The Court of Public Opinion

Question: What do many 13-18 year old high school students have in common with billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Donald Sterling?

Answer: Naivety. The illusion that in 2014 what they do and say to others will have no impact on their personal brand. 

As we have learned over the last few days, everyone is subject to public scrutiny and we must be mindful of what we say, do and post both in the real as well as the digital world.

Students enter my class at three levels:

Level One: No online identity. They have never used sites like Twitter or Facebook. Either they think social media is a waste of their time, they are prohibited by their parents or they are just too busy to dedicate much time to it. They probably watch videos on Youtube but never upload content. The "selfies" that they take never make it further than a personal computer and if you were to Google their names you would never find anything...So they think! (We will get back to this point later). These students NEED to take a course like Personal Branding. 

Level Two: A fairly neutral online identity. These students are using social media often times like a text messaging service. They post pictures of themselves and of their friends and seem to "tag" without permission or a second thought. They LOVE Youtube and in many cases prefer it to watching t.v. They are on top of the latest updates from Snapchat or Vine and talk about the drawbacks and benefits as if they were writing for a tech magazine. They are aware of things like cyber bullying and sexting and under most circumstances would never think of participating in behavior of this sort. Often times level two students have a laissez-faire approach. If a friend posts something inappropriate they may never think to say something about it. They will retweet almost anything and comment on Facebook freely without much thought. They are generally responsible and feel as if there is nothing going on in their lives that would warrant anyone to worry about their online behavior. These students NEED to take a course like Personal Branding. 

Level Three: CODE RED!!! These students are traveling down a slippery slope of "Donald Sterling" magnitude. They are reckless in  their decisions and are willing to post and/or share almost anything. "Selfies" are taken in the bathroom mirror and in some cases may be highly inappropriate. They are smart kids so I am not sure if they know the repercussions and do not care or if they are oblivious to how this type of footprint could affect them in the future. College admission officers, future employers, and future in-laws may all one day stumble upon the remnants of their online behavior and the question is, "How will the court of public opinion react?"These students NEED to take a course like Personal Branding. 

So how can a course like personal branding help students at all three levels? For starters, we focus on activities that simulate the issues. Students pretend to be employers looking to higher prospective candidates and use their online profiles to make the decision. 

We look at examples of those who have not made the best decisions in regards to their online activity and evaluate what could have been done differently. For instance, a high school football star who lost his scholarship to Michigan State because of his Youtube video. A prospective teacher who was denied her degree in education because of her myspace picture. And now...Donald Sterling...do I need to say more?

For students who have little or no experience online (Level One's) the message needs to be a bit different. It is important that they realize that having no digital footprint can be just as bad as having a shaky one. If they are not sharing positive content about their accomplishments and interests it is possible that a prospective employer or college admissions officer will be left to wonder...Do they live under a rock? Also, if they are not online how can they possibly monitor what others may be saying or posting about them on various sites. 

By the end of my 12 week course I hope to have all students at these various levels begin a journey that will take them to level four. Level four IS, a lovely place full of positive energy and self promotion. A place where students can be proud to share their goals and accomplishments. On this level they can get excited to count the number of visitors to their blogs and rejoice in the positive feedback that their original Youtube videos receive. They are using Google Alerts to monitor their brand and they are proud provide a link to thier About.me page which links all of their content to one digital space.