Lab 11: The “Influencer Audit

Lab 11: The “Influencer Audit”

Department: The School of Career & Digital Intelligence

Target Audience: Ages 14–18 (High School)

TEFA Category: Career & Tech Ed (CTE)

“You are a brand. Is your brand toxic?” In the digital age, your “permanent record” isn’t a folder in the principal’s office—it’s the internet. College admissions officers, athletic recruiters, and future employers are all acting as forensic investigators, digging through your digital past to see who you really are. One “edgy” post from middle school or a poorly phrased comment can be the “fingerprint” that costs you a scholarship or a dream job. It’s time to perform a forensic sweep of your digital footprint before someone else does.

The Experience

This is a high-impact, real-world Reputation Management lab. Students will perform a “Live Audit” on their own digital presence. We don’t just talk about privacy settings; we treat your social media history like a crime scene that needs to be scrubbed of compromising evidence.

Participants will use “Scrubbing Protocols” to identify and remove problematic content from the past. Then, we pivot from defense to offense. You will learn to build a high-level LinkedIn Profile that signals professional maturity. We teach you the “Forensic Narrative”—how to describe your skills and experiences in a way that sounds like an expert-in-training rather than just a high school student.

Core Skills Developed

• Digital Forensic Scrubbing: Learning to use search operators and archival tools to find and delete “toxic” legacy content.

• Professional Narrative Building: Transitioning from “Social Identity” to “Professional Identity” by mastering the tone of LinkedIn and professional portfolios.

• Privacy Architecture: Configuring high-level security and tagging permissions to control how your “brand” is seen by the public.

• Network Intelligence: Learning the etiquette of digital networking, including how to request “Informational Interviews” with industry professionals.