The About.Me Site as Digital Portfolio

THE SPACE TO: LEARN

Creating a “me” site As your digital portfolio

wofford.edu/thespace @thespacewofford

Your “Me Site” is your opportunity to create a GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION...


... starting with your “branding photo”


Your branding self-portrait must convey your field and your personality



Your branding photo must instantly fix you in the minds of hiring managers in the role they are trying to fill



Your branding photo must make you appear to be someone who is professional yet warm and approachable



Your Me Site branding photo then becomes: Your business card Your profile picture on

every social media platform Your letterhead, etc.

The rest of your “Me Site” must establish your credentials and make it clear YOU are THE right person for the jobs you’re seeking


Let’s look at some “Me Site” examples that work


Me Sites conveying: The applicant’s PROFESSION


fashion


radio

graphic design


travel writing


broadcast journalism


exotic travel & food writing


music commentary

Former Olympian and congressman now a coach


Engineer and Systems Administrator, Mumbai, India


Faculty, School of Engineering, Saints Cyril & Methodius Univ., Skopje, Macedonia


Junior Copywriter, New York City


Fashion Designer, Cornell University


Architect, Puebla de Zaragoza Area, Mexico


Musician , West Philadelphia, PA


Photographer and videographer, Vienna, Austria (Note the video player!)


This is the new video player on About.me

Photographer and videographer, Vienna, Austria (Note the video player!)


Singer/Song Writer, West Philadelphia, PA


Singer/Song Writer, West Philadelphia, PA

This is the new video player on About.me


Me Sites conveying: A GOOD GENERAL IMPRESSION

(for some jobs, it’s hard to come up with career-related props or settings)


holistic health lifestyle writing


An actress and singer in NYC


A designer in Italy


A video editor and screen writer in Toledo, Ohio


Theater Company Director, Edinburgh, Scotland


Marketing associate at Disney, Orlando, FL


Those were all examples of About.me sites


A strong branding photo A strong tagline or headline* A strong, brief bio* Links to your work* Links to your social media* Links to recommendations

o LOAD these up with keywords relevant to each job that you can change as you apply for different jobs

Keys to a successful “Me Site”


Background Image

While it’s not a career-related setting, the photo works because his smile is warm and winning and he’s utilized depth of field to have the street scene behind him be out-of-focus and less distracting. The page is about Bay, so a sharply focused image helps to convey his personality.

1. BACKGROUND PICTURE


Background Image

The aim is to create first impression of you in the professional setting that matches what the hiring manager is envisioning. Try to find props or a background that make it clear what you are and want to do.

The aim: Career-related settings


MAKE IT HORIZONTAL Horizontal portraits are more flattering, visually interesting,and versatile. They can be horizontal, cropped to a square (think Twitter, Facebook LinkedIn), or a vertical.



Horizontal portraits are more flattering, visually interesting,and versatile. They can be horizontal, cropped to a square (think Twitter, Facebook LinkedIn), or a vertical.

On the other hand, transforming a vertical portrait into a horizontal layout is rarely successful.

MAKE IT HORIZONTAL



Your phone (especially older models) will take better photos close up.The focal point of your portrait is you, not stuff around you. Fill the frame with your face.

GET UP CLOSE



GET UP CLOSE & RULE OF THIRDS

Your phone (especially older models) will take better photos close up.The focal point of your portrait is you, not stuff around you. Fill the frame with your face.

The Rule of Thirds adds balance and beauty to works of art and does the same for a professional portrait. Position your head in the left or right third, and your eyes 1/3 of the way down the screen.



Whether it’s sunny or cloudy, take your portrait outdoors (or even facing a window). Florescent lights make you look sick. Using the flash is worse. It eliminates shadows and flattens your features

NATURAL LIGHTING



NATURAL LIGHTING & TILT YOUR HEAD

Whether it’s sunny or cloudy, take your portrait outdoors (or even facing a window). Florescent lights make you look sick. Using the flash is worse. It eliminates shadows and flattens your features

Angle your forehead down toward the camera. This eliminates extra chins that wreck your photo, and brings light into your eyes. Tilt your head slightly left or right. Do not give us a dating photo, come hither look!



