article on Recruitingfly.com.

Take our advice – using these tools (in particular using them in a professional manner, as with Facebook) can usually only help your chances, not hinder them. Furthermore, putting the web address to your LinkedIn profile on a hardcopy of your resume isn’t a bad idea – it provides another method for potential employers to do their homework on you and lets them know you’re tech savvy.

Tweet This Post

How much time do you think kids aged 8 to 18 spend using electronic devices during the day? Five hours? Six hours? Try again. According to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, kids and teens from the ages of 8 to 18 spend over seven and a half hours a day watching TV, surfing the web (on computers and from their mobile phones), or listening to music on digital media players.

When you take into account the time they spend texting or talking on their phones, the number blooms to a phenomenal nine hours of total time using electronic devices. This is a substantial increase from the last time the survey was conducted in 2005, when the total time clocked in at less than six and a half hours.

For a better understanding of how kids and teens are spending their time on electronic devices, check out the graphic below.

–

–

According to the New York Times, “The study’s findings shocked its authors, who had concluded in 2005 that use could not possibly grow further, and confirmed the fears of many parents whose children are constantly tethered to media devices. It found, moreover, that heavy media use is associated with several negatives, including behavior problems and lower grades.”

A significant reason why the numbers have increased so much in such a relatively short period of time is the explosion of smartphones, which are capable of accessing mobile Internet, downloading music, streaming videos, in addition to texting and calling. Whereas previous generations would have been forced to curb their media consumption simply because they were not near a computer, kids today can be plugged in to the web literally 24 hours a day.

So what does this mean for parents? For one thing, it shows that parents must reconsider how they talk to their kids about using the Internet, and also that they should institute realistic limits on the amount of time their kids use certain devices. If you don’t know how to get started with laying down Internet rules, I recommend checking out our Five Common Sense Social Networking Rules for Kids.

Another thing that this study shows is that it is practically impossible for parents to monitor their kids’ Internet use all on their own. We know that most parents aren’t concerned about what their kids are doing online, so much as keeping them safe from online predators and cyberbullies. That’s why ReputationDefender created MyChild. When you can’t be there to keep an eye out for them, we can be there for you.

For more information on MyChild, please feel free to ReputationDefender a call today at 1-888-720-9980.

Tweet This Post

Here at the ReputationDefender Blog, we’ve talked about the problem of sexting on numerous occasions. As more and more media attention has been shined on the issue, however, some are beginning to ask if people are missing the real point. In an editorial for the Boston Globe, Jesse Singal wonders whether an overblown reaction to sexting is masking the real problem related to sexting, which is the bullying that often accompanies it.

From the article:

Tweet This Post

As a student, there is nothing better than getting an unexpected day off from school. Unfortunately, for the students of Brooklyn Technical High School yesterday, the promise of a day away from school work was nothing more than an illusion; a hoax orchestrated by the creative mind of a student and the power of anonymous Internet messaging tools.

According to the New York Times, several members of the Brooklyn Technical High School Student Government received an e-mail on Sunday evening explaining that school was called off the following day due to a construction accident. The message allegedly came from a Vice Principal at the school and appeared to match his e-mail address.

Doing their civic duty as the school’s student leaders, the students passed along the information to thousands of their peers through social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. Luckily (or unluckily if you were a students), school administrators caught wind of the hoax early and were able to get the truth out. The Times report says that the attendance rate was 90.9%, which is not beyond normal expectations.

In considering this story, one marvels at how quickly deliberate misinformation can spread online. While many students questioned the original e-mail validity, it didn’t stop them from spreading it to their friends. Truthfully, I’m amazed that the school district was able to respond so quickly to the hoax.

To be fair to the students, it appears that some kind of spoof e-mail service was used to mimic the actual e-mail address of the Vice Prinicipal, which gave the message (grammar mistakes and all) an air of authenticity that would be hard to spot at a quick glance. Plus, when you’re looking at a day off school, you don’t want to think about it too much, you just want to celebrate.

While the consequences of this particular hoax were relatively mild, the possibility of someone using a well-orchestrated e-mail hoax to cause significant reputation damage to an individual or business is a serious concern. In a world where we consume digital media with ruthless speed, it isn’t that difficult to watch a hoax spread out of control. Just ask actor Zach Braff, who was proclaimed dead by the masses on Twitter before people realized a CNN article about his alleged suicide was nothing more than a spoof.

At an individual level, it is imperative that we consider the information we are reading online. Google has made it easy to find information, but that doesn’t always mean that the information is accurate. If may take a few extra minutes, but spending time to doublecheck the facts is an important step we can all take to help bring civility to the web.

Tweet This Post