LinkedIn – Resumes of the Future

LinkedIn is one of my favorite social media sites.  I was drawn to the site as a junior in college by my scholarship advisor, Justin Lawhead.  He encouraged all of my peers within the Emerging Leaders program to sign up for a LinkedIn account.  At first, I thought that it would be a complete waste of time.  However, it is very interesting to see how many fast you can build a network.  It was also neat to build ‘professional’ connections with people you already knew, but would never friend on Facebook because it might be seen as being ‘unprofessional.’

One of my favorite features about LinkedIn is that it works similar to Facebook, but is a way for your professional network to share topics informally.  It’s a way to share anything from a great article you read to the latest statistics about your best stocks.  I also like the “Groups & Associations” part of my profile.  By joining these groups and/or associations, I am able to easily communicate with members from all different networks.  Meeting other professionals who either share the same interests or career path is a way to connect with and learn from others.  In addition, these groups also have a great way of communicating through the Group Discussions on their respective pages.  I also like that you can customize the settings so that you can receive an e-mail notification whenever someone posts a new topic, article, etc.  Or, if you’re one of those that doesn’t like to be bombarded with every detail, you can change the settings to receive weekly or monthly e-mail updates.

Overall, I think LinkedIn is a great way for professionals to network with one another in an informal, yet professional manner.  Furthermore, I think it provides yet another link between different generations.

Twitter- The new educator.

During my time as an undergrad, I never had the chance to use Twitter in conjunction with any of my classes.  I have friends that are Public Relations, Advertising, and Communication majors, and all of them have used or are currently using Twitter as a supplement to their coursework.  It is neat to see professors, like Dr. Janz, appealing to the new generation of students.  In addition, it is neat to see how we can use social media in a positive light, as opposed to what some critics might say about social media.

Whenever I heard that Dr. Janz would be using Twitter to remind us of assignments, share neat articles, etc., I immediately remembered an article I read last year about how professors can utilize Twitter in the classroom (click the picture to link to the article).  I think it is a great platform to interact with younger generations and can expose older generations to newer waves of technology.  One of the most common ways professors can appropriately use Twitter is by sending reminders about assignments via tweets.  Because Dr. Janz stated in class that this would be one of the ways he utilized Twitter, I immediately subscribed to his tweets.  Subscribing to tweets, something the average Twitter user is oblivious to, is a way to never miss a tweet from a specific user.  For example, if your favorite sports team is playing a game, but you aren’t around the TV, you can subscribe to tweets and get a text message sent to your phone anytime they score a touchdown.  I know there are other ways to keep track of sports, but this is just a simple example.  In the same aspect, I subscribed to Dr. Janz’s tweets in hopes that I will never miss a deadline (assuming Dr. Janz will never miss a ‘tweet reminder deadline’) haha.

Overall, I think using Twitter in the classroom will be seen as a more common practice as schools interact more and advance their technology.  I look forward to the semester in utilizing the Twitter platform as a learning tool.