Put yourself in a career- related setting (TV studio, classroom). Or use a neutral or repetitive background (brick wall). Keep the viewer’s eye on you. Busy backgrounds take the focus from you.

SIMPLE BACKGROUND



SIMPLE BACKGROUND; CONSIDER B&W

Put yourself in a career- related setting (TV studio, classroom). Or use a neutral or repetitive background (brick wall). Keep the viewer’s eye on you. Busy backgrounds take the focus from you.

Black-and-white is better. It keeps the focus on the subject rather than “That shirt color is horrendous on her!” B&W images also add formality and elegance



To get the best effect and have your photo fill the screen without variations based on browser window size, open your photo in a photo-editing program (Preview - not iPhoto - if you have a Mac, or the free Aviary, also the free Pixlr). Save it as a .png file type; with dimensions of 1680 x 1050 pixels at 72 DPI.

MAKE YOUR PHOTO THE OPTIMAL SIZE



Once you’ve logged in, click directly on the “Edit Page” link at the top of your page. Do NOT click on the drop- down menu as that gives you several choices, none of which are to edit your page.

PLACING YOUR PHOTO ON THE SITE



When you click on “Edit Page,” a lovely white work box will show up, going automatically to “Backgrounds” (“Backgrounds” is About.me- speak for your photo!). Upload your correctly sized photo and click on “Fill Window” (don’t try the other options; they do strange things to your photo on different browsers!)

MAKE YOUR PHOTO FIT THE PAGE


The name and headline are easy to read in a simple font. People are used to reading B&W text. Don’t get too colorful (but Jacky’s and Kristen’s work because they pick up the color of their clothes). Remember, the best pages are simple, clear, and easy to read.

2. NAME & HEADLINE (tagline)

But Bay’s headline fails massively on one key measure: No KEYWORDS! It’s clever, but it doesn’t advance his objective at all. Remember, you want to maximize your ability to be found in searches for your name and keywords. Jacky’s is better but only has titles, no keywords (e.g., Journalist crafting multimedia content across multiple platforms to entice readers). Joshua’s is perfect.



“Your statement answers what you are the best at (value), who you serve (audience) and how you do it uniquely (USP). It sums up your unique promise of value. The personal brand statement is not a job title. A job title is how others will try to classify you!”

— Jorgen Sundberg, http:// theundercoverrecruiter.com/ how-craft-your-personal-brand- statement/



“Consider your unique values and attributes and develop a 1-2 sentence brand statement answering these 3 questions:

1. What value do you provide? (what problem do you solve)

2. How you do it uniquely? (your USP - Unique Selling Prosition)

3. Whom you do it for? (your target audience)

Do not use fluffy, meaningless (effective, creative, motivated). EXAMPLE for plumber: “John keeps families in Edinburgh (target audience) warm (value) through bespoke heating installations using only the most advanced German boilers (unique)”.


USE KEYWORDS!



Colors and Design

Bay does a great job of matching the design of his Bio box to the main colors in his photo. Notice how the purple of the bio matches the color of his shirt? The black text is the same as his backpack and glasses, and the white headline is visually connected to his headphones. This continuity makes the page less cluttered and more refined.

But don’t get carried away playing with colors and design. The point isn’t how pretty it is, it’s how effective it is and how soon you can get it published and working for you!

3. COLORS & DESIGN


Your Biography

Bay includes many professional accomplishments in his bio – a great choice for someone who is self-employed. But unlike a boring resume or CV, the bio also includes bits about his attitude, goals, and what he can do for the reader. The positive tone and explicit call for the reader to contact him makes Bay’s biography feel more personal and engaging.

4. YOUR BIOGRAPHY


Links to Your Work

In your biography, create a separate paragraph with links to your documents:

•

•

•

“Download my resume”

“Read my papers”

“Read my references”

Build your resume on GoogleDocs and link to it. Ditto your relevant academic papers. And copy your references from LinkedIn and put them on a GoogleDoc, too.

If you don’t like GoogleDocs, you can create Word or Pages docs and store them on any of many document storage sites, like JustCloud, DropBox, SugarSync, Egnyte, and YouSendIt.

