Unplugged

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Em

Social media is pretty much my life. I have a really hard time being away from Facebook for too long. I often prefer YouTube to Netflix, and I probably use Snapchat to check in on friends about as often as I use messenger or texting. I also have a pretty smokin’ Pinterest—my fashion board alone has close to 500 pins.

I do not kid around with Pinterest.

I’m also a very political person, and I love using social media to keep up with folks doing the political work I’m interested in. I take Twitter very seriously, and I do my best to post interesting (and intelligent-sounding) tweets and articles. Even more than Facebook and Pinterest keep me in touch with my friends and beautiful shoes, Twitter keeps me in touch with the world. I love having a public profile and getting to engage with all kinds of folks in a public forum.

So when I found out this summer that I need to be cautious about what I post and say online because whatever I do might be used against my lawmaker, I was a little crushed. I need to be particularly careful about posting things that contradict my lawmaker on social media, which makes sense. But I also know the most about certain political situations in LA county, and I worry sometimes that I might post something related to LA that might get construed to reflect badly on the Senator.

Ok, Em, you say, just give up social media for the summer. Or at least make your handles more private.

That made sense initially. Sure, I can scroll but just refrain from posting, right? Or restrict my followers to close family and friends.

But then I realized that it wasn’t so simple as that.

You see, I use my social media handles to market myself. I am all about LinkedIn. My profile errs on the side of too much information. My Twitter adds extra dimension to the image people have of me after searching my name quickly. In fact, my office’s previous intern told me that part of the reason they hired me was because they found my LinkedIn, and were glad that they could know more about me than just what was on my resume.

That, to me, makes it all worth it. But maybe it isn’t really my decision. I’m not the one who comes up for election in a year or two. And I’m also not the one who makes the rules in the office regarding intern behavior (or anyone’s behavior, really) online.

At any rate, here are my thoughts so far on how to use social media when you’re working for a high-profile person who may be harmed by what you post:

1. Assume anyone you’re working for could be hurt by what you post. Always.

2. It’s easy to stick to news items to tweet. Find someone who’s not a regular headline news source and retweet them. I like to find White House press reporters on Twitter and retweet the quotes they get from media briefings with the President and other officials. It’s an easy way to post something with a little more substance than CNN’s main profile. News = no opinions (just make sure the news doesn’t make your employer look bad) AND White House press team = ooh look how savvy you are.

Reason 2.5 to follow a White House reporter on Twitter.

3. Use your presence to hype up what your employer’s doing. This earns you brownie points with your employer and also might tell future employers that you’re loyal and enjoy the type of work you’re doing.

Still, do these benefits and good ideas outweigh the problems inherent to a public forum system?

So what do you think? Is social media too dangerous to do any good? Or is the leap of faith worthwhile and exciting? Let me know your thoughts on this! I could use a little advice.

Facebook and I are #Frenemies

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Laurel

Alright, I admit it, I have Facebook stalked myself. I have started at the beginning of my tagged pictures, clicked through all 1,000+, untagged, retagged and reposted the ones I find to be particularly embarrassing or sentimental. While I have admittedly considered deleting my Facebook account on more than one occasion, the fact is that I just love social media too darn much to ever consider living with out it. In fact, I love it so much that I spend hours (sometimes too many) on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn and Instagram daily. And, while reading the entire 1,000-tweet Twitter feed of my long lost pre-school bestie is admittedly a time-suck, I have found that my presence on social media forums has increased my awareness of the world around me and may be an instrumental tool in pursuing a career path.

First, social media allows you to not only stay connected with your close friends, but also see what general acquaintances are up to. It is possible that someone you know either works for or was just hired to work for a company you would love to work for. LinkedIn and Facebook would provide an opportunity to network with people to learn about what it is like to work for a certain company or what their hiring process was like. Additionally, many jobs require some sort of knowledge of current events. This could range from politics to the economy to advances in science. While I do read sites like CNN.com and NYTimes.com practically daily, I find that Facebook and Twitter give me the first overview of what is going on in the world. Finally, it is important to acknowledge that a social media is providing entirely new career opportunities. Companies hire social media gurus as part of their PR division in order to increase their effectiveness online. Therefore, social media can help in all stages of the application and employment process.

