On Monday I attended a meeting for the local chapter of the Association of Bridal Consultants, and there was an educational segment on the use of Facebook, Twitter and Blogs for professional networking. I was astounded when the presenter asked how many attendees were on Facebook, and nearly everyone in the room raised their hand! Up until that point I had looked at Faceboook as a mere social avenue- I was aware that many companies out there might look up your Facebook page and therefore you don't want to put up anything that you wouldn't want a future boss to see- but I didn't realize how popular it now is among every generation! My immediate reaction was so run home and update my page and start 'friending" anyone else in the association I can find as they could all be possible business and employer connections. It is also a great way of reminding someone who you are, bridal meetings are once a month, it is easy to forget someone's name in that time but if your friends on Facebook, you can look them up for a quick refresher.
The same speaker also discussed the benefits of a blog. Starting out this semester, I honestly wasn't eager to blog once a week and have had trouble keeping up with it, but now I am glad to be practicing! According to the speaker, who owns a wedding photography business, her website gets about 30-40 hits a day, but her blogs gets anywhere between 300 and 500 hits every day!! Not only does more traffic go through her blog site, but it is an avenue for her to talk about her experiences and offer tips- which in turn gets other photographers asking her questions on the blog and makes her look incredibly knowledgable to potential clients.
Now, when I make another blog post or listen to my co-workers at my internship talk about their Facebook posts on one anothers pages, I'll be looking at the big picture, networking :)
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First thanks for the comment on my blog (it's actually my second, when I found out I had to do one for the class I was excited).
ReplyDeleteI try to get out on the weekends, but lately there have been events over the weekends as well. I always try to do something new, although the beach never gets old. Santa Rosa is the home of Charles Shulz (Peanuts), and I'm in the middle of Sonoma Valley Wine Country (too bad I don't like wine), I'm about an hour from San Francisco so I hope to get there within the next two months.
The hardest thing about it is being alone. The classes here rotate so frequently it's hard to make friends. The group of guys I was hanging with graduated this past week.
I think the whole facebook and blog thing is SO true! My entire family keeps up with me through blogging, some friends too since I am always on the move. *Facebook hint: you can make all your pictures private to all your friends or a select group* For myself, when it comes to networking I don't think they need to see pictures of myself on family vacations or with my boyfriend.
Now that I've written a novel... have a great day, and keep you the good work!
I also agree with you about the whole facebook and blog things. For that reason my boyfriend does not want to have a facebook account. He is afraid that a future employer would check his private through Facebook or MySpace. I realized again those networking tools are very convienient but I have to be careful.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading your blogs!