Social Media: Managing Your Online Presence

Transcription

1 Social Media: Managing Your Online Presence What does Google say about you? Many employers now run online searches before offering an interview, so your online reputation will precede you. This workshop will take you through the process of developing an active, unified online presence to support your career goals while positioning you as a young professional worthy of your Twitter following. In this workshop, you will: - understand the importance of having a professional, unified web presence - start the process for creating and managing your reputation and accounts - learn time-efficient, professionally-optimized recommendations for using selected social media services - recieve several web resources for learning more about the topics covered For all links and resources mentioned in this workshop, visit our curated list at: Creating a Professional Online Presence with Social Media While you're likely familiar with using online social media for personal use, using these tools to develop a professional online presence can set you apart from the crowd while impressing employers that Google you. Creating easy-to-find, positive content online about yourself is the goal of online reputation management. Your Name, Your Brand: Using social media sites is a great way to produce unique, high-quality content about yourself. Your name is your brand; associating your professional content with a consistent name that you use on resumes will ensure employers have no trouble finding your best content online. If you don't use one already, take the time to create a professional address using the full name you go by. Tie all future professional correspondence to this address. When creating social media accounts, usernames and URLs, they should be a variation of your professional name. Use to see if your username is taken on any given site. In the same way, choose an appropriate, recent portrait photo of yourself that you will use across Social Media: Managing Your Online Presence - 1

2 your accounts. This presents a professional image, as well as consistency throughout your web presence. Get Ready to Get Hired: First off, assess your current social media use. Do this before you start interviewing - employers will often search for you online prior to asking for an interview. 1. Google the name you usually go by (make sure you're logged out of Gmail). What do you see? Are you proud, embarrassed, unimpressed? If these search results were all anyone knew about you, what would they assume? 2. Adjust your current privacy settings accordingly. Determine a list of what you don't want to publicly share, and what's okay to show others. 3. Clean up your current social media footprint. Remove photos, (un)tag yourself, read what you've shared across all social sites as best you can. 4. Be aware of how family and friends share information about you on their profiles. Be up-front about any request you have to protect your privacy and reputation. Creating Professional Social Content You're Proud Of Brainstorming and Gathering Materials: "Before you make any decisions about your online presence, you should be very clear about your goals: why are you online? Who is your audience, and what do they need to know? Collect and/or list all materials you think are relevant to your online presence and the needs/expectations of your audience. After collecting or listing these materials, decide exactly what you want to illustrate about yourself and select materials that do this. In a teaching portfolio, this process can be interwoven with writing a teaching statement in which you reflect on and make claims about your teaching and then provide evidence to support your claims. You can write other statements (e.g., research) similarly." - Developing a Professional Online Presence, Creating and Organizing your Content Online: When your house is in order, start developing or augmenting the content that will represent you professionally. Experiment with various sites, then focus on the ones you like best. LinkedIn Here's some tips to get off on the right foot: 1. Start early. The sooner you develop your LinkedIn profile and start networking, the better. If the social web is all about relationships, relationships are all about time and effort! Social Media: Managing Your Online Presence - 2

3 2. Start connecting with people you know to build your network. 3. Kindly ask for recommendations, and offer one in return. 4. Join groups relevant to your field/interest. 5. Join in the discussion and Q&A section (called "Answers"). 6. Install apps to showcase your work on your profile page. 7. Keep your profile updated! Re.vu & Vizualize.me Once you've got your LinkedIn account as fleshed out as possible, turn all that text into a visually striking infographic easily at or An online infographic of your skills and interest is perfect if you're looking for a creative way to complement (not replace!) your traditional resume without the hassle of designing an one from scratch. Both Re.vu and Vizualize.me import your LinkedIn data, and from there you can customize the page, change fonts and colors, add links, etc. to make it your own. Video Resumes and Channels If you enjoy working with video, creating a video resume or web video series is a great way to play to your strengths and present your personality and skills. Keep your videos short and to the point. Take the opportunity to expound on the key Social Media: Managing Your Online Presence - 3

4 messages you presented in your traditional resmue/cv. Put your videos on a professionally filled-out YouTube channel, and make sure that the YouTube account you use is separate from any current YouTube account. Keep this account strictly for interacting professionally on YouTube and only watching, commenting and uploading relevant videos. When you're ready, share your video links throughout your job search. Don't forget to embed your videos on your blog or website! Sharing Presentations Socially Online with SlideShare SlideShare is the YouTube of slide presentations, and a great way to show off the presentations (and even documents/school papers) you're most proud of. You put all this work into so many papers and presentations during your college career - why should only your teacher and classmates see them? Once you upload a slide presentation, you and others can flip through the slides, share them on social networks, and embed your presentation a webpage or blog post (depending on your settings). SlideShare is also it's own social network, so this is a great place for following other professionals who's presentations inspire you, and commenting on your favorites. Register for free at Social Media: Managing Your Online Presence - 4

