Developing Digital Presence

By Lisa HarrisUniversity of Southampton

20th July 2010

Laureate/University of Liverpool Conference

Lisa Harris

• Teaches Digital Marketing at the University of Southampton • Programme Director for the MSc in Digital Marketing. • Qualified e-tutor for the University of Liverpool online MBA. • Lisa has run a research project with Alan Rae called ‘Punch

Above Your Weight’ which tracks how small firms promote themselves, network and grow their businesses using Web 2.0 technologies.

• Running various projects to integrate aspects of open learning into the MSc curriculum at Southampton

• Lisa’s current work is investigating the growth of digital presence for career or business development

Session Plan

• Rationale for the development of “digital presence”

• Review of our experiences at Southampton• Suggestions for helping UOL MBA students to

develop their digital presence

What is digital presence?

“Digital Presence” or “Personal brand” refers to the active management of online activities such as collaboration, networking , reviewing and content creation in order to “stand out from the crowd” in today’s job market.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2HRF7G3 (link to our social media usage

survey)

www.lisaharrismarketing.comwww.twitter.com/lisaharriswww.uk.linkedin.com/in/lisajaneharriswww.delicious.com/lisaharris1www.slideshare.net/lisaharris

How social media has helped my work

• Developing new contacts (joint article in progress with BCU, guest speakers)

• Sourcing newly published articles, calls for papers and relevant events to attend

• Tracking and commenting on the blogposts of key contributors to the field

• Keeping in touch, real time, with project participants and other key contacts

How many of these activities are you developing…?

Where are you now?

A: no use of social media C: educational use of social media

B: personal use of social media

D: Personal and educational use of social media

How do you mainly use social media?

A: finding, storing and managing information (eg iGoogle, Delicious, Netvibes)

C: creating content (eg Wordpress, YouTube, Flickr, Slideshare)

B: collaboration, networking, commenting (eg LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook)

D: all of the above

Rationale

• Entrepreneurial activity increasingly involves understanding how today’s networks work and how to deploy them effectively, both online and offline

• Building and maintaining digital presence in this way is becoming a critical aspect of business development – people will google you

• It is essential to make sure that the nature of the information displayed online is going to encourage rather than discourage potential customers, partners etc (Harris and Rae, 2009)

• Good online networkers also tend to be good offline communicators (Harris and Rae, 2009)

• Browne et al (2008) found that poor digital skills by staff were inhibiting change in teaching styles at universities

21st Century Careers (JISC, 2009)

• Competition for employment in a global knowledge economy

• increased levels of self-employment and portfolio working• growth of multi-disciplinary teams focused on specific

tasks whose members might be physically located anywhere in the world

• life within a networked society • blurring of boundaries between ‘real’ and ‘virtual’, public

and private• increasingly ubiquitous use of digital technologies.

“Digital presence” is about branding...

• According to Olins (2003), a brand is “a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to a company, product or service”.

• Chris Brogan (www.chrisbrogan.com) notes that a strong personal brand is a mix of reputation, trust, attention, and execution:

“A personal brand gives you the ability to stand out in a sea of similar products. In essence, you’re marketing yourself as something different than the rest of the pack.”

Linchpin

“Life-wide” and “life-long” learning

Digital Presence Workshops

Southampton Initiatives

• Optional careers sessions from 2008• Student blogs to support personal tutor/tutee

relationship from 2009• Undergraduate Digital Marketing module –

development of online communities by student groups using blogs, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook (from 2008, assessed by oral presentation)

• Integration into Intro to Marketing and Digital Marketing Comms modules from Sept 2010– Blog, Delicious, Netvibes, PBWorks

Bloom’s (Digital) taxonomy

Ideas for digital presence in the UOL MBA

• As part of the introduction to online study?• As a optional supplement after completing the

programme?• Activities integrated into relevant modules?• Staff development?• Develop a community (within Blackboard!) where

students and staff can volunteer to complete surveys, or be interviewed by others who are researching various aspects of the online learning experience?

Any questions?

• My final question to you – what are YOU going to do to help develop your own digital presence?– Quick wins (think about which media suit your

style best)– Longer term plan