ALES 204: Farewell, the next step in the journey

As Ales 204 comes to an end, I reflect on everything that this course has taught me. If not for this course, I would not be writing this blog to my fellow readers had I not been introduced to Blogger. Among this site, I have learned how to use different tools of social media including: Twitter, Googledocs, LinkedIn, Audioboo, and Wordle, along with many other useful  sites that will be highly beneficial in my future career aspiration as a dietician.

Figure 1:
Social Media Footprint

When first coming into this course, my media footprint was quite small, and the impact I had on the world wide web was insignificant, if any. From posting a just a couple of statuses and photographs to my friends on Facebook, I did not strongly contribute to the online community. After this course, how significant is my media footprint now? With Ales 204, I have posted edited my first Wikipedia stub on Earls restaurant (see older posts) for everyone to view the information that I edited as well as started a Twitter account, with many followers keeping updated on my activities. I Although questioned about its credibility (or possibly its lack of), Wikipedia is nonetheless used by millions of people everyday as a research tool. By placing an article on Wikipedia for everyone to read and use, I am making a place in the largest encyclopaedia in the world. Talk about impacting the web now!

Honestly, I will not use everything I learned in this course, yet everything I learned was still a valuable experience and it was great to see how technology and social media has changed the way how mankind interacts. I will most certainly use Twitter in the future to connect with dieticians and those in my field, as well use it to connect with potential clientele. It is an effective way to spread your words or promote your business in the blink of an eye. I will also keep my professional facebook page (see older posts) up and keep it updated as a means of attracting potential employers and clients.

I am glad this class was mandatory for my Nutrition and Food major. Like my fellow classmate, Rachael Adams, states in her blog, Ales 204  gives you the initiative to step out of your personal life and expose yourself to the online community. Much like herself, I am generally a private person. This class has allowed me to connect with the world and with my classmates, by reading and commenting on one another's blogs. Along this journey, I have met many others, much like myself, going through the same struggles and successes in their field. Connecting with my fellow peers has made this class experience very enjoyable, and in a sense, self-discovering. Although I take the next step in my journey, this class will be reminisced and my classmates will not be forgotten! Some fellow classmates blogs that I have gotten a chance to read and comment on are found below:

Blogs:

1. Kelsey Trite's Blog

2. Caitlyn Erickson's Blog

3. Chau Chin Yo's Blog

4. Rebecca Miller's Blog

5. Christine L.'s Blog

A great thanks to my lovely professor and TA Jessica Lacetti and MC Roy. You have made the beginning of my journey to nutrition a wonderful one.

References:

Figure 1: Social Media Footprint [Photograph], (2012). Retrieved from: http://jsncafe.com/2011/12/28/social-media-what-to-expect-in-2012/

Facebook as a Business Tool

Thanks to my class, ALES 204, and my lovely professor, Dr. Jessica Laccetti, I have created my first professional Facebook page. I have always thought of Facebook as a means of sharing photos and instant messaging with friends and family. I never thought it could emerge into such a powerful business tool. Through popular emerging social media sites, like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace, businesses are able to promote their businesses around the globe at the touch of their fingertips. I started a professional Facebook page as a means of getting potential employers to know a little more about me, my skills and interests. With advancing technology, it is definitely a  lot more convenient than carrying around a resume all day!

Figure 1:
Professional Facebook Page

                                Professional Facebook Page, a photo by paulinen416 on Flickr.


Facebook will prove to be beneficial in my pursued dietician career as it will help me in increasing my audience to attract a diverse potential clientele, promote my business, and share my nutritional and active living thoughts with those who like my page or come across it. Facebook and Twitter are great business marketing strategies as they are so widespread universally; millions, if not billions, of us use it on a daily basis Time Magazine's article shows how businesses can use social media sites, namely Facebook, effectively in business strategies.

Figure 2:
The Social Network, 2010

I'm sure that many of you have seen the movie "The Social Network (2010)". The movie reanacts the origins of Facebook and the life of its creator, Mark Zuckerburg. The movie explicates how Facebook was orignally created from its predecessor, Facemash, which was a website that compared the attractiveness of peers. What has started as a online social networking site between the students at Harvard University, has now amounted to a whole new dimension of our technological lives on the world wide web. What Facebook has become has caused a whole new era is doing business and promotions. As Steven Johnson writes in Time's Magazine article "How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live,"  regarding the creation of popular social networking sites, "It's like inventing a toaster oven and then looking around a year later and seeing that your customers have of their own accord figured out a way to turn it into a microwave." Professionals in the business sector have found the potential in the popularity of Facebook and Twitter and have extracted this tool as a means of doing business in a whole new sense of light. It was not why Facebook was created, it is what we have made it become. Facebook is beneficial to businesses as it promotes on a mass market level. As many popular social networking sites are free of charge to the public, businesses can target almost any audience that owns a laptop, or smartphone. Instead of spending millions a year through advertisements and billboards, businesses can create pages on Facebook (similar to the one I created above) or pay for advertising space on the site.This can be less time consuming, more successful at attracting potential customers, as well as more cost effective.

To see a few more reasons on the successes of creating a professional Facebook page, and why you should promote your business, resume, etc. online, check out a fellow blogger, Chris Wohl's post at Chris Wohl's Blog Until next time, check out my Facebook page here to learn a little more about me, and as always, stay active and healthy!


References:


Figure 1: Professional Facebook Page [Personal Photograph], (2012). Retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/75254019@N02/6767836447/in/photostream

Figure 2: The Social Network (2010). [Photograph], (2012). Retrieved from:  http://www.rocktheworldbook.com/