5 Blogging and Maintaining a Website as Your Portfolio Now that you've created and shared your professional content online, it's time to bring it all together under one roof. If you're willing to write and produce content frequently, blogging is a powerful way to demonstrate your knowledge, writing, technical skills and personality. Your blog can be your "official presence" online, with links to all your other online accounts. If you do not care to blog, you can build a simple website fast and free to serve as your online portfolio. What kind of content should go on your blog/website? work samples relevant to your career field - writing samples, slide presentations, videos/photos, design work, etc your traditional resume - online and PDF versions (video and graphical versions optional) portrait photo of yourself in business attire (optional) links to all of your professional online accounts Other Free Website Builders If you'd like to create a website/portfolio without a focus on blogging, consider one of these easy and free services requiring no coding: Flavors.me and About.me: Build a basic homepage that aggregates your social media links and accounts. Fast and professional. Social Media: Managing Your Online Presence - 5

6 Doodlekit, Weebly and Yola: you can build your own site with a drag-and-drop interface using their pre-made templates Google Sites/Wikis - If you have a Google account, you can build a fast & simple website Cargo Collective - make an easy, attractive design/art portfolio site Carbonmade - another place to make a simple & professional design/art portfolio site Seelio - a portfolio site for the rest of us (not just for design work) aimed at connecting college students with employers and recruiters Twitter Easy steps to Twitter success: 1. Create your account and fill in your profile details. Take some time to customize your page design. 2. Start searching for professional people, companies and organizations to follow. Get involved in the daily happenings of your industry by following accounts that have to do with your professional interests. Follow influencers and people who have the jobs and/or work for the companies you're interested in. What are they buzzing about? The key to Twitter is to not stop there.once you flesh out your account and get the hang of following people, it's time to start interacting! 3. Start tweeting yourself! If you don't have the time or energy to blog, consider Twitter your "micro-blog". Post your own thoughts about your industry, share interesting links, and most importantly, engage with others. 4. Interact with others - reply to their Tweets, ask questions. Networking is the best thing about Twitter, and the most unique - where else would popular people and thought leaders take the time to respond to individuals on a daily basis? Managing a Twitter Account on behalf of an Organization/Business Once you become an active Twitter user and are confident interacting on the service, managing an account on behalf of a professional entity becomes much more intuitive. Follow other organizations similar to yours to get an idea of how they distrubute content, how much they Social Media: Managing Your Online Presence - 6

7 interact, what their profile looks like, etc. Remember, best practices still apply to businesses - tweet helpfully, interact with other users, have a full profile. For additional guidance, go through the articles on the following resource pages. There are links to articles to help you become a better Twitter user, as well as articles about managing accounts for business. Google+ for Content Creators In the Google Search update called "Search Plus Your World" in January 2012, Google+ pages and content shared via Google channels (YouTube) will be integrated throughly in search results. Tips for Writers/Creators: Fill your "About" page out with as much content as you're willing, but especially the "Contributor To" section (which should link to your blog). This will associate your blog posts with your Google+ page so you'll get a cool author icon next to your content! If you want to be found in Google, get on Google+ and get active. You could end up appearing multiple times in someone's search results, resulting in positive, authoritative exposure for you. Social Media: Managing Your Online Presence - 7

8 Sharing Professional Content on Facebook When done right, your Facebook account can be used professionally. If you'd like to keep your personal account while still sharing professional content, consider turning on the "Subscribe" feature. Anyone who subscribes to your profile can see the content you publish without having to "Friend" you, and the only content they see is what you set as "public". This option gives you the ability to determine when your content is private or public. To learn more about subscribing to others, and how to make your updates private or public, read Facebook's article: Allowing Subscribers to your Profile: 1. Log into Facebook and go to 2. Click the "Allow Subscribers" button. 3. Determine who you want to allow comments from on your public updates and if you want to be notified when someone contributes to your public posts or when you gain a new subscriber. 4. Click Okay. Security Settings + Intelligent Updates = an all-around better Facebook profile The subscription feature may help you solve the long-standing Facebook dilemma of using Facebook personally and professionally. But no matter how well you lock down the content from your personal life, you should still be cautious of what you post. The best course of action is to revisit your privacy settings often, and be more judicious about what you share in general. If you make sure that everything you post or "Like" reflects the values and ideas you want to be publicly associated with, you'll have a profile worth sharing with the world. Social Media: Managing Your Online Presence - 8

9 Managing a Facebook Page on behalf of an Organization/Business There are 4 ways businesses can have a presence on Facebook. Learn more about each of these tools at Facebook Pages - A Page is a business's home on Facebook, specially designed for business needs. Businesses and organizations should never be a profile or a group! Creating a Page is the first thing a business should put on Facebook. If you've ever "Liked" a product or business on Facebook, you've Liked a Page. This means you'll now receive updates posted on that Page in your News Feed. Learn all about how to manage a Facebook Page here: Facebook Ads allow businesses to show users display ads when the user meets the ad's criteria. Ads can be targeted across several demographics, including sex, age, relationship status, Likes, etc. All content you put on Facebook can be used to show you more targeted ads. Learn more about ads at Additional Resources Examples from this workshop and additional resources can be found at: St. Edward's University Career Services website: Contact Information St. Edward's University Instructional Technology Training Office training@stedwards.edu Register for more free workshops at Need time to work on your online presence with assistance from a Trainer? Come by the training room during Innovation Creation Lounge hours. Social Media: Managing Your Online Presence - 9

10 Want to talk more social media? Check out our Social Media Essentials workshops at Social Media: Managing Your Online Presence - 10