It’s important to have a managed, groomed, academic, professional appearance online. Having a poorly managed (or no) presence can be detrimental.
So: Google yourself. Remember that google is location specific (so you will get different results based on where on earth you are googling from. Have your friends in other areas google you and check the first few pages to see how it’s different in different areas.)
It’s time to begin (if you aren’t already) monitoring and consciously constructing your online identity. This includes your use of “public” sites, like these. Sign up for all the things that are likely to be top hits in google, so when people search for you they will find these kinds of carefully maintained profiles.
A word on Facebook: Shut it down. Lock it up. It should NOT be public. Watch events particularly (and tagging of images.) Monitor what your friends (especially those with more public profiles) post about you, too.
A word on Twitter: Consider having a public and a professional account. (A tip: tweetdeck!)
You should also have a portfolio site of your own. There are many free sites you can use to create an online portfolio. I’ll teach you today to use wordpress.com (but you could also use any other blogging platform you like, or a site like Wix, or Weebly…..)
Sample sites:
Common tasks:
- joining wordpress.com
- customize the theme (the look of the page)
- If you want to REALLY customize it, look for a theme with a custom header.
- create new pages (wordpress.com tutorial |
- customize your menu
- creating a post (video tutorial | alphabetic tutorial)
- Here’s what all the toolbar buttons for formatting text (and such) mean. (It should feel like MS Word.)
- add an image (video | text)
- add a video (video | text)
- adding widgets (i.e. embedding links to your class sites as a blog roll, mirroring your tweet stream…)
d.c. lackey 