Social Media

do not ignore brand management

credit: http://www.conceptcupboard.com/resource-centre/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/36162498.jpg

Why are we doing this?

Social media is an integral part of landing a job. Everyone will Google you. Always. So we’re going to work on prepping your profiles for the job market. Social media costs nothing other than an investment of time. We’re given worldwide access to an audience to display our work and hopefully get some appreciation, and ideally new work commissions.

We’ll also determine the Social Media services you want to be active on. If you aren’t going to use a service regularly, don’t bother posting there. Focus on quality and consistency. Options include: Facebook (consists mostly of people you already know in some capacity), Dribbble (invitation only community – Pro feature has a ‘hire me’ button), Instagram (very informal medium for artists to present their work to a whole different community of people. With the addition of #hashtag searching, you’re able to reach a large audience of people without having a huge follower count right off the bat. Put up some cool lettering shots with tags like #lettering, #handlettered, #handlettering, #typography, etc. and all of a sudden you’ve got 20+ likes and several new followers without having any previous Instagram following.), Twitter (main use is industry networking and staying on top of art/design related news – connecting with people you don’t know), LinkedIN, a blog on your website, etc.

GRADING

1. Complete the 10 questions in the Land Your Brand Exercise (below) and submit on Canvas. [10 points]

2. Complete this PDF and submit it on Canvas. (more questions to identify how you want to portray yourself online) [10 points]

3. Set up a LinkedIn profile (if you haven’t already) by going through all the steps suggested by LinkedIn (it will take you through a series of questions/info to fill out) and be sure to connect with all the other students in class. [5 points]
Endorse everyone else in class with at least one skill you can vouch for (are they good at public speaking? do they know a specific software? etc). [5 points]

4. Fix your Facebook Profile (we’ll check these in class) using the guidelines below. [5 points]

 

The Land Your Brand Exercise

(adapted from Worship The Brand)

In this exercise, list ten things that make you more unique, memorable and different than anyone else on the planet! We recommend that you cut ’n paste the following into a document you can hang onto and refer to as you land your brand.

Now, recall as many of your experiences, stories, memories, philosophies, etc. that differentiate you in each of the categories below:

1) From the men/women on your block?

2) From the men/women in your family?

3) From the men/women with your sexual perspective?

4) From the men/women in your culture?

5) From the men/women in your religion?

6) From the men/women you went to school with?

7) From your closest friends?

8) From the people who do what you do for a living?

9) From the people with your political inclination?

10) From the people with the same hobbies you have?

This exercise may not be easy. Give it the time it deserves, and don’t edit yourself. At first glance, you might not see the connection between what you write down and your work.

Don’t worry about it. Don’t edit. Just do it and see what comes out of it.

And now you’re on the way to Land Your Brand with unique angles that set you apart, and yet also make you intriguingly relatable.


Complete this PDF and submit it on Canvas.


 

Posted on by  on Creative Capital Blog

Many people have mixed feelings about social media, but the bottom line is that it can be a useful tool for artists. Like any other tool we use to share, show or promote our work, social media has the ability to connect more people to the work we are creating as well as to provide greater support for our work. I myself reluctantly came to social media about 7 or 8 years ago. I quickly learned that it was, in fact, a pretty interesting and amazing tool, and since then I’ve learned a few things from trial and error and I’ve learned from others as I share my experience through Professional Development workshops and webinars. Here are a few tips for thinking about social media:

Do’s:

Be yourself. Let your personality come through in your posts, images and comments. Our culture has changed and the lines between professional and personal are blurred. People want to know more about the person behind the creative work produced. Let your life seep in.

Learn how to manage it all. Social media shouldn’t take over your life, and it doesn’t have to. You do not need to be posting or reading all the time. You can use tools to manage the information. HootsuiteTweetdeck and Buffer let you schedule your posts ahead of time. Flipboard lets you read everything in one visually appealing space. And learn how to unfollow/unfriend people so that your news feeds aren’t cluttered.

It’s about quality, not quantity. It’s a cliché for a reason. You can have 2,000 friends or followers that don’t interact with your posts in a useful way or 200 who will promote your work to their friends, share widely (they are a trusted source of information) and interact with you in a way that is both helpful and informative.

Know what your privacy settings are and how to use them. Go look—now if you want! Read through ALL OF THEM. If you don’t understand something, Google it. You have almost complete control over who sees your content, how things get added to your wall or news feed, etc. Knowing that you have done this step will make you feel more comfortable on your chosen social media platforms.

Dont’s:

Don’t be afraid. What you post and share is entirely up to you. I like to say it’s like a cocktail party—you can choose how much you want to reveal to the people you meet. You can make lists on Facebook so that you can share different posts with different people.

Don’t feel like you are missing out. Everyone you know is on Instagram and you’ve tried it, but it just isn’t working for you. That’s okay, you have to find the platforms that really work for you, where your time is most productive. During some cycles of your work, that time should be focused more in the studio than in marketing your work on social media. But if you have an event coming up, you should have a plan to make social media work for you!

Don’t panic about copyright. Some artists fear posting photos of their work because of copyright concerns. Unless you are a digital artist, most of the online images, clips or excerpts you post are not your actual artwork, so feel free to share them. The more work samples you get out there, the more your audience can share with others and build excitement for your work.

Don’t forget about the real world. Sure, social media can make us feel connected, but it is still really important to show up in person. Your network might grow on social media, but to deepen those relationships you also need to have face to face meetings and conversations. Go to the openings, premieres, talks of your peers, mentors and institutions you value. Then you can also tweet, Instagram or Facebook about those real life interactions.


