What Do You Want to Be Known For? Authoring Your Public Identity with the Press, Social Media and AI

Want to do something big in the world? Hard to do that if no one knows who you are. Or worse, if what they know is wrong.

Whether you want a summer internship or a seat in the Senate, a seed round for your startup or a lab of your own, a published book, a podcast, or a million followers on social media, people have to decide they trust you – and then say yes. Long before they meet you, if they ever do, they’ll meet your online presence. They’ll create a story about who you are from whatever they find: your LinkedIn page, your Instagram, a Crimson article you were quoted in, a 5k you ran sophomore year and now, whatever AI says about you (if anything!)

All of this means that it’s critical you learn how to tell your story well, so that the press, social media and AI reflect how you wish to be seen. You’ll learn to be the author of your story, and not merely the subject.

The workshop will cover:

• Deciding what you want to be known for, and why
• Learning what a compelling story is, and how to tell yours
• Confirming your story matches your intention, and that your online self aligns with your offline one
• Understanding how the press, social media and AI each decide who you are, and how to work with them instead of against them
• Leaving with a step-by-step plan to launch your public identity

This workshop is for Harvard ID holders only. Space is limited! A plentiful dinner & dessert will be served, with gluten-free and vegetarian options! Fill out the quick application by 10 pm on Monday, November 9th; early applications get priority. Acceptances go out by email November 10th.

The workshop is taught by Julia Allison, who “pioneered internet fame” according to The New York Times and was credited by Rolling Stone with “inventing being an influencer.” She is currently a Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, where she studies the future of influence.

A print and TV journalist who was simultaneously building her own audience online using the then-new tools of social media, Julia appeared on the cover of WIRED at 27, as the prototype of a new kind of media figure: the creator. Beginning her career as the youngest full-time legislative staffer in the 107th Congress, Julia has written for publications including The New York Times, ELLE and The Guardian, and has appeared as a commentator on every network from CNN to MSNBC to Fox News.

She spent the past decade advising entrepreneurs, scientists and academics on how to get known, landing them in outlets including The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the cover of San Francisco magazine, and building their social followings from zero to hundreds of thousands.

She holds a BA in government from Georgetown and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School.