1. Building your Digital Identity
Professor Bala Iyer
Twitter: @BalaIyer
September 2014
1

2. Everything is going digital
• Images
• Documents
• Conversations
• Music
• Movies
• Money
• Digital Reputation is
the new currency
• Identity
2
Power to the edge
Power Shift from Institution to Individual

3. Educational Model
• Know
– Knowledge
• Do
– Skills
• Be (who you are)
– Identity
– Character
– Principles
3
Rethinking the MBA: Business Education at a
Crossroads (2008), HBS Book, by Srikant Datar
and David Garvin and Patrick Cullen

4. Online is more real than we think
4
Source: William Staney blog

5. Professional Identity
• A professional calling is as much about the BE as it is
about the KNOW and the DO. The BE component is
largely what distinguishes a professional from others
who simply leverage and act upon technical
knowledge. . . Institutions charged with educating and
developing leaders need to get to the roots of
professional identity, specifically the BE component.
Because developing a strong professional identity goes
to the very heart of developing leaders of character for
society.”
• Developing Leaders of Character: Lessons from West
Point (Khurana & Snook) in Leadership and Governance
from the Inside Out (Gandossy & Sonnenfeld, 2004).
5

6. Opportunities
• Without “doing” skills, “knowing” is of little
value, but “doing” skills will be ineffective and
direction-less without the self awareness and
reflection on values and beliefs that come
from developing “being.”
6

7. Digital Identity
• Real world vs. online
• Need to dedicate time based on goals,
industry and point in career
• Should be an accurate representation
7

8. 8
Networks, Professional networks
LinkedIn, Branchout
Blogs, communities, MOOCs Talent markets, TopCoder
Online Identity

9. How do we build our identity?
• Self-awareness allows individuals to have a sense of
who they are in relation to society and culture.
• By reflexively adjusting one’s perception of self in
reaction to society, people construct their individual
identity.
• When people interact with others, they convey aspects
of themselves through a set of signals that others must
learn to read and evaluate. […] the negotiation
between self-presentation and external evaluation can
be viewed as a performance, which helps construct an
individual’s social identity.
9
Source: Leafar, I edit therefore I am

10. Building blocks
• Presence
• Connections
• Reputation
• Communities
• Conversations
• Sharing
• Identity – the extent to which others can
identify you as a professional online
10
Trust
• Verified identity
• Shared social network
• Shared communities
• Shared interests

11. Me Inc.
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Blogspot
• Slideshare
• YouTube
• Quora
• Facebook
• Stack Overflow
• Smarterer
• LearningJar
• Google Profile
11

12. Connections are the new wealth,
isolation is the new poverty.
12

13. Networks impact how we:
• Get information (prisms and lenses) – filter bubble?
"Today, we need to listen more carefully. I read what people
say on Twitter, my friends on Path, in addition to formal
media. I look for patterns, and then I post questions back to
my network." --Padmasree Warrior, chief strategy and
technology officer at 67,000-employee Cisco Systems
• Find opportunities
• Find and match resources
• Organize/source work
• Sell ideas and Influence people
• Mentor people
13

14. How do we learn?
• Traditional Education
• Online models
• Communities
• Twitter filter
– Blogs
– articles
14

15. OpenSource & Online Models
15

16. Earn Credentials
16

17. Specialization: Online Communities
17

18. This is Your Certification
18

19. 19

20. 20

21. 21

22. 22

23. Reputation
• The beliefs or opinions that are generally held
about someone or something.
• Information used to make a value judgment
about an object or person.
• It is based on the summary of one’s past
actions defined within the context of a specific
community
23
Net Social Capital = Traditional Social Network + Online Social Network
[Randy Farmer]

24. The future is already here — it's just not very
evenly distributed
[William Gibson]
24

25. Reputation Economy
• Refers to the way in which a person’s or
product’s standing is shaped by a collective of
end-users making their individual assessment
based on our judgment, knowledge and
behavior..
25

26. Why do we need it?
• Facilitates market transactions
• Lowers transaction risk
• Builds social capital
• Sustains communities
• Creates new business opportunities
26

27. New currency
• Content views
• Number of followers
• Likes. Diggs
• Reach of social network
• Subscribers
• @RT
• Authority in communities
27

28. Build Influence
28

29. Strategy for Connections
• Klout
• Identified
• Kred
• Touchgraph
• InMaps
• Grader
• Empire Avenue
29

30. 30

31. 31

32. 32

33. 33

34. 34

35. 35

36. 36
The Social Stock Market

37. 37

38. 38

39. Wield Influence
39

40. Positioning: Dharmesh Shah
40

41. Influence
Property Impact
Twitter 220K followers
OnStartups blog 39.000+ subscribers
OnStartups LinkedIn 393, 209+
OnStartups Answers 13,825+ users, 27,000+answers
Klout 72+
41

42. Build a Resume Portal
42

43. Positioning: Sameer Patel
43

44. 44

45. 45

46. 46

47. This is Your Reference Letter
47

48. Resume of today
48

49. Background Check
49

50. 50

51. Activities
• Listen, share, participate and learn
• Articulate POV using blogs
• Complete LinkedIn profile
• Create Multi-media content
• Generate activity streams using Twitter
• Participate in communities
• Monitor conversations
• Earn credentials
• Build a following/reputation
51

52. What should you do?
• REFLECT/Set goals
• Identify role models
• Develop competencies
• Measure progress
• Share best practices
• Learn from thought leaders
• Join the conversation
52

53. Thank You
Dr. Bala Iyer
Professor
Babson College
biyer@babson.edu
Twitter: balaiyer
LinkedIn.com/in/BalarIyer
Facebook.com/BalarIyer
www.Balaiyer.com