Think.ingCreative » Portfolio

Final Presentation: Monday, May 3, 10:00 a.m.

sadmin — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:07:05 +0000

Our Final: Monday, May 3, 10:00 a.m.

Each of you will give a 3-4 minute presentation. Following that, we will use the remainder of our time for reviewing your mock intereviews and for recommendations and assistance with maintaining your online portfolio after the semester is over.

In 3-4 minutes, total, making effective use of PowerPoint or Keynote:

Your Presentation

Quickly remind us of your career trajectory.
Give us a quick tour of 3-4 key features of your online portfolio, including at least the main features of the Home page, the About page, and the Portfolio and/or Blog page.
Update us regarding anything new or interesting you’ve learned about this possible career path during the past few weeks.
Tell us what you’ll be doing next to prepare for your career.

Mock Interview Schedule

sadmin — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 20:02:10 +0000

Bring

Updated Cover Letter
Updated Resume
Portfolio (if relevant)

Dress

Fairly nice, probably like you would for church.
Kakhis and a button-up shirt for men.
Something similarly appropriate for women.

Wednesday

11:15 — Stephanie Lee (meeting)
11:30 — Megan Mueller
11:45 — Maloree Hamel
12:00 — Calvin Neill

Friday

11:15 — Jarod LaBarge
11:30 — Will Skaggs
11:45 — Mariah Klumb
12:00 — Stephanie Lee

Twitter Resources

jdcogan — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:18:22 +0000

Twitter Resources

Elements of Twitter Style :: Source – Red Sweater Blog

Advises Twitter users on proper formatting and content for tweets.

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business :: Source – Chris Brogan

Discusses the business value of Twitter and offers 50 thoughts for people wanting to use Twitter for business – whether from a small business or a large enterprise.

How Twitter Works and How it can Help Your Business :: Source – Perez Simons

Recognizes the importance of Twitter as a marketing tool and offers advice on how to best utilize Twitter for business.

How To Use Twitter to Grow Your Business :: Source – Copy Blogger

Reveals ideas that can help you build your business by using Twitter, such as by gaining access to high-profile individuals.

How Twitter Can Help at Work :: Source – Shifting Careers

Offers five tips for using Twitter to help build your career or business.

Twitter 101 For Businesses :: Source – Twitter

Twitter is a place where you can make valuable connections with businesses of all sizes.

Can Twitter Really Help Your Small Business? :: Source – Entrepreneur.com

Offers advice on how to use Twitter to build your home business, from getting started on Twitter to using Twitter to build relationships.

Six Practical Ways Twitter Can Help Your Business :: Source – Ezine Articles

Lists six practical ways to best utilize Twitter in your business.

Does Your Design Business Have a Twitter Strategy? :: Source – Inspired Magazine

Discusses the importance of designers having a Twitter strategy.

Twitter For Businesses :: Source – Marketing Experiments

Provides seven of the most valuable resources and articles on how to use Twitter for business.

62 Ways to Use Twitter For Business :: Source – Web Worker Daily

Provides sixty-two ways to use Twitter effectively in business.

Twitter Tips

Your business’s primary Twitter feed ought to be hand-fed.
Your business’s Twitter account should talk like a person—even if it’s a collective “person” representing your company or brand.
Follow colleagues in related companies and in your industry.
Follow relevant brands and journalists and pundits in your market, even those who compete with you.
Make sure your people are on Twitter, and refer to them.
You should reply to tweets that mention you, when relevant.
There are probably people using Twitter to talk about your business. Use Twitter’s powerful search features to find those references.
Consider creating sub-accounts for sections of your business or customer base.
Use Twitter to ask your customers questions…and get good answers.
The etiquette of Twitter is still evolving—be wary.
Use your personal picture in your Twitter profile. There is only one situation where you can use your logo… if you have two profiles. Your personal profile and your company profile.
Personal life reigns… but not too much. Add in some of your personal life while you are using Twitter.
It is important to use Twitter as much as you can but not to the point where you are wasting valuable time when at work.
Use strawpoll to create a survey to feed into your Twitter stream. This will be an awesome way to get information regarding service offerings and products.
Use a business Twitter account to create a great place for customer relationship management.
Use Twitter as a discussion forum. Ask your clients and prospective clients what they would like to see, hear, taste, and experience
Always help before asking for money. Twitter is not a place for you to hard sell individuals on services.
Take pictures and share on TWitter. Add pictures on Twitter using Twitpic using your iPhone or mobile phone.
Use Google Analytics to measure the traffic directed from Twitter to your blog or website.
Encourage your employees to join Twitter and become part of the conversation.
Add Twitter URLs to our business cards.
Download TweetDeck.
Are you using a Blackberry or iPhone? You should definitly be looking at downloading an application to help you manage your twitter account while you are out of the office.
Don’t add hundreds of people when you first join Twitter. Let the entire conversation happen naturally.

