I have told my students as well as others that I have met through my guest lectures and other professors at the University of Tennessee that it is very important to have an online presence, especially in this tough economy. There are so many advantages that you will gain if you are active online and having a hand in multiple sites from Twitter to Facebook to having your own web site. My web site has been running now for about 15 years, and yes – it has gone through some major changes (it actually started off as a Val Kilmer fan site 🙂 ) but it transformed into a virtual platform for me in high school where I used it as a recruiting tool for college coaches in track and field to show them who I was as a student-athlete. It paid off for me and established my online reputation in the track and field community.
Now as a doctoral student and retired athlete, I am using my web site and blog to talk about issues that are important to me in public relations and social media, as well as sharing with my family, friends, and colleagues what I am doing in terms of research, projects, and conferences. Also, another benefit of having a web site and online presence is that you never know what job opportunities you may get with it. Being online and reaching out to future employers is key in today’s time – people are actively searching for information about others and at the same time, these individuals are trying to separate themselves from the other potential candidates. Social media allows you to do just that – if you have the skills, knowledge, and experience of operating online – you are in a very good position to get future job opportunities.
So, my recommendation would be for you all is to set up a personal web site to manage your reputation, set up a blog where you can write about issues and topics that interest you, and have multiple profiles on these social networking sites. The key is that you want to have a balanced presence on all of these sites – these profiles should reflect who you are as a person and professional. The key is to be consistent! 🙂
Hope all is well and have a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
0 Comments