Visibility Everywhere: Building Web/Social Media Presence for Women in Computing Panel
Presented by: Susan Rodger, A.J. Brush, Tracy Camp, and Patty Lopez
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So you know that scare you get when you see a really long line of people standing by a door to an event you want to attend? Well I have that little mini-heart attack on my way to this event but the world wanted me in this session.
There are many reasons people need/feel the need to create an online presence. As a college student it is very important to have one for jobs. The only thing about your media presence is that you have to be careful because it could end up backfiring on you. So this session is for making sure you have all the positive aspects of a media presence which could ultimately launch your career.
Every part of media was hit in this session from blogs to Twitter to YouTube. Now ironically I’ve typed this blog and notes as the women were speaking and I must say I really loved the tips they gave. The three major topics that were discussed were personal pages, communities, and wikis. I only have experience on personal things so I was excited on getting tips on creating a community and wiki. When considering personal pages make sure that they reflect your good values, and make sure you think about your target audience. If you are trying to be all professional all the time then you need to make sure things that you post are just that, professional.
When creating communities one must find a connection with people and then just let that connection grow to encompass others. You can do this with a simple Facebook group or an email list. Now about the wiki pages. Do you know that most women don’t have a wiki page?!?! I didn’t even know people could have their own. There were some tips given out and it is in this link. So if you are now into creating a wiki page I’ll warn you now you can not make your own, again you can not make your own.
Major tips:
- Keep your online presence up to date
- Tell people your goals and skills
- Find resources but also be a resource
- Don’t cross any company lines trying to sell yourself online
- Update your sites & search for yourself every 3 months (minimum)
- Have your CV/resume looked at by multiple people (especially try doing that before posting it online)
- Be real
So through all of this I realize that as a NC temporary resident I don’t know much about NCWIT so I set myself a new goal for the near future. Also I want to get into this wiki page area but I want to do something amazing before someone makes mine. Anyway, as a side I understand this isn’t really a personal webpage so when I finally get my website set up I’m going to let you guys know, I want to prove that I’m using what I learned.
P.S. for the notes I took click here.