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Online Identity Analysis 1
Online Identity Analysis
Ashley Ruggiero
EDU520: Digital-Mediated Teaching and Learning
Professor Linda Kaiser
Online Identity Analysis 2
Online Identity Analysis
When creating a personal online identity, it is very valuable to learn from other
individuals. This paper analyzes two individuals and their methods of having a digital identity.
The professionals, Angela Maiers and Thomas Whitby will be researched in order to learn from
their online identity. Angela Maiers and Thomas Whitby are both influential individuals in the
education field. They have multiple online accounts where they have numerous followers. They
have also both worked to have successful, professional online presence and identities.
Method
Data collected was about which site the individuals use to effectively connect to the most
people. Other data collected was be the type of information the individuals are posting and what
information set them apart in having a successful online identity, apart from others in the same
profession. Although the individuals both use many, multiple websites, the websites analyzed
include, WordPress, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
The data below was gathered in another separate document and analyzed. The document
was a chart labeled with site names, number of followers, number of posts, and type of
information being posted. Once the data was collected in the chart, it was analyzed to see what
made them the most successful.
Online Profile of Angela Maiers
Angela Maiers has worked in the education field for over 25 years. She is the owner and
lead consultant at Maiers Educational Services Inc. as well as the founder and CEO of
Choose2Matter. Both organizations help students, teachers, and schools in education immensely.
Maiers Educational Services Inc. helps discover creative ways to assist schools and organizations
Online Identity Analysis 3
to meet their productivity goals. Choose2Matter is a global movement which challenges students
to work collaboratively to create solutions to social problems. Maiers uses multiple sites
regularly to brand herself and to make positive impacts in the education field. Some of which
include, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and WordPress.
WordPress
Angela Maiers uses WordPress to highlight her experiences and accomplishments. Her
page is very clean cut and easy to find things in. She is using her page the most for promoting
learning and leadership. Angela does so through connecting links to her speeches, books written,
initiatives, and blog. She uses the blog on her page regularly and has had over 1,500 blog posts.
This WordPress page also includes links to her other digital identity pages such as Facebook,
LinkedIn, Twitter and Youtube. Below is one way how Angela Maiers highlights her
experiences and accomplishments. The more you scroll through her page and click the links, it
will give more in depth information.
(Maiers, 1999, http://www.angelamaiers.com/)
Online Identity Analysis 4
Angela is a very active user of Twitter. She tweets multiple times a day to reach out to
her followers. She has 95,100 tweets, and over 143,000 followers. She uses Twitter to promote
herself as a speaker, author, educator and founder. All of her tweets promote leadership and
education. Angela fills her twitter page with empowering, motivational pictures and quotes. She
also includes many links to videos and her speeches as well. Her twitter page is very appealing to
the eye, attracting multiple people to view. Below is an example of two of her tweets and how
they promote leadership and education. The example also shows by using pictures, makes the
page more appealing. By clicking the links on her tweet, allows you to learn more information on
the topics.
(Maiers, 2007, https://twitter.com/AngelaMaiers?
lang=en)
Angela uses LinkedIn as a digital resume for herself. She includes a detailed background
summary about herself, as well as detailed experiences. She uses this page to promote herself
and shows off her best work in order to do so. She has also made over 500 connections with
Online Identity Analysis 5
others through this page. Although this page has the opportunity to post, she does not post as
frequently as she does on Twitter. Her posts are of her most recent speeches. Below is an
example of how Angela Maiers promotes herself. She points out
how inspiring her speeches are as well as her most popular topics.
(Maiers, https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelamaiers)
Online Profile of Thomas Whitby
Thomas Whitby has been in the education field for over 40 years, starting as a 7-12 grade
English teacher. Since then he has continued to grow in the education field. He has years of
experience teaching and more recently being an active blogger, host on #EdChat Radio Show, an
author, speaker and consultant of Corwin Publishing. Thomas Whitby regularly uses LinkedIn,
Twitter, Facebook, Edutopia and Word Press for blogging, all of which have many followers.
WordPress
Thomas Whitby uses WordPress to promote his own online identity. He uses this page to
link all of his other pages together. He promotes himself as a Edutopia blogger, founder of
multiple Educational Groups on LinkedIn, and his award for most Influential Educational
Twitter Series, Edchat. Thomas Whitby then makes all of his pages accessible from his
WordPress account making it easier for his followers to connect and follow him. Thomas Whitby
Online Identity Analysis 6
does post blogs on his page, but not as frequently as his other pages. Below is an example of how
Thomas Whitby promotes his online identities, and sites.
(Whitby, 2010, https://tomwhitby.wordpress.com/)
Similar to Angela Maiers, Thomas Whitby is a very active Twitter user. Most of his
tweets are about education and technology in education. He posts must times throughout the day.
So many that he has 70,400 tweets, with 73,200 followers. One way Thomas Whitby gets his
followers is by engaging them by asking them to take a poll in what they want to talk about in
the next #Edchat. Whitby is the founder of #Edchat which allows for individuals to discuss
controversial education topics. Below is an example of how Thomas Whitby engages his
followers on his Twitter account.
Online Identity Analysis 7
(Whitby, 2008, https://twitter.com/tomwhitby)
Thomas Whitby uses his LinkedIn profile as a digital resume for himself, like Angela did.
His page includes detailed lists of previous experiences as well as current ones. Thomas has
posted very few posts, but has made over 500 connections with individuals. With this page, he is
focusing more on promoting himself and his experiences, rather than connected to others through
blog posts. Below is an example of how Thomas Whitby uses LinkedIn to promote himself and
his experiences.
(Whitby,
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaswhitby)
Analysis of Online Identities
Angela Maiers and Thomas Whitby are positive examples of professional online presence
and identities. Their profiles are each appealing, capture interest to the reader and posts useful
information. Both individuals are promoting learning and education through their profiles. They
have both earned recommendations from their coworkers and peers on their LinkedIn profiles.
They also both belong to numerous groups on their LinkedIn profiles, allowing them to connect
Online Identity Analysis 8
and reach out to even more people. Each of these reasons make Angela Maiers and Thomas
Whitby positive examples of professional online presence and identities.
From this research, there are many items I would add to my own online identity. In all
sites, the first thing I noticed was how organized the information was. There was one home page
with multiple tabs to click through. This is very user friendly and will add to getting more
followers. Another thing I noticed was how visually appealing the websites were. Nothing was
over powering and everything made me want to look more. Visually I will use my findings by
making sure my PLE is organized, user friendly and visually appealing. Besides the visuals of
the websites, the information is just as important. In both, the individuals promoted themselves.
They talked about all of their past experiences, and what they are currently doing. They used
their pages to get more followers or to get people to use them for various things like speeches, or
conversations. I enjoyed reading each of their blog posts as well. They were written very
professionally, and was about current topics, such as technology in classrooms. Their posts
would either be opinionated or informative. If it was informative, they would add links and
pictures so followers could learn more about the topic. For my PLE, I plan to incorporate my
experiences, as well as what I am currently working on. I also plan to add blog posts that are
more informative rather than opinionated. I was more interested in reading about their
informative posts rather than the opinionated posts.
Online Identity Analysis 9
References:
Maiers, Angela. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelamaiers
Maiers, Angela. (2007), Retrieved from https://twitter.com/AngelaMaiers?lang=en
Maiers, Angela. (1999). Retrieved from http://www.angelamaiers.com/
Whitby, Thomas. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaswhitby
Whitby, Thomas. (2010). Retrieved from https://tomwhitby.wordpress.com/
Whitby, Thomas. (2008). Retrieved from https://twitter.com/tomwhitby