Maintain Your Digital Footprint

Included in the Digital Tips Advent Calendar and part of the Effective Technology Integration category

This is my 4th year actively participating in social networks and using web tools. Although, I have enjoyed the journey and have seen the benefits, there are drawbacks. One is that I literally have 100s of online profiles scattered in cyberspace. Each year, I make it a point to take at least a day to maintain them and get rid of a few that I no longer use.

Here are a few guidelines for maintaining your online profiles:

Remember nearly every social website you sign-up for requires a profile!The obvious ones are LinkedIn and Facebook. Keep track of the other social sites you signed up for such as Youtube, Vimeo, Twitter, Google Profile, Delicious, Flickr, SlideShare, and so forth. On most of these accounts you may have no profile listed. My long-term goal is to get suitable profiles on most of social networking sites or get rid of them.Note: Try clicking on your avatar when you make a comment on different blogs to see what comes up.
Include an image, bio, and link to at least one portfolio item!If possible the portfolio item should be a video, slide presentation with audio, wiki, or blog. If you really want to draw attention, then offer a lesson, hand-out, presentation, or other product you created for free.If you can add a reference letter to the website or a recommendation, then ask your friends if they will write one for you and post that.
It’s okay to use the same items for each profile!I now keep a Google Doc with pictures, a long bio, short bio, etc. then copy and past this info everywhere I go. I have also included the html code for sites that won’t immediately format correctly.
Create a QR code to link to your profile to use in presentations. Here is my QR code, http://teacherrebootcamp.com/about/