I found this article at the right time for me to post this as the final blog post for evaluation purposes.

Throughout my time in #sauder464, I’ve been wondering why we should be blogging page after page after page when social media trends seem to suggest that posts should be kept to a minimal set of words or characters. Twitter, for instance, has a 140 character limit. A glance through my Facebook profile also tells me that I don’t normally read posts that extend beyond a few sentences. In 2014, most people access social media platforms via mobile devices on the fly. The only time I find myself surfing Facebook on a desktop or laptop is when I’m being distracted elsewhere like, say, the classroom.

Given that blogs were the first form of social media to exist on the Internet of Things way back in 1994, then why are we still blogging?

This question was pretty much answered by this article.

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/the-benefits-of-business-blogging-ht

Amongst all the reasons that this article states about why we should blog, I like the fourth one the best – blogging drives long term results.

Most enterprises plan for the long run. And I found the solution to a long term eMarketing strategy here. The use of blogs create content that can bring up web traffic and increase the site’s current leads. It is also said to increase Search Engine Optimization.

All it takes is for ONE post to be viewed a couple of times and the post gets ranked higher and higher on search engines. Visitors who find the content useful might subscribe to the blog and hence, regular web traffic is developed. Meanwhile, the rankings in the search engines continue to rise.

Of course, having said all that, content is ultimately what the visitor is looking for and it is the prerogative of the business to generate content that can generate meaningful engagement with the online community.

According to the article, “one hour of effort today can turn into hundreds of thousands of views and leads in the future.” The author also mentioned that 70% of his web traffic in each month does not come from posts that were published in that same month.

So it seems to me that blog posts last way longer than social media posts. Nobody would look up a Facebook post or Tweet about a topic that was posted way back two years ago, but compared to contemporary social media platforms, blog posts that were published back in 1994 are still standing.

Conclusion: Tweets and Facebook posts disappear, and they disappear fast; they get drowned out by the millions of posts coming into our  in each coming day. But throughout this time, blogs are timeless.

This post was inspired by Julio’s class on the 13th of November.

So far, we’ve been taught about how to create a stronger image for our clients on the Internet, how to extend our client’s reach on social media and what not; but what about boosting our own image online?

The first step is to create a LinkedIn account.

As they always say, your network is your net worth. This cannot be more visible on social media where the number of people you know are all transparent and easily searchable at the click of your LinkedIn account.

The second step is to fill up every field where applicable, in detail.

Again, we are out to boost our online image. A detailed profile is a strong profile.

A word of caution here, though. DO NOT LIE ABOUT ANYTHING. Even though each field should be filled up, each field must be authentic. The last thing we would want is to be flagged online for lying about our work experience. This would seriously undermine our credibility and lose the trust of people in our network.

Also, USE THE RIGHT PROFILE PHOTO! Remember, this is NOT Facebook. Our profile photos have to portray the professional side of us.

Next, after ensuring that all fields are filled up accurately, the next item to take care of is to customise our LinkedIn URL. By default, our LinkedIn profiles will consist of random alphanumerics. This can be replaced with our names which will make our profile look so much more professional. The above customization can be done by going to Settings > Edit Public Profile > Customize Your Public Profile URL. This is something that I realize not many people know about.

After this is completed, be sure to be proactive in LinkedIn Groups. Personalizing LinkedIn Email Requests are a good way of showing that we are sincere in connecting with the person that we are connecting with.

With that, say goodbye to mediocre LinkedIn pages! Not from us #sauder464 students at least.

For this post, I revisited one of the webpages that I’ve posted about recently.

Perhaps even five years ago, this would have been dubbed impossible.

From my own experience, many companies that I have applied to are relying on mobile interviews to replace face-to-face interviews. This is something that has been catching on in many HR departments, especially those in Hong Kong. In what is now known as a one-way interview, interviewers post their questions online and candidates like myself would record ourselves on video answering the questions before posting them onto a file server created by the company’s HR department. Candidates usually have three to five working days to complete this interview.

Personally, this has benefited me by saving me time and money by not having to fly back to Hong Kong for face-to-face interviews. It has also given me a greater amount of flexibility to conduct the one-way interview. Now, I can record myself at my own time and space, without having to fly back home to meet the interviewer face to face. I can also take as much time as I want to calm myself and submit my best response.

This is only made possible by new technology that can transmit larger packets of multimedia files over the Internet. With almost everybody carrying a phone equipped with a camera, it makes it all the more convenient for interviewers to conduct such interviews via such arrangements.

Adopted from:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-tolan/4-ways-technology-is-chan_b_2736375.html