4. YOUR BIOGRAPHY


KEYWORDS!! TAGLINE: “Living in Beta” (no keywords) “I am passionate

about helping... period! I

find myself in as many projects as there is time in my day, ranging from online to brick and mortar, mom and pop to Fortune 100, and coffee shops to high end leisure and fitness. I have worked alongside hundreds of startups and have had more than 6k clients in my sales career. I've led teams of up to 20 and have generated $45M in sales in a year. I love to help others realize their potential, knowing that in doing so, I will realize my own. I am what I do, so my career and what I do outside of work are one and the same. I try to have a positive impact on everything and everyone I engage. Feel free to reach out for anything. I'm always here to help.”

4. YOUR BIOGRAPHY

NO KEYWORDS IN THE BIO EITHER!


MORE KEYWORDS

NO TAGLINE (lost opportunity!)

“David J. Peterson is a writer and language creator. He created the Dothraki language for HBO's Game of Thrones, and serves as the president of the Language Creation Society. He currently works as an alien language and culture consultant on the Syfy original series Defiance. He's passionate about art, education and ice cream.”

4. YOUR BIOGRAPHY

CLEAR KEYWORDS: No doubt here: Language Creator, Language Consultant, Alien Language, Language Creation


MORE KEYWORDS

Tagline: Energetic, passionate professional advocating for a sustainable future!

“There is a clear-cut disconnection between the values of civil societies and the environment which encompasses those societies. This is what drives my passion for a more sustainable future forward. I'm pursuing a career, utlizing my multi-faceted background, with an organization with roots in environmental health and sustainability. I look to combine my quantitatively-based education with my professional marketing and writing experiences to catapult my future employers towards their goals.”

4. YOUR BIOGRAPHY

CLEAR KEYWORDS: Environment, Sustainable Future, Environmental Health, Sustainability


WRITING YOUR BIO WITH KEYWORDS

Open a Word document. Copy keywords and keyword phrases from job descriptions of positions you’d like. Look for nouns and verbs. Make a list. Under that list combine the keywords into sentences.

4. YOUR BIOGRAPHY


4. YOUR BIOGRAPHY WRITING YOUR BIO WITH KEYWORDS

As you search for keywords, make sure they resonate with you and that they apply to your experience and/or your vision of your career-launching job. If you have done the work, you can say: “I am...” If not, you can say: “I aspire to be...”

How to write a great bio

1.Target one group Who is relevant to your job-search objective? Hiring managers at target companies! Focus on them. Do not be everything to everyone.

4. YOUR BIOGRAPHY



1. Target one group Who is relevant to your job-search objective? Hiring managers at target companies! Focus on them. Do not be everything to everyone.

2. Understand your target audience; USE THEIR KEYWORDS What resonates with this group?

What do they care about (look at company mission statements or job descriptions of positions you’re interested in). Describe yourself, your achievements, and skill sets in terms that you have in common with this group.

4. YOUR BIOGRAPHY



1. Target one group Who is relevant to your job-search objective? Hiring managers at target companies! Focus on them. Do not be everything to everyone.

2. Understand your target audience; USE THEIR KEYWORDS What resonates with this group?

What do they care about (look at company mission statements or job descriptions of positions you’re interested in). Describe yourself, your achievements, and skill sets in terms that you have in common with this group.

3. Use the PAR style (Problem-Action-Result) Nothing succeeds like story-telling. Part of your bio should be one- or two-sentence mini-stories, describing a “Problem,” what you did, and the results. Saying you’re a creative problem-solver is trite; aproving it with a real-life example is powerful.

4. Above all, be yourself, be genuine and true to who you are Whatever you say, sound true to yourself. Read it aloud. Does it sound like you?

4. YOUR BIOGRAPHY

Your information includes your location, your education, and your employment. Listing your location is a great way to enable people to find your page through about.me. Locations are searchable, and help you find potential connections in your area and help hiring managers find candidates near them. Employment and educational information are other great ways for people to find your page based on shared professional or academic info.

5. YOUR INFORMATION


Most people remember location, work, and educational info, but too many overlook the importance of tags on the page. Tag are a fantastic way to efficiently let people reading your page know about your interests or skills. A good set of tags can get future collaborators, clients, or employers looking at your page for the right reasons.

Are your tags as descriptive as they can be? Would you search for someone using the terms in your tags section? Take this opportunity to check and confirm that you’re using tags to get the most from your about.me page!

