Article 1

From Digital Culture & Society

Personal branding in the past usually consisted of a simple business card with your name on it, but with the development of social media and an emphasis on personal branding on digital platforms, the way you present yourself online is important if you want to stand out on social media interfaces. The article to be discussed was a study that explored how users are presenting themselves, on the leading professional and recruitment social media website, LinkedIn Tifferet and Vilnai-Yavetz (2018), analyzed 480 different LinkedIn profiles and they discovered that a few different forces shape self-presentation within LinkedIn profile pictures such as, social norms, corporate culture and popular advice. These are the main forces that drive LinkedIn users to display standard business-like portraits. The findings throughout the article can inform us how personal branding and presenting one-self on a Social Network Site such as LinkedIn can affect the outcomes and opportunities the users of the professional database LinkedIn may receive. The profile pictures that LinkedIn users are posting to represent themselves contain three non-verbal impression cues that were further analyzed; facial expressions, attire and any accompanying objects. In this article, the researcher’s main objective was to answer the following questions: (1) What are the common features of LinkedIn profile pictures? (2) Do they adhere to the popular recommendations found on the Internet? (3) Do LinkedIn portraits and accounts show gender differences? (4) Do they show occupational differences?

LinkedIn is the largest professional social network site in the world, and is specifically designed for professional networking – so the personal branding stakes are high if you want to make a good impression to a potential employer. This articles hypothesis predicted that LinkedIn profiles would show gender and occupational differences; they were right about one of those, there was gender differences between how men and women branded themselves on the professional networking site, but there wasn’t any occupational differences that were detected within the user’s branding. The study’s results highlighted the following factors that shaped personal branding in LinkedIn user’s profiles such as motives, differences between gender and popular advice that can be commonly found on the Internet. Personal branding on a professional networking site such as LinkedIn is important more then ever, in the digitalized world that we live in. It can be good for users in order to display their professional accomplishments, and further their career opportunities (Tifferet, S. and Vilnai-Yavetz, I., 2017).

The motives for personal branding one's self on LinkedIn that Tifferet and Vilnai-Yavetz (2017), discovered that were most common among LinkedIn users are; obtaining rewards; such as a job opportunity from an employer & self-fulfillment; your network connections congratulating you on a work anniversary or a new job, or having your skills endorsed by other users you know or have worked with professionally in the past.

The common features that Tifferet and Vilnai-Yavetz (2017), found that were common among LinkedIn profiles were:

• Headshots for profile pictures are more frequent then full-body photos
• Emphasis on status through objects in the background or formal clothing
• Smiling without teeth
• 98% of users profile pictures are in colour
• The majority of portraits are taken indoors

The differences between genders that were detected by Tifferet and Vilnai-Yavetz (2017), was that male's profile pictures on LinkedIn tend to emphasize their status through objects or clothing, while female's pictures did not. Males also conveyed emotional distance in their photos by wearing dark glasses, and females displayed more emotional openness by smiling and making eye contact. These gender differences identified within self-presentation are consistent with gender norms that society considers appropriate based on one's gender, therefore it is definitely a factor that should be taken into consideration when researching personal branding techniques between sexes. A theory that can be proposed for this is Social Roles Theory. Social Roles Theory suggests the gender differences in online self-presentation results from the different societal roles occupied by men and women, which can vary between societies and historical periods.

Tifferet and Vilnai-Yavetz (2017), learned that occupational differences did not play a role in how a LinkedIn user tends to personally brand themselves on the site. There original hypothesis predicted that users in relationship-oriented occupations would show more signs of emotional expressivity in their LinkedIn portraits than users in task-oriented occupations, but this was found to not be the case.

When users are promoting themselves online, there is clearly a difference between men and women and how they choose to highlight their appearance and present themselves on LinkedIn. The bias associated with personal branding on LinkedIn however is that it is a specific database that outlines areas for user to present their image, skills and qualifications to potential employers. Users are able to easily manipulate their image however by taking their profile picture where there are objects that signify their status in the background, facial expressions, and clothing to give off a calculated and desired first impression online. LinkedIn is all about self-promotion within a professional online platform so analyzing how users are branding themselves through this platform can help us further understand how to interpret users in the virtual world.

By: Natasha Bloomfield (Student #5735840)