Facebook Resources

jdcogan — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:11:44 +0000

Facebook Resources

32 Ways To Use Facebook for Business :: Source – Web Worker Daily

Discusses Facebook’s usefulness for marketing your products, landing gigs, and connecting with your customers.

Facebook for Business: Opportunities and limitations :: Source – Inside Facebook

Lists ways that Facebook can help bolster your business and place yourself in the forefront of customer’s minds.

How To Use Facebook for Business (video) :: Source – Hub Spot

A marketing “webinar” on Facebook’s usefulness for businesses.

Using Facebook for Business :: Source – Spartan Online Marketing

Facebook is a free marketing tool that helps your business develop an identity and strengthen your brand.

Facebook Advertising Tips :: Source – Facebook.com

Offers tips on how to get started advertising on Facebook.

Using Facebook to Promote Your Graphic Design Business :: Source – About.com

Instructs Facebook users on how to get started advertising with Facebook.

Does Your Facebook Profile Reveal Too Much? :: Source – About.com

The “do’s” and “don’ts” of Facebook.

Facebook Tips

Facebook is huge for advertising.
You can also make groups for your company and make your page private to only people you want to see it.
Your page com promote what you want people to see.
You can have a business and a personal Facebook.
There is also tons of different applications that you can get on Facebook that may help you.
Do not put anything on your profile that you wouldn’t want your potential employers to see.
Give proper contact info, Web site/blog/portfolio links, and professional descriptions.
To separate business facebook with personal facebook pages, make a business page for yourself and market your work through that.
Try to find people who you want to look at your business page and ask them to become a fan.
For creatives, make photo albums of your work so people won’t have to look around on your profile for links to your online portfolio.
First and foremost establish a business account.
Add your Facebook URL to your email signature.
Post business updates on your wall.
Find mutual connections through your friends lists.
Post upcoming events.
Create a completely different Facebook account (apart from personal) and Fan Page for your business.
On your fan page there are tabs, and each one has its own url. This way you can direct certain audiences to whichever content of your fan page you’d like them to see. Also, using Facebook Mark-up Language (FBML), you can create custom boxes of HTML content, like newsletter sign-up pages, blog RSS feeds, and white paper downloads just like you might on your web site.
Upload images from your PowerPoint presentations, articles from the local publication you contribute to, or on the fly videos created using the Facebook video application.
Use Facebook business applications! CircleUp, Facebook Video, and Testimonials are only a few of the many excellent business apps you can find to help with things like promote business’s activities/events, upload or record video, or to share your work experience.
Take us of Facebook Ads. You can target ads to Facebook members on all kinds of criteria at low cost.

Wednesday, April 21: “Rockable Personal Branding”

sadmin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:40:24 +0000

Grab the “Personal Branding” mini-e-book from Rockable Press, via e-mail, by signing up for their e-mail list.
Read it and take notes of the strategies and ideas that make most sense for you.
Fill out the report, below, indicating the 3-5 best bits of insight you picked up from this e-book, and the 3-5 steps you will take to take advantage of these new insights.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

April 9: Polish Your Online Portfolio

sadmin — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:10:47 +0000

Let’s take what you’ve got and get it cleaned up and presentable.

Spell-check and fine-tune your posts.
Polish and refine your About page.
- Great photo.
- Great text.
- Provide links to your social media profiles.
- Consider grabbing and using icons from one of these sources
  - Komodo Media Social Media Icons (requires attribution and link)
  - Social Media Icon Roundup at TheDesignCubicle
Make sure your social media profiles are polished and ready for action — building on your research.
Fix anything that’s not functioning quite right in your theme.