 

NOW…

1. Set up your LinkedIn account. Follow all the prompts and add information wherever you can.

2. Address Facebook (see below).

Facebook
credit: https://www.facebook.com/graduate.fasttrack/posts/930069530385592

Prepping Your Facebook For A Job Hunt

by Jacques Bouchard

If you’re looking for a job in a creative, digital, or interactive field and you haven’t taken a careful look at what’s public on your Facebook profile, you’re doing yourself a tremendous disservice. How you present yourself on Facebook can (and will) determine your chances of being hired.

Consider these numbers from Reppler.com:

  • 91% of hiring agents use social networks to screen prospective employees
  • 76% of these agents (69% overall) check Facebook as part of their search
  • 42.8% of employees will check your Facebook after reviewing an application
  • 69% of HR officers have rejected job applications based on social media reviews
  • 68% have hired a candidate based on their social media presence

Don’t forget that these numbers represent job opportunities in general. It stands to reason that the percentage of recruiters checking out your social presence within our industries will be much, much higher.

So what are these recruiters seeing? Log into Facebook and take a look at what they can see. Chances are there’s a few things there that are best left unseen. Which begs the argument:

Why Not Hide My Profile Entirely?

Well, for starters, you can’t. Facebook phased out the setting that eliminates your profile from searches. And then there’s the fact that recruiters expect you to have Facebook, and if they can’t find it, you may look suspicious to them.

Above that, what you have here is an opportunity to present yourself positively to your employers. Rather than locking down your profile (or deleting it), why not run a little maintenance? This is your chance to proactively impress your employer with your savvy, charismatic, and career-driven online persona. It’s a simple law of business — turn every weakness into a strength.

You should be able to whip that profile into shape in four simple steps:

What goes on the web stays on the web

Step 1: Gain Control Of Your Existing Posts

If you’ve been updating your Facebook profile daily since 2004, there’s simply too much to sort through. Instead, you can choose to automatically limit your old posts on Facebook (and by “old”, they seem to mean anything before 2013). This leaves you with some recent activity to share, while saving you many hours/days in the archives. You can still go back and set individual posts back to public if you want.

Next, lock down your friends list. You have almost no control over their pages, and it’s safest to keep them away from prying eyes. Additionally, Facebook has been rolling out a new feature called “Graph Search” that’s going to allow your friends and relatives appear in searches associated with you. Locking down your friends list won’t protect you from those searches entirely, but it will help.

As a final precaution, you may want to turn off search engine indexing to your Facebook profile. Many search engines cache your posts, which can make them stay visible in search for several months after you’ve removed them from the actual page.

Step 2: Prune Your Profile

A Facebook profile provides more recorded information about an individual — including where you’ve been, what you’ve eaten, who your friends are, etc — than any source in history. When sifting through that information, at least 12% of employers are going to specifically look for reasons NOT to hire you. Make sure your profile doesn’t have that reason.

Eliminate These Red Flags:

  • Negative posts about your previous employer, or anything could be seen as confidential
  • Anything that indicates or implies that you lied about your qualifications
  • Content about drinking, drugs, or illegal activities
  • Discriminatory remarks
  • Content that demonstrates poor communication or writing skills

It’s also a good idea to consider who, specifically, you’re applying to when cleaning out your profile. For example, if you’ve got your fingers crossed for that job at Apple, it probably wouldn’t hurt to unfan “Droid” for the time being. When clearing out your Facebook, be sure to delete the stories (as opposed to hiding them), as they will otherwise still be searchable through Graph Search.

Helpful Links:

Step 3: Clean Up Your Image(s)

When it comes to a job search, Facebook images are asking for trouble. Everyone’s seen your old photos already: this is a great time to get rid of those old beach photos from college, toss up a professional-looking profile and cover photo, and make most of your albums private. This is also a good time to check out your tagged photos and unlink yourself to those fabulously embarrassing photos your friends have so generously posted and tagged you in.

If you go online anonymously, make sure your current profile picture is a different one than you use anonymously. Thanks to TinEye, it’s easy to plug in that picture and link you to many unexpected places on the web.

An example of how a facebook image may be linked to many different websites via a TinEye search

A reverse image search of the profile picture for “Hypothetical Jones” shows 435 matches. A search of your own profile photo will probably bring far fewer. However, it could create a link between you and an online account you might prefer to keep private.

It’s also worth being prepared for the next batch of draconian privacy changes that Facebook will unleash without notifying you (think:The Great Betrayal, where private photos suddenly went public). If you have anything on there that would be REALLY embarrassing/scandalous if it went public, just get rid of it.

Step 4: Be Mindful With Your Future Content

Using Facebook's graph search feature to find people who live near you, whether friends of yours or not.The golden rule here is: “Think before you share.” I would take it one step farther: “Think before your friends share.” There’s nothing worse than having to explain your friend’s “Hey, were you able to get the day off for your interview tomorrow?” post to your boss. I suggest you turn off tag suggest for photos, restrict who posts on your timeline, and keep your e-mail notifications on.

Cross-filtering is possible “example search: People who work at Apple and like the Droid”.

One last thing: take the time to research what your Facebook apps are posting on your wall, and be careful with comments you’ve posted under your name in articles and news stories through your Facebook account. These apps and media outlets want to be found, and they will post publicly on your wall if you let them.

Once you’ve cleaned up your Facebook, it’s time to be a little proactive about what the hiring managers will be seeing.

Do This With Your Public Facebook Page:

  • Reflect a positive, charismatic, well-rounded personality
  • Demonstrate solid grammar and communication skills
  • Reflect your passion for your profession
  • Show off your professional accomplishments and awards

If your hiring agent checks your Facebook before calling you for an interview, this is your first chance to show your face and make a good impression.  A little effort in cleaning up your image online can (and does) make all the difference between losing the opportunity and getting your foot in the door.

social media