Curate your online self

You probably already have a presence on the web, through social media like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, or Snapchat. In this assignment you will create a basic presence on the LinkedIn Links to an external site. social media platform (if you don't already have one), which is an online service designed for job-seekers and employers.  You will then use that to sign in with the special UW-Madison career services BadgerBridge and Handshake.

Read this first

• Natasha Singer, "New item on the college admission checklist: LinkedIn profile," New York Times (11-05-2016). Download Natasha Singer, "New item on the college admission checklist: LinkedIn profile," New York Times (11-05-2016).

Complete these steps

1. Sign up for LinkedIn.  Build an account on the social networking service LinkedIn Links to an external site. by visiting https://www.linkedin.com/  Links to an external site.and creating a profile for yourself following the prompts on the screen.   
2. Add some people to your network.  Use the LinkedIn Search feature to find your TA and your professor on LinkedIn, and request connections from each of them!  (You might also want to request connections from the rest of your instructors as well.)
3. Join a group.  Find the LinkedIn group titled "UW-Madison L&S Career Course Links to an external site." and request to join it.  You should be automatically approved if you use your "wisc.edu" email address; otherwise, you will be approved after a day or two.
4. Sign up for BadgerBridge.  The Wisconsin Alumni Association uses the BadgerBridge service to allow more than 200,000 UW-Madison alumni to connect and network for fellowship and career assistance.  To get started, visit https://badgerbridge.com Links to an external site. to activate your free BadgerBridge account by clicking the blue "Connect with LinkedIn" button.  You will be guided through the steps to complete your BadgerBridge profile.
5. Sign up for Handshake.  UW-Madison uses the Handshake service to allow more than 200,000 employers across the country to make their internship and job openings visible to our students.  To get started, first read the Student Terms of Use for the Handshake service Links to an external site..  Then visit https://wisc.joinhandshake.com Links to an external site. to activate your free Handshake account by clicking the blue button or entering your wisc.edu email address.  You will be guided through the steps to complete your Handshake profile.
6. Audit your online presence.  Now comes the challenging part.  Do a Google Links to an external site. search of your name (including nicknames) and audit where your identity appears.  Does your newly-created LinkedIn page appear already?  How about another social media page?  Write a one-page essay about what social media information about you is easily discoverable through a Google search, and what kind of impression someone might make based on that information -- especially a job recruiter.
7. Upload your results.  Finally, copy the URL (web site address) of your LinkedIn and BadgerBridge sites onto the end of your one-page essay, and upload the essay to Canvas (as a Word or PDF file) to get credit for this assignment.

Notes on this assignment

• Refer to the L&S SuccessWorks handout "Building a Great Student Profile" Download "Building a Great Student Profile"
• Like your initial resume, the main point here is to get this profile up and running. Feel free to modify it little by little all semester long, not just when we demand that you do so in an assignment.
• The best way to learn what an effective LinkedIn profile looks like is to view lots and lots of other LinkedIn profiles!  You can search for UW-Madison students and recent graduates to see what peers from different majors put on their LinkedIn profiles.
• As the semester progresses we'll ask you to edit and enhance this LinkedIn profile until it helps tell your story to the world!
• Did you include a photo on your LinkedIn site?  If so, how did you choose that photo?  If not, why not?  (You might be interested to know that SuccessWorks Links to an external site. offers a free profile photo service.)
• How is LinkedIn different from Facebook? From Twitter?  (You might consider this handout from SuccessWorks, "How to Use Twitter in Your Job Search Download How to Use Twitter in Your Job Search
  ")
• How will your online persona be different in this more job-oriented space?
• How do you think LinkedIn earns revenue? How might this affect its usefullness or your willingness to use it?
• What can you learn from visiting and reading the LinkedIn pages of others? 
• What kinds of conversations might you engage in through our LinkedIn group for the career course?
• What is the biggest shortcoming or silence on your LinkedIn page right now?
• Your TA and professor have also built LinkedIn pages, and may choose to offer their own reflections on what they get out of this service.
• How do you think the Handshake and BadgerBridge services will complement your LinkedIn site?

Examples

• You can find countless examples of LinkedIn profiles by UW-Madison students and alumni by going to the UW-Madison LinkedIn page Links to an external site. and clicking Alumni Links to an external site..  From this page you can search for fellow students in similar majors or who have similar career goals to yours.  
  
  

To learn more 

• Taking Initiative Student Guide Download Taking Initiative Student Guide
   chapter 6, "Developing your social network"
• Katharine Brooks, You Majored in What? chapter 7, "Working as a Krackel Bar"
• danah m. boyd and Nicole B. Ellison, "Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship," Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13 (2008), 210-230. Download danah m. boyd and Nicole B. Ellison, "Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship," Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13 (2008), 210-230.
    Scholarly article on the rise of social network platforms on the world wide web.
• Zizi Papacharissi, "The virtual geographies of social networks: A comparative analysis of Facebook, LinkedIn and ASmallWorld," New Media & Society 11:1 (2009). Download Zizi Papacharissi, "The virtual geographies of social networks: A comparative analysis of Facebook, LinkedIn and ASmallWorld," New Media & Society 11:1 (2009).
   A scholarly article on how various social networking platforms differ in their scope and meaning.
• S. Craig Watkins, "The very well connected: Friending, bonding, and community in the digital age," in The Young and the Digital (Boston: Beacon Press, 2009). Download S. Craig Watkins, "The very well connected: Friending, bonding, and community in the digital age," in The Young and the Digital (Boston: Beacon Press, 2009).
   Study of how “millennials” build relationships through mobile, online media.
• José van Dijck, "Facebook as a tool for producing sociality and connectivity," Television & New Media 13:2 (2012). Download José van Dijck, "Facebook as a tool for producing sociality and connectivity," Television & New Media 13:2 (2012).
   "This article investigates whether social media in general—using Facebook as an example—warrant identification of a new public sphere, another private sphere, or a different corporate sphere, as some scholars have argued."
• Hui Zhang, Munmun De Choudhury, and Jonathan Grudin, "Creepy but inevitable? The evolution of social networking," Computer Supported Cooperative Work (2014). Download Hui Zhang, Munmun De Choudhury, and Jonathan Grudin, "Creepy but inevitable? The evolution of social networking," Computer Supported Cooperative Work (2014).
   "Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and so on are not just places we visit, they house spaces we shape and spend time in."