Digital Profile / Footprints

 

Digital Profiles

A digital profile is the sum of content about a person on the Internet. A digital profile can be composed of personal or professional information shared on public Web sites posted personally or by others. One of the most effective ways to build a positive professional digital profile is through social media. You can find your digital profile by simply searching your name into google and seeing what comes up. Social media such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn are all part of your digital profiles as they hold information and content about you. This is how people find you on the internet and learn about you this is also where you show your skills and experiences.

Digital Profiles can be rather useful in the world of work, this is because they can help promote yourself and help show any work you have done in your own time. This will help an employer to learn more about you and what your skills are. This will also help you get noticed by others and possibly develop future contacts or help you get into future opportunities for your career. 

People who have jobs that rely on the use of the internet, for example, social media influencers have to take care with their digital profiles and footprints due to the fact that all of their work and everything they do can be seen by people on the internet, so everything they tweet or post can be seen. This has become an issue due to the rise in "cancel culture" which is the form of ruining or attempting to ruin a person's career for something they have done in the past which probably isn't relevant anymore but due to the fact they have put it on the internet it can be found and used against them.

A digital footprint or digital shadow refers to one's unique set of traceable digital activities, actions, contributions and communications manifested on the Internet or digital devices. Digital footprints can be classified as either passive or active. Websites that you visit normally ask you if you would allow cookies, this is a web tracker which tracks sites that you go on and helps show you adverts that apply to your searching history and sites you have visited.

Social media platforms are great examples of digital profiles, sites like: Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook are great examples of digital profiles as this is where people mainly interact with people. Social media influencers use this platforms heavily to help grow their presence and interact with their viewers.