The Final Round... Personal PR #6

Over the past 16 weeks, I have turned into a complete believer of the power of social media. I see it as a great way to connect with friends, customers, future employees, companies and a wonderful way to market. I can honestly say times are excelling with social media, but the only way to be a part of this progression is fully utilize the tools.
Below is once more, my version of a Mashable post titled, "4 Tips for Optimizing Your Resume with Social Media," about the power of social media and more specifically to enhance resumes and job hunting.

1. Link to Social

Approximately 10.9% of resumes includes some type of social media link. This percentage amount is not set as the number of social media sites are continuing to grow and make an impact on the hiring process. Tip: Include URLs to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and any other highly used social media sites. This addition to your resume allows for less hunting for the potential employer.

2. Fact-Check Yourself

Keep updating your LinkedIn, resume and any other professional sources. As a professional or one in the midst, it is a good idea to be constantly trying to improve yourself and add to your experience. When you do something that is worthy of any of the above mention networks and sources, add it! It can't hurt to show off more wonderful things you have done or accomplished.

3. Don’t Just Copy/Paste

Your resume is full of content that also works great for your social media profiles. Feel free to use information from your resume for social network sections like “work experience,” “about me,” etc.
Select a couple of the best lines or experiences to share, not just a copy and paste. If you share everything online, why would they need to call you in for more information?

4. Use Keywords for SEO

Research the job you're applying for. Check for words or characteristics that most commonly appear in this search and utilize them. Keywords can be so helpful with SEO and could score you an interview or job opportunity if you match enough of the qualifications needed. *Side note: Do not falsify the information in order to get the words into your resume, LinkedIn or other professional networking sites. The last thing you want to happen is to be caught in a lie!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas break that is! I am so thankful to only have papers and projects for finals. I can't be more excited to be home and with my family. I know that for most finals week has already been the biggest drag of the semester and I'm sure next semester I will be right beside them in that boat.

Since my ONU life has dwindled due to everyone studying and me working on papers and projects, I thought I would share with you some fun Christmas crafts and facts. As a mid-point in my procrastination to not work on my assignments, I found a couple sites and blogs that caught my interest and I would like to pass them along to you!

From Inviting Smiles, 15 fun facts about Christmas!  

1. Christmas is a blending of the words “Christ” and “Mass”
2. X-mas comes from the Greek X which means Christ
3. The first Christmas card was created in 1843 England
4. Electric Christmas tree lights were first used in 1895
5. Coca Cola was the first soda company to use Santa in advertising
6. Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer was created in 1939 by and for Montgomery Wards
7. Of all holiday shows, “It’s a Wonderful Life” is the most shown on television
8. Santa Clause first shows up in Turkey in the 4th century
9. One of the most popular Christmas songs, “Jingle Bells” was actually written for Thanksgiving
10. Christmas didn’t become a US national holiday until after the Civil War
11. Mistletoe was used long before the birth of Christ. It was believed to be magical and used by the Druids as part of their winter celebration
12. The needles of Christmas trees (pines, firs and spruces) are an excellent source of vitamin C.
13. The most popular Christmas ballet is “The Nutcracker”
14. The White House was first decorated for Christmas when Franklin Pierce was President of the United States
15. Holly was originally brought into homes during the winter to drive ghosts and demons away during the long dark winters of Northern Europe.


Now that the semester is coming to a close and there is a really long break ahead of us students, here are my three favorite blogs which share simple Christmas craft ideas.
- It's a Creative World:
- Deck The Halls Of Home with Jolly: 
- See Jane Blog:

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and an even better New Years!

Happy studying and/or crafting!

Tis the season..

...to start internship hunting. Thankfully, with my new online resume I am able to amplify my oppotunities to come in contact with the perfect internship! This online resume allows me to share my social networking sites, leadership, education and experience all at the click of the mouse. Need a new way to interact with potential employees or internship advisors? This can open up opprtunities to share what you have to offer!
Check out weebly to start making your online resume today!

We have learned all semester and in all books how to properly market and measure with social media. In "Groundswell," "Measure What Matters," and "Real-Time Marketing and PR" have all shared that fully utilizing Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, other professional networks, tags, keywords, etc. can't hurt and often lead to a greater possibility of getting an interview or job offer.

For more information on measuring social media, how to measure customers and employees and what social media can do for you, check out the above mentioned books!

Can You Digg it?

Technology is always advancing. To keep up with just about anything, especially technology, one must work in real-time. Below are some tips from The Groundswell part one.

