On Thursday, I attended the Rose Seminar on building and maintaining a professional or academic online persona. Although I had some experience with this topic since I have a LinkedIn and personal website, this seminar helped me to look back on the online personas I already have and identify ways to improve them. GRF Sam went over some basic principles for online personas while also providing specific tips for the various platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
He emphasized familiarity, consistency, and participation to build an effective online presence. We learned to make sure we understand how our data is used on these sites, to use the same voice/image across multiple platforms, and to participate actively on each platform we use. Regarding Facebook, Sam encouraged us to review our photos and privacy settings to ensure that only the information we want to be visible is viewable by others.
Sam emphasized differentiating yourself from others on LinkedIn especially, since many people are a “[Class Year] [X] Major at Cornell University.” In addition, to ensure consistency across platforms, we should pick a profile URL that is close to our professional names and use this username across all platforms.
One interesting thing I learned was that we can use Google Alerts to be notified when search results for our professional name/email change. Having differentiated online personas will help to bring them to the top of search results for your professional name.
I really enjoyed having the opportunity to write an online bio and receive feedback from Sam and my peers. As we include our name, current position, department, employer/institution, and specific achievements or interests, Sam recommended we keep in mind the context, audience, and purpose of the bio we’re writing. For example, Twitter bios are short and to-the-point. The audience of our bios is colleagues and professionals occupying the jobs or positions we’re pursuing. The bios will give readers a sense of who you are, your background, and the experiences that qualify you as a potential hire.
One of the last points I took away from this seminar was to always respond to personalized emails/messages about career opportunities even if we’re not interested at the moment. A simple thank-you message saying you will keep the information in mind for the future can go a long way and help you get a job in the future. Overall, I really enjoyed this seminar (as well as the seminars from last semester), and I look forward to attending more events like this one later in the semester and sharpening these skills.