Abstract:

Nowadays people use the Internet at any stage of their life cycle. They use ICT to have fun, for educational (scientific) purposes but also for business reasons. The Internet profiles published on global Internet platforms can reflect positively or negatively not only on employee, but also on his employer. They can also act as a powerful marketing tool and improve communication process. Employees’ profiles are often used by university staff in order to present the scientific areas of interests, achievements; offer for students, outside researchers or business representatives; simple, short news and announcements.

The aim of this paper is to present and analyze what kind of information is published by university staff in their Internet profiles and find if the profiles are used only for contacts with students or can also be useful for potential business or scientific partners. The article presents theoretical background about the role of employee’s Internet profile and scientists’ self-presentation on the Internet. Contains the results of quantitative research performed at the end of 2016. The author examined 124 Internet profiles that belong to scientists employed in the Faculty of Economics Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (Poland). Describes various types of information presented in the profile, introduces employee’s profile quality index (PQI) and compares the profile style and quality among the employees of different position, academic experience and the place of employment (department). At the end of the article the author presents the main conclusions and plans for the future research. The research examined only the employees of Faculty of Economics. Exploring only one specific faculty may limit the findings generalizability. More detailed studies should be performed to compare the obtained results with information published by scientists from differed fields of study, different universities from Poland and abroad.

Keywords:

Internet profile, employee profile, online business card, self-presentation, comparative study.