Social Media Audit

Image by LoboStudioHamburn from Pixabay

What is your presence on social media?

The World Wide Web is vast and has grown at a rapid rate since my first experience using it in the late 1990s. I joined social media in 2006 when I created my Facebook account. Over the years I made posts about what I was doing that day, how I was feeling, and pictures I had taken. This information was public and stayed public for many years.

During my Diploma in Dental Hygiene (DipDH) I took a communications course that helped me learn about my presence in social media. As representatives of Dalhousie University and future oral health professionals, DipDH students are expected to conduct themselves in a responsible and respectful way on social media; I have been conscious of my actions on social media from that point on, and strive to separate my professional and personal information. My personal accounts, which are on Facebook and Instagram, are private and cannot be viewed without my permission. For my professional accounts, I have a public LinkedIn profile only.

Having said all of that, I was curious to see if my efforts to keep certain accounts private had worked. When I Googled my name, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but here are the results:

1) The first result for Amanda Lee is for an Instagram account created by a fitness model and trainer with over 12 million followers. She is proud of her reputation and promotes it well on Instagram. I, however, do not share this type of information with the public.

2) The second result for Amanda Lee is for a pop singer and actress from Hong-Kong. I enjoy singing karaoke but I can assure you I am not a pop singer.

I spent some time going through the pages Google generated, and I was unable to find anything about myself. I was thankful to learn this and can confidently say my privacy settings are working.

Currently, on my personal accounts (Facebook and Instagram), I like to follow accounts about dogs, cooking, DIY projects, local news and radio stations for personal enjoyment. I am active on both Instagram and Facebook daily to view information. I post on Facebook every couple of days, and on Instagram every week or two. The last ten posts I made on Facebook included the following:

• AP Scrubs uniform giveaway

• Dartmouth Crossing Mother’s Day giveaway

• A picture of the Dalhousie Dental Hygiene faculty at trivia night

• Nova Scotia Health Authority public announcement of Measles case at Halifax Infirmary

• An article titled “Why Dental Hygienists Should Be Employed by Every School”

• Pictures of myself and fellow DipDH students from our graduating year (shared memory)

• A video by Marilyn Inez on the Nova Scotia health care crisis

• Captured Escape Rooms giveaway

• Smoke’s Poutinerie giveaway

• National Dental Hygienists Week recognition

The last ten posts I made are very typical of how I use Facebook and have for years; I shared posts I found helpful, healthful, or funny. I prefer to use social media in a positive way and I try to show that in the posts I make as well as the ones I follow. I don’t often report posts on Facebook, but I did report one that had disturbing visual content. I also unfollowed the person who posted this video.

On my professional account (LinkedIn), most of my contacts and accounts I follow are in the health care field, though I am open to networking with professionals from any background. I typically share posts that I feel need to reach a wider audience; these are usually health-care related. I tend to avoid humour on this social media platform; I keep it professional, which may also seem boring. I share posts when I’m logged into LinkedIn, which is every few weeks. To date, I have not reported anything on LinkedIn.

This assignment allowed me to take a look at my presence on social media, and I am happy with what I found. My personal information is kept personal, and what I have shared publicly is professional. I do, however, want to increase my professional presence in social media through my LinkedIn account, and hopefully through Twitter with assistance from MHST 601.