1. Technology changes rapidly.
The worst thing to do is constantly worry about keeping up with the times. Even though your company or organization needs to change with the times to stay in the game, the focus should be on the relationships made while on these technologically advanced sites.

2. Utilize blogs, videos and podcasts.
Why, you may wonder...they are cheap and easy. They encourage interaction and comments which leads to better feed back from customers for the future of your group. Best thing to do when a member comments: comment back. It can stop a crisis in the making by a simple, "we are working on the issue, thanks for the suggestion," will suffice.

3. Tags/ Hashtags.
The end of the line, use them .

4.Evaluate the new technology.
It is nice to make sure your group has the most cutting edge technology, but if it doesn't give you what you were hoping or looking for, why still use it? Find something that suits your company or organization. Also, check out all technology. This allows your organization to be accessible and easier to find credibility in the consumers' eyes.

Now it is your turn! Go out there and take advantage of the new technologies and maintain your relationships with your customer. Use these new technologies to make sure the public is happy and use it as an evaluation stage.

Do I really enjoy this? Personal PR #5

I have come to realize I can actually enjoy the research I am conducting. For my Advanced PR Writing class I have been doing research on comprehensive education versus abstinence only education in public schools and I love this research.

The reasons I am so excited about this project is because: A. I enjoy the controversial topic, B. I plan to work in a school district or at a university and sex education is a hot topic at least within the school districts, and C. I can have an opinion and then have strong facts to back up those thoughts. Now, I know all research is like this, but I have been doing other research this semester and it just seems boring in comparison. To be honest, the other research has been difficult for me to stay on top of because of its lack of excitement and my growing lack of interest.

Thankfully, with the topic of sex education in schools, I have been able to find articles ranging from highly opinionated to just the facts to research projects on both ends of the sex education spectrum. I don't believe that my excitement for the research comes from the topic alone, but the fact that it is controversial. The more controversial the topic the more I seem to be interested in it, therefore, the more work I put into the project.

Helpful tip time! 
Research doesn't seem like it would be something to get pumped about, but if you are able to find a genre or topic you are passionate about the research won't be enough to satisfy your knowledge need. To find what you might be interested in researching think of the topics you question a lot; does it have to deal with your careers current job market, your favorite sport or a value and moral belied? When you can figure out what thought provokes you most, you will more than likely find your topic for research. Who knows, this may lead to (for college students) a capstone project, undergraduate research and if you are highly involved maybe even a career in the field of research you are studying.

Happy researching!

Now or never?

Even though I am beyond excited to go forth to graduate school and get a grown-up job, I still want my time to last here at ONU. I want this last year and a half to go slower so I have more time to experience more things and have more chances to take advantage of these opportunities.

I am going to need some feed back on this one... I am considering applying for a Resident Assistant (RA) position. Since I want to work in a student involvement office at a university, I figured having some experience in ResLife would be a good foundation.

The thought of being an RA snowballed into me trying to become more active in a couple more organizations. So, since most of the election processes for the organizations I am in are currently taking place, I have decided why let my last year go by with free time?

By the end of the elections/ appointing is done I hope to have a position in every organization I am involved in. I am beyond excited for these new experiences and to work with an array of fellow students.

I think I'm crazy, but I cannot wait to be busy again!

I'm reading your mind.

Measuring what employees think would be so much easier if we had the super power to read minds. It is impossible to please everyone and knowing this can help in making the most important improvements. In consistent nature, I am going to talk about the seven steps to how to measure what employees think and how to take action to improve relations. This is taken from the wonderful Katie Paine's book "measure what matters."

1. Understand the environment and where they really get information.

Know your employees, their dynamics and their duties. Understanding them and their environment, it'll be easier to relate and to fix any problems.

2. Agree on clear, measurable goals.

Don't be over estimate your abilities, but do as much as you can handle to better your organization

3.Select a benchmark to compare to.

See what other companies are doing for their employees. Look at the companies who are on the same level as yours.

4. Define criteria for success.

Make sure all goals are going to make your organization and employees successful.

5. Select you measurement tools and collect data.

Get tools to measure, communicate efforts and prepare for analyzation of the results. 

6. Analyze and take action.

Look over data thoroughly and make a plan of action to fully cover results to the best of your company's abilities

7. Make changes to improve.

Implement your plan because employees are expecting change to happen.

These steps are self-explanatory and easy to understand and follow. Overall, "measure what matters," was a very helpful book that took measuring to a new and easier to obtain level. Have some time? Read away!