LinkedIn Resources

sadmin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:06:19 +0000

New Users
Job Seekers
Business Development
Journalists
and Others

LinkedIn Tips

Connect and build relationships with a variety of different people
Join a couple of groups besides for your personal or professional benefit, that might help surface candidates.
In those groups, look for opportunities to engage with people in discussions.
Regularly let people know what you’re up to.
Keep up with the info. Stay on top of the activity.
Fill out your personal profile completely
Grow your network
Ask questions to get a feel as to what customers want
Interact with your LinkedIn account on a regular basis
Look for connections to a job you want
Update your profile as detailed as possible so others can find you and know more about you.
Find people you want to look at your page, such as: potential employees, colleagues, employer, and anyone in your field of work.
Post your work on through your status on LinkedIn and other accounts.
Find experts in your field and invite them as a guest blogger on your blog or speaker at your event.
List your newsletter subscription information and archives.
If you use LinkedIn you have a huge advantage on getting a job before other people.
You can also improve your connect ability to meet more people with more opportunities.
It also helps interviews go slower if you meet on LinkedIn first because you will know a little more about the person.
You can also find “healthy” companies on LinkedIn.
It is made up or mostly high educated and savvy people.

What is LinkedIn? A brief overview:

Weds., April 7: LinkedIn vs. Facebook

sadmin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:18:00 +0000

Due Wednesday, April 7, by the first of class:

This assignment in a nutshell: compare and contrast the uses of LinkedIn and Facebook for business purposes.

Check out the resources I’ve linked below.
Do some additional research to find 2 great articles on how to use LinkedIn for making business connections. (Try searches like: "How to use LinkedIn," "LinkedIn tips," "LinkedIn strategy," etc.)
Now found 2 more great articles on using Facebook for business. (Use searches such as "Facebook for business," "… for networking," etc.)
Compose an e-mail to me, with the subject line: "Facebook and LinkedIn."

Your e-mail should contain:

Titles and links to the four articles you found.
In a sentence each, summarize 5 key tips for making use of LinkedIn.
In a sentence each, summarize 5 key tips for using Facebook for business.
Place each of these parts of your e-mail under a heading: "Great Articles," "LinkedIn Tips,""Facebook Tips."
Send it to me before class time.

Then of course start implementing the best tips in your own Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.

Linked In Resources

Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn — Guy Kawasaki
LinkedIn Guide for College Graduates
LinkedIn Learning Center
– Includes advice for:
- New Users
- Job Seekers
- Business Development
- Journalists
- and Others
Getting Started on LinkedIn — ShinyDoor
LinkedIn vs. Facebook — ReadWriteWeb

What is LinkedIn? A brief overview:

Weds., Mar. 31: LinkedIn Account

sadmin — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:12:24 +0000

Due Wednesday, March 31, by the first of class:

Create an account at LinkedIn.com.
Fill out your profile, with profile photo (appropriate for professional use), education information, etc.
Connect with me, by searching for “David Cochran Oklahoma Wesleyan University.”
Connect with any other faculty or business or friend contacts you may have.
Bring any questions you have to class with you!

Mon., Mar. 29: Twitter Blog Post

sadmin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:36:28 +0000

Due by class time on Monday, March 29:

Post an entry in your blog on the topic of Twitter. You might discuss any of the following:

Get rolling with Twitter: advice for beginners
Leveraging Twitter to track trends in your field
Twitter Do’s and Don’t's
7 Examples of great Twitter backgrounds — and resources for creating your own
Twitter shorthand and abbreviations — common expressions you should know about
7 Web Designers (or PR persons or Designers, etc.) on Twitter — and why for each
A Roundup of great Twitter resources, with short descriptions
Compare Twitter Clients

To help you get started, I’ve provided a page of Twitter Resources, here.

This post should include the visual and textual touches we’ve talked about before:

At least one large great-looking image.
Headings, lists, short descriptions, and links to more info
A “For Further Reading” section, with titles and links to 3-4 relevant online articles