Jamie DeLoma ‘06, MS ‘11, senior director of live channels and editor of Quinnipiac Today, sat down with students in the Rocky Top Student Center on the York Hill Campus for an engaging discussion on March 27. DeLoma arrived with pizza to share and plenty of insights to help students confidently navigate the digital world and develop an impactful online presence of their best selves.

His discussion closed out Quinnipiac’s 2025 spring semester adulting workshop series. With topics ranging from meal prep to financial awareness, the annual series provides undergraduate and graduate students with important skills and knowledge to assist them as independent adults.

DeLoma said college students may readily grasp the importance of building a strong professional resume, but the critical step of creating an equally strong and positive digital presence is greatly underappreciated.

Students across all disciplines who mindfully create a positive digital footprint will build their personal brand and vastly amplify important networking opportunities. DeLoma recommends maintaining public accounts such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and LinkedIn while always being mindful of the information that’s being shared.

“Always make sure of the imagery and the verbiage. You have this incredible opportunity where you’re able to demonstrate your skill set, your portfolio and your writing abilities,” said DeLoma.

A key factor is to control your own narrative.

As a starting point, DeLoma recommends conducting a Google name search or asking AI to scrape the internet for results.

“By doing that, you’ll start seeing the threshold and the baseline of how we are represented as individuals,” DeLoma said. “One of the things we’ll probably see is social media coming up high. The beauty of your social media is it’s one of the very few opportunities where you’re controlling the narrative and you’re controlling what is being said about you.”

DeLoma said students should also be aware that part of their digital footprint is constructed by what they are liking, commenting and sharing from other social media accounts.

“You can like something that can tarnish your brand. If you’re supporting a post that can be perceived as negative, it’s public. Doing that also affects your footprint in terms of the type of content you’re now going to see, which is now going to influence you, because the algorithm is going to drive that content toward you further,” DeLoma said. “Conversely, it’s going to help paint the picture of you as an individual based on your comments and engagement because your friends and connections on social media are going to see your name on the post you’ve engaged with.”

With a better understanding of problems or inaccuracies cluttering their digital footprint, students can work to move their positive narrative forward. DeLoma discussed several ways to gain digital momentum. An immediate step is to take charge by implementing and increasing online activity and presence.

When curating personal social media, posting consistently and understanding algorithms will greatly enhance the care and feeding of a positive digital presence.

“Building a personal brand is a matter of consistency, which is the number one driver of algorithms,” DeLoma said. “As individuals we want to find reasons to post information so that we stay in people’s feeds and we stay relevant.”

Algorithm awareness is key to curating social media such as TikTok, currently the most popular platform among students.

“When you post a TikTok video, one of the misbeliefs is that it goes out to all your followers, but there’s a very specific formula on the algorithm,” DeLoma said.

TikTok shares content with a calculated percentage of a user’s following, then shares the content with more users based on the initial engagement. 

“If the initial users who see your content don’t engage, TikTok is going to view that as not interesting and won’t send it out to a wider audience. This is why a lot of people talk about the 200-person jail. They’re getting no more than 200 to 250 views because TikTok is pushing this material out there, and no one’s engaging, and so the social media giant is not sharing it with more people,” said DeLoma.

Switching gears to Instagram reels, DeLoma said engaging viewers to generate comments is key, as opposed to aiming for likes or shares.

“With Internet reels, comments are the most valuable of all, in terms of the algorithm. So writing prompts, asking questions and even just commenting ‘Thank you @...’ right on your Instagram post is incredibly huge.”

Other Instagram-boosting strategies DeLoma shared include the potency of hashtags, the fantastic opportunities collaborations can create to leverage two audiences, and taking advantage of Instagram user tools such as Creator Studio.

“Creator Studio will allow you to see what the trending audio is on any given day, and then you’re going to be able to leverage that,” said DeLoma.

Social media algorithms prioritize content using popular sounds, increasing its visibility and reach. As a result, using trending audio can significantly increase views.

Monitoring account insights can also put important trends to work in your favor.

“The back end of the insights on Instagram and TikTok is incredibly valuable at telling you when people are most engaging with your content and when you should be posting. Be mindful of those hot days and key times,” said DeLoma.

Across all forms of social media, a small advertising investment can go a long way. DeLoma said it’s good practice and something he employs across the multitude of professional and personal digital entities he oversees.

“The beauty of digital, in general, is it costs very little money to advertise in comparison with legacy media, and you can set your own budget. Social media advertising is through bid systems. The cost varies based on how widely and how niche of an audience you are trying to reach,” he said.

For as little as a penny per person, a platform’s prescribed advertising algorithm can target any number of individuals mirroring an account’s current followers. 

“The key is you want to target individuals who are more prone to follow and engage,” DeLoma said.

Another critical step toward building a positive personal online presence is establishing a LinkedIn account well before graduation.

“The best time to get a LinkedIn account is your first year because you need to build that before you want it," said DeLoma. "You want to have the endorsements, the recommendations, the descriptions in place to be able to have that brand about who you are as an individual." 

Embracing the advantages of AI will also foster further growth of a positive digital footprint and online presence.

“AI has positive attributes, but it can be a risk. It depends on how one uses it,” DeLoma said. “I think if you’re using it to replace the core fundamentals of writing and writing stories, it’s going to hurt you far more than it’s going to help you because the brain is a muscle that needs to be worked out. But in the right mix, it’s positive, like using it to ideate and come up with concepts and different ways of looking at things, or to notice trends.”

Students also had the opportunity to ask DeLoma questions to learn more.

Following the workshop’s information-packed hour, participating Bobcats agreed they were taking away a wealth of information and knowledge which they can immediately put to work.

First-year dual-degree student Eve Behrens '27, DPT '30, said she’s just beginning to promote her online presence with LinkedIn. As an active student volunteer serving on numerous Quinnipiac advisory boards, Behrens also has plans to start a Quinnipiac student podcast, “Beyond the Quad” in the fall of 2025.

“All of that is part of my digital footprint," said Behrens. "As I start building this framework, hopefully by the time that I graduate, I have this whole layout in front of me and then people can look back on that as I’m going into the workforce." 

First-year student Katherine Contreras '28 joined DeLoma’s workshop on the same day she declared her business finance and computer information systems double major.

“I want to start building my own professional online footprint that will help me improve in the digital world," said Contreras. "This was the perfect opportunity to get a feel for how it works and to make sure I’m doing everything in a professional manner."