If there’s anything I’ve learned from my amateur social media experience, it’s that what you do is just as important as what you don’t do. My very first social media experiences were surrounded with parents and teachers cautioning me about what I should not post online. My ninth grade English class learned about predators, cyberbullying and identity theft through Myspace (yes, Myspace) and Facebook. However, from my own experience, I’ve come to think of social media as a platform that allows me to market myself and convey what I stand for. Having a Facebook page filled with your own commentary on new articles says way more to an employer than the fact that you’re not pictured with a red solo cup. So, by all means, be careful about what you post online, but I hope social networking can also serve as a great opportunity to share your thoughts and opinions with your peers, colleagues and friends.

#ThanksForReading

@Laureljaclyn

LinkedIn (Or, Feeling Like my Mom on Facebook)

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Rachel

In terms of social networks, I’ve never wandered beyond Facebook. Tumblr seems like a time trap, and I’d rather leave Tweeting for the birds. But it wasn’t until registering for LinkedIn that I doubted my ability to understand them.

I got confused on the second step of registration. Is my home zip code school, or my hometown? And step five completely threw me off: What’s my industry?

I scrolled through the options, and what kept running through my head was… I’m supposed to pick one of these? The last choice, writing and editing, seemed most accurate, but not particularly official. Newspapers was an option, I’ve worked at several, but magazine journalism or online blogs are more my style. Does that make me in Online Media? But oh, I love Libraries, and I haven’t ruled out Marketing… and what exactly does Media Production entail?

It was time to call in the expert.

“Mom?” I said as our Skype call connected. “Remember that time when I taught you what tagging was for on Facebook? It’s time for you to return the favor.”

For the next hour my mom patiently taught me all the tips and tricks of the website. No, you don’t have any friends on LinkedIn– you have connections. No, the art camp you worked at three years ago isn’t relevant. No, the picture of you in your bikini at the beach isn’t appropriate for your profile. (Okay, that one I figured out on my own.)

Despite the frustration of learning the LinkedIn interface, I came away with not just a better understanding of the website, but also a better understanding of how to market myself. I selected my most important achievements, linked to the articles I’ve written that demonstrate my versatility, and came away satisfied. Satisfied with my profile, and satisfied with all that I’ve achieved so far in my career – things I hadn’t even thought to be proud of until I laid them out for the world to see.

In that spirit, I entered my e-mail into LinkedIn’s search engine to see if there was anyone I wanted to invite to join my network. And then I somehow selected the setting that invited every contact in my address book. Which includes everyone I had ever emailed. My high school gym teacher, a realtor I’d interviewed last summer for an article on the role of Internet in real estate, even the Scripps alum who interviewed me for my Scripps application.

I guess I’m not an expert quite yet. I’ll have to take it one step at a time. And my next step will be searching through the help section to learn how to rescind an invitation.

P.S. Thank you, Mom, for being my first friend – er, “connection” – on LinkedIn.

Informational Interviews

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Lia

I’m not messing around with the title this week, because this is a serious post. I’m writing this blog because I want to help all my readers in their respective internship searches. I promise it’s not all as scary as it seems. Take informational interviews for example. You may be stressing: How do I find someone to talk to? What do I ask? What should I do with that information? What IS an informational interview?

Well, for those of you who don’t know, it’s “a meeting in which a job seeker asks for advice rather than employment.” (Thanks, Wikipedia!) They’re useful for finding out about a specific job, field, company, or individual. For example, if you know you want to get into health care but you’re not sure which direction you want to go, you might set up information interviews with people who work in fields: dermatology, surgeons, pediatrics, nursing, pharmaceuticals, etc.

So how do you get started? Let me tell you what I’ve been up to in the last week.

I mentioned that I contacted a number of alumnae through life connections. Within two days, three had got back to me. As if that was overwhelmingly awesome enough, I set up two informational interviews for the weekend and the third didn’t have time to talk on the phone but told me to e-mail her any questions I have and she would get back to me. In case I ever forget, this is why I love Scripps.

Before I go on, a quick plug: CP&R’s website has an amazing section called “networking” that talks a good deal about informational interviews including how to set one up, what to ask, etc. Please do check it out; it really helped me.

My first information interview was with a 2004 grad who also majored in International Relations. She worked on the Hill in DC until recently; she is now in New York but still working in politics. Although DC life was not for her, she had some good advice for me about finding a summer internship on the Hill and calmed my fears of not finding anything. She told me about some of the specific day-to-day tasks of her old job and what she liked better about her new one. We had different interests, so her Hill career sounded amazing to me.

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Beyond the Elms

Exploring Careers with Scripps Students

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Informational Interviews