My First Twitter Chat Experience: Finding Out More About LinkedIn

Last night I participated in my first Twitter Chat experience ever. I'm still working on getting the hang of using Twitter, so I'm really glad that my strategic communications class assigned us a Twitter Chat assignment. We were asked to attend an entire Twitter chat session and contribute to the chat.

The chat session I chose was #LinkedInChat. This chat session focuses on answering peoples questions about using linked in and people also give advise about how to make your LinkedIn profile better.

I just recently created a LinkedIn profile and I am working on improving it's quality and contents. The chance to get some questions answered and see other people's questions and answers really helped I believe.

Here are some of the tweets I sent out using #LinkedInChat:

It was great to contribute to the chat and I actually got some great feedback from people I directly asked questions to and even people I didn't. I look forward to attending more Twitter Chat sessions that relate to other areas of interest I have in my professional life as well as my personal life.

The #LinkedInChat chat session happens every Tuesday night from 8pm-9pm. The hour I spent attending this chat session seemed to fly. Everything seems to happen so fast. I could barely keep up with all the tweets attached to the hashtag for the chat session. 

The one thing I really liked about this chat session was that even though the moderator, Viveka von Rosen (@LinkedInExpert), provides a discussion topic for each nights chat session, you can ask her any question you have. It does not need to relate to the discussion topic, it only needs to relate to LinkedIn.

I would definitely suggest people who want to get advice on making their LinkedIn accounts better attend this twitter chat session.

Social Media Profiles Serving as the New Resume

Many companies are focusing more and more on their social media presence these days. With that being said, looking for new employees to already have great social media reputation and professionalism is key. 

Time magazine recently reported that a Jobvite survey of over 1,000 companies found that 92% of employers said they will use or already use social media as a means of recruiting. They even seek out shared connections on social network sites and even message potential candidates directly.

Having a strong presence on social media can be an effective way for people to get noticed by companies, as hiring practices are moving away from emailed resumes and job board postings. 

The best way to get employers to even look at you in an online format is to make sure your name is a search magnet. If employers look you up online and can't find a single thing about you, your chances of getting the job, through social media or not, are less likely.

Recommended ways of getting noticed online include:

• Maintaining blogs,
• Keeping active LinkedIn profiles
• Posting evidence of professional skills
• (YouTube video of an impressive speech)

So, when making posts on your Twitter and Facebook, make sure you are being aware of what you are writing, how you are writing, and who is able to see what you have written. Hopefully you already have nothing to worry about and can use your social media profiles in a more professional manner.

Instagram: Now on Your Computer and For Your Business

A few weeks ago you may or may not have noticed something interesting about your Instagram. Instagram announced that they would now be allowing users the ability to browse their entire Instagram feed on the web, just like they can on their mobile devices.

Users are able to use the web to do the same things they can do on their mobile phones. Browse through photos, liking photos by double-clicking or clicking the like button, and conversing with others through inline commenting. 

Instagram felt a strong need for the creating of a web page to allow more accessibility to it's  ever growing community.

The website is only meant to allow browsing through your Instagram feed, as Instagram is focused on keeping the taking of photos to be on the go, in the real world, and in realtime.

Instagram is proving to be a great platform for companies to start using as it gives their followers a more unique and visual form of interaction with the company. Many clothing stores and event planning companies are finding Instagram to be a very valuable asset.

Reasons businesses should use Instagram include:

• Showing your products
• Showing how it's made
• Going behind the scenes
• Showing what your products can do
• Giving a sneak peek
• Showing your office
• Sharing travel experiences
• Introducing employees

Twitter and Facebook are known for being the leading social media outlets, but now it's time to start making room for Instagram.

Push for More Social Media at the Oscars

The 85th Academy Awards are expanding their digital outreach with the help of the stars. The Oscars will have photo booth style set-up back stage at this Sunday's show where stars will be able to take pictures with the help of a "Twitter Mirror." Stars will be able to snap photos of themselves and send them out via Twitter, on the academy's official Twitter account.

The mirror will be set up back stage in the green room where stars go before they make their appearance on stage. This gives viewer and Twitter followers to get a look at what goes on backstage at the Oscars, and area normally closed to press and photographers.

The show is also introducing a new video feature that allows fans to instantly view show highlights on-demand after they happen and share with people through Twitter and Facebook. 

Oscars.com will be featuring behind-the-scenes interactive features, as well as a new live blog that collects the show's presence across social media.

The academy's push for a better social media presence is sure to garner new fans of the show as well as connecting with all of the current Oscar fans.

Make sure you watch the Oscars this Sunday and be aware of how affectively the show is using it's new social media practices. 

Interested in Internal Comm Now?

In today's class we had a guest speaker from JP Morgan Chase come and talk to us about internal communications and what she does as an internal communicator for the company. Amanda Atkins is the AVP of Corporate Communications for the company

First and foremost, she was an excellent guest speaker. She really knew what she was talking about and had great tips to share with us on being a successful communications professional. 

Her tips included:

• Building great relationships within the company, both people at the top and bottom of the hierarchal ladder.
• Knowing your business. Not only your own company, but others in the same industry as well.
• Capturing the voice of the speaker you are writing for to ensure authenticity.
• Knowing your audience. Where are the people you are communicating to? What do they do?
• Ensure the messages you create and distribute are easily understood, relevant and actionable.
• Listen to the feedback from those you support.
• Keep your journalism skills sharp. You want to be the strongest communicator in your company.

Some tips I found on my own while researching more on internal communications include:

• Timeliness and transparency are next to godliness.
• Nurture your company’s personal web.
• Your managers are your local spokespeople.
• Survey the staff.
• Follow through with all feedback.

After hearing the presentation from Amanda, and then researching on my own, I think I may have found a new area of communications I might seriously consider looking into besides just public relations.

BuckeyeThon: My Experience For The Kids

I recently attended one of the most inspirational and moving philanthropies and fundraisers on Ohio State's campus. BuckeyeThon is as they put it "Ohio State's premier student philanthropy and Ohio's highest fundraising dance marathon. Buckeyes coming together to fight cancer For The Kids!"

The event lasted from 8pm on Friday night until 11pm on Saturday night. BuckeyeThon benefits the Hematology/Oncology Department of Nationwide Children's Hospital with the ultimate goal of ending childhood cancer.

During and before the event I sent out a few tweets about what was going on and the fun I was having. I used my Instagram and Twitter the share these moments.

Many other Buckeyes were sending out tweets and Instagramming moments from the event. One hashtag used relentlessly throughout the event was #BTFTK, which meant "BuckeyeThonForTheKids." 

This was a wonderful event to participate in on campus and was really great and easy to use social media like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for. I definitely plan on attending this event again next year.

Welcome to my blog...

I am starting this blog as part of a class assignment, but hopefully it can turn into something more outside of this class. The class is Comm 3334 at The Ohio State University, and our instructors are Alyson Moses and Kaylea Annen. The purpose of this class is to expose us to the various types of communications mediums in the current public relations environment.

My personal experience with communications is that I am an Agricultural Communications major at OSU. I chose this major because I have a passion for the way people around the world communicate. Not only about agriculture, but anything else that is a heavily discussed topic. My background just happens to be in the agricultural field.

As I am looking more into what I see myself doing after college, I just keep coming back to public relations time and time again. It just feels like that best area of communications where I can actually see what I have to say being of importance to people. I enjoy the thought of being able to use forms of communication that I already use in my own personal life like Twitter and Facebook, and now blogging.

I hope that the thoughts and views I share on this blog are of importance to someone and can be useful in helping to develop myself in the public relations field.