6. YOUR TAGS


Here are samples of tags that will get a jobseeker found for what he or she would like to be found for: Job leads!

6. YOUR TAGS


7. YOUR VIDEO, LINKS & APPS


To add video or audio, click “Edit Page” on your home page (not the drop-down). Click on “Links” then “Sound Cloud” or “Youtube or Vimeo”, and paste the URL.



WARNING! Your video player will be as wide as your “NAME” or “TAGLINE/HEADLINE” field. If you have a large name or a long tagline, your video player will be HUGE!


Go to “Edit Page” and reduce either the size of the font or cut some words. It also works to try a condensed font. The best is “Atrament Web” — you can get a lot more words in narrower space


While you’re at it, add links to your blog, online resume, articles by or about you, references, etc. Use the “Edit Page” link, scroll down to “Links” and paste in as many URLs as you’ve got.


Your links will show up under your icons for social media sites


You also need to connect people to your social media sites via About.me’s Apps. You can link visitors to your Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, etc. sites right from your “Me Site”



To add the cool social media icons to connect to your social media sites, click the “Edit Page” icon (not the dropdown menu), and then click on “Apps.” You’ll have the opportunity to connect to all of your social media sites.


A strong branding photo A strong tagline or headline* A strong, brief bio* Links to your work* Links to your social media* Links to recommendations

o LOAD these up with keywords relevant to each job that you can change as you apply for different jobs

Keys to a successful “Me Site”


1. Su bmit yo u r s it e t o Google:

Simply click 'Submit to Google' (https://www.google.com/ webmasters/tools/submit-url). This is Google's Webmaster Tools page for submitting your URL. Scroll to the bottom of the page and and enter your about.me URL. Your page will be “indexed” soon.

NOW PUT YOUR SITE TO WORK!

http://www.google.com/




2. Poin t t o yo u r s it e f rom ot h er s it es : E - MAIL

The more you link to your About.me page, the higher your page will show up in a search. Put links on your e-mail signature, and Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Wordpress, etc. pages).

Here’s how to set your Gmail signature: Go to your Gmail inbox. Click on the sprocket icon in the upper right corner under your photo and choose “Settings.”



2. Poin t t o yo u r s it e f rom ot h er s it es : E - MAIL

On the Settings page, scroll down until you see “Signature” and then fill in the field with all your important contact information and links, including your LinkedIn URL and your new “About.me” page URL.


2. Point to your site f rom other sites: FACEBOOK

1. Go to your Facebook account. Under your name, click “Edit Profile.”




2. Scroll down past

“Work & Education”

and “Family” to

“About You.” Click

“Edit.” Write an intro

to your About.me page

(“Learn more about

me...”) then paste your

About.me URL.



3. Then click the icon in the top right, and select “Public” (this will put your about.me URL on the public

version of your Facebook page). Click “Save.”



2. Point to your site f rom other sites: LINK EDIN

1. Open your LinkedIn Page. At the top, click on “Profile.””then “Edit Profile”




2. Then, in the top box with your picture, click on the gray “Edit Contact Info” in the lower right

corner of the box.




3. Next, click on

the pencil

icon next to

“Websites” at

the bottom of

the box.



4. Then,

choose “Other”

under websites

NOT any

categories so

you can name

them. Fill in

“Your name on

About.me” and

the URL!



5. Voila!


2. Don’t forget to add your About.me site to:

• Your Apple Mail Email Signature

• Your Hotmail / Windows Live / MSN Email Signature

• Your Outlook for Mac Email Signature

• Your Outlook for Windows Email Signature

• Your Yahoo! Email Signature

• Adding about.me to your Pinterest Profile

• Submitting your URL to Bing




3. You can find out how you’re doing with About.me analytics


Click on the “Dashboard” drop-down link (not the word). Then click on “Page Statistics” and

you’ll see how you’re doing!


ONE last thing:

You should own YourName.com.

Once it’s gone, it’s gone until the owner either forgets to renew it .... or dies!

Go to a “domain registry” (like GoDaddy.com) and buy your name. Do not buy a hosting package yet.

Once you’ve built your “Me Site,” you can “re-direct” visitors from “About.me/ yourname” to “yourname.com”!


Creating a “me” site As your digital portfolio


wofford.edu/thespace