Week 7 EOC: LinkedIn

The social networking site LinkedIn is a way for small business owners to help expand their company by "linking" up with potential employees. LinkedIn can be considered the professional side of social networking. As a user of LinkedIn, you can join different groups of interest to keep up with the latest updates in the industry/area of interest. Most of the news coming from these groups are from the companies themselves and as a user you are able to join threads and have discussions with other professionals in the industry of your choice. There is a lot of opportunity to connect with others in your area of interest through this social networking site. LinkedIn is also free; so what they give you access to can help businesses find potential employees, help people connect with other professionals in their area of industry, and keeps people up-to-date with the latest news of the biggest companies in their field. As good as that may sound to a lot of people, LinkedIn has a lot of other problematic things especially with the spamming. Here are some Pros of the social networking site, "Keeping up on the news- Users can access LinkedIn Today which organizes content from the web and categorizes it into certain industries. It can be a useful source for keeping up to date on topics in your field such as social media or marketing(https://sites.google.com/site/linkedintheprofessionalnetwork/home/pros-cons)." This is highly valuable to everyone because it keeps them up-to-date in the industry of their choice. "LinkedIn has the potential to help people move up in a job industry or potentially change careers (http://www.indianapolisrecorder.com/business/article_018e1ab4-0e5f-11e2-843b-0019bb2963f4.html)." This is another Pro of the social networking site LinkedIn, it has a lot of power to connect you with people within your industry leading to life changing careers and being able to move up in your field of choice. "anyone can search, find, and read the posts that you've written without being a connection.(http://socialmouths.com/blog/2014/03/11/linkedin-publishing-platform/)."This allows for people outside your network to see what you post which allows unlimited connection power between people. Now here are 3 cons of LinkedIn, "Spam- Spam always finds its way into social media sites and although can be filtered out, it is sometimes difficult to prevent it completely (https://sites.google.com/site/linkedintheprofessionalnetwork/home/pros-cons)." Just like any other social networking site, spam is inevitable and their is quite a bit on LinkedIn. "LinkedIn paid subscription is quite expensive and may not be affordable to small business owners (http://www.corpmagazine.com/technology/digital/the-pros-and-cons-of-linkedin-for-a-business/)."  Another down side to LinkedIn is that in order to get the full experience of LinkedIn you need to pay for all the extra features. "LinkedIn’s “request to be linked” process is cumbersome and not as real-time as a connection request on a Facebook Fan page or on Twitter (http://www.corpmagazine.com/technology/digital/the-pros-and-cons-of-linkedin-for-a-business/)." When you request to connect to someone it can take some time for that person to accept your connection and isn't as fast as people may want it to be. LinkedIn has some good strengths especially if your a small business that is starting out. You have a good amount of access to people who are in your industry. 

Week 6 EOC: Seduction of the Online Web Surfer

One thing that is very important to a student of the arts is an appealing website.  An appealing website just like anything else has certain characteristics that help make web surfers keep coming back for more. "A site must be visually appealing, polished and professional. Remember, it's reflecting your company, your products and your services. Your website may be the first, and only, impression a potential customer receives of your company. (http://www.spritzweb.com/resources/good-website-characteristics.html)." Your website ultimately represents you. The way it looks is definitely the major player in if people decide to come back to your website and ultimately decided if they want to invest their time and money into your skills of trade. I will definitely have my website looking clean, neat, and inviting. The color scheme will be easy on the eyes and everything will stand out, while navigation of the website will be very easy. "Content is king in the web world. People visit websites for the primary purpose of finding content, so make sure you deliver. Website content should be unique and up to date. Fresh content will keep visitors and search engines coming back for more. (http://www.successdesigns.net/articles/entry/characteristics-of-a-good-website)." Another way to capture the attention of online web surfers is to constantly update your website with fresh, new daily content. If you don't do this, then your web page becomes another cobweb and it won't attract new people to your website. One way to do this is to link your social media profiles that show up on your home page of your website. As long as it's relevant to your company and what you do, you should upload it to your website. People of the internet are always looking for new, fresh content.    

Week 5 EOC: How will you organize your job search time and follow up to get results?

In order to successfully get a job, you need to make time and follow up with companies you have applied for.