the importance of an online presence

entering the world of blogs and blogging

1) Introduction

2) Practical Exercise A: introduce yourselves, using our test blog

3) The importance of an online presence

4) Practical Exercise B: use Personas to find out what the internet

thinks of you right now

5) Everything you need to start and maintain a blog

in the order in which it needs to be done

6) Using Twitter to support your blogging activities

7) Round-up: and more reasons to blog

8) Practical Exercise C: Optional: create an actual blog!

Part 1 introduction

This workshop willgive you all the tools you need to create your online presence, via an Information Professional blog

And it will enthuse you!

This workshop isn’t about…

“Monetizing”your blog

Getting Millions of subscribers

Advising you on Literary

style

It is about

Platforms Features Steps Best practice

Part 2

Practical Exercise A:Introduce yourselves, using our test blog…

It’s time to start blogging already?

•Go to http://delicious.com/wikimanworkshop and choose the first link for the wikimanworkshop test blog •Sign in with your wordpress username and password, then follow the instructions

•Publish a blog post – just a short paragraph - about who you are and why you want to start blogging...

Part 3 the importance of an online presence

Reasons you should be online•There's a million and one Info Pros already there•People will be Googling you anyway•It can lead to all kinds of opportunities

…and perhaps most importantly of all…

•Recruiters are looking increasingly to online reputation to choose between candidates

earlier this year cross-tab published the findings from their Microsoft-commissioned research on:

available via: http://www.microsoft.com/privacy/dpd/research.aspx

Online Reputation in a Connected World

Here’s what they found

Recruiters and HR professionals who believe the use of online reputational data will increase in 5 years

• Positive online reputations matter. Among U.S. recruiters and HR professionals surveyed, 85% say that positive online reputation influences their hiring decisions at least to some extent. Nearly half say that a strong online reputation influences their decisions to a great extent.

• Though most consumers surveyed do manage their reputation at least to some extent, there are a significant percentage of respondents (between 30% and 35% depending on nationality) who don’t feel their online reputation affects either their personal or professional life. Consequently, they are not taking steps to manage their reputations.

What it comes down to is if there are two otherwise equal candidates

And one can demonstrate that they are a reflective practitioner through a well-written blog…

• In the absence of a significant work history, an online presence can help distinguish a job candidate from the sea of new librarian resumes that come across most search committee members’ desks.

- Meredith Farkas | Your Virtual Brand

Practical Exercise B:use Personas to find out what the internet thinks of you right now

Part 4

Another important way to manage your online profile is via…

LinkedIn's Search Engine rankings are crazy-high

Part 5 Slideshare viewers – click the pic of the Prezi to view it

Part 6 using Twitter to support your blogging activities

Twitter is great for… Networking

Online social networking, and as a head-start for networking face-to-face

Links

I get countless links about stuff I’m interested in, from people who know a lot more than I do…

Asking questions

Sometimes Google isn’t enough. You can ask a question and get an informed response from people you trust

Listening in

When two (or more) people you follow are conversing on Twitter you are shown their tweets – this leads to all sorts of serendipitous discovery of information and ideas!

PromotionPromotion

Twitter generates an enormous amount of traffic to blogs – if people ReTweet your link, the views increase exponentially. People’s tweets can add to the discussion, too.

But make sure you give a littleIf you only use Twitter to self-promote, people will probably just ignore you. You’ll get much more out of it if you become involved with the community, tweet links to other blogs, etc etc.

Use a proper bioPeople will be reluctant to follow you if you

don’t say who you are and what you do

Picture yourselfTwitter is a more personal medium than a blog – use a head-shot rather than a logo

Don’t go follow-crazySome people follow all and sundry to get more followers themselves – but make sure Twitter works for you, and if that means limiting the

number you follow, so be it

Three more tips for getting the most out of

Oh and there is one other good reason to use Twitter: the weird, pointless and utterly fabulous PARADE!

Part 7Round-up: and more reasons to blog

you’re plugged in to the wider profession

helps ensure you’re aReflective Practitioner

You never know where it might lead

It’s FUN!

One

last tip…

Why not hit the ground running?

Save your introduction for another time – for the first

post, dive right in with something really meaty

And be yourself from the start – if the blog goes well, you’ll end up being yourself eventually anyway…

Thank you!

[Optional practical exercise: set up a blog right now, and I’ll help you out]

Slideshare viewers: click here to go to thewikiman.org

Chalkboard: thewikiman, via Photfunia /Laptop: julio.garciah / Path: -= Bruce Berrien =- / Tools: batega / Yay: Richard Moross / Money: thewikiman, via Photfunia / People: guiguibu91 / Book close up:

visual.dichotomy / Platform: twenty_questions / Feature: thewikiman, via says-it / Steps: ~pearl~ / Juggling Practice: Cayusa / Shaking hands: enriqueburgosgarcia / iPad: Jinod / Keyboard: J_D_L / Quote it:

umjanedoan / Brand Manual: Dplanet:: / Networking - GustavoG... / Links – Ravages / Asking questions - Oberazzi / Listening in – abrinsky / Promotion: thewikiman, via Photfunia / Balloon:

Brandon Christopher Warren / Blogging T-Shirt: antigone78 / Plug: Darrren Hester / Reflection: thewikiman, via Photfunia / Path: CaptPiper / Snow Diver: stuant63 / Asparagus: geishaboy500 /Sky Diver:

divemasterking2000 / This one: thewikiman, via Photfunia

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