Blog 1 Leicester Award For Employability…New Beginnings!
What a refreshing & rewarding exercise my involvement in this award is proving to be. Being of slightly older stock than no doubt many of my undergraduate colleagues on this award, I must admit I was rather apprehensive at the outset last month in terms of whether social media is really that beneficial at all. I am however always open to new ideas & learning, & I do love my gadgets & technology….so I guess I just need (& want) to be convinced. This is why I was so pleased to be accepted onto this award.
Hence, I have never to date been a prolific user of social media, other than having set-up a Facebook account a couple of years ago predominantly to keep in touch with family members in the Midlands after I had relocated up to North Yorkshire. Even then, my other half has tended to ‘piggy back’ my Facebook login & use it much more than me!
Why my lack of general interest up to now I wonder? Well I know that my time is precious to me, & that working full-time whilst also working through the Distance Learning MBA over the last couple of years, finding time for my family, voluntary activities & fitting a little bit of exercise in so I do not totally vegetate physically, means that “messing around” on social media & trying to figure out if they are easy or useful to me has tended to be pretty much way down my list of priorities….guess I see it as somewhat frivolous in the midst of all my other commitments. Being an accountant I guess I want to see the rational payoff (cost/benefit analysis LOL) for investing my precious time resource.
| Where's that Twitter Birdie! |
In particular though, I was keen to learn much more about professional networking on LinkedIn, & perhaps to confirm (or dispel) my perception that Twitter is a total waste of effort!
Friends have told me that Twitter is like a drug......and.....
SOOOO, I have put down my second Elective for a couple of days & have been immersing myself in the Blackboard tutorials, fizzing around various sites/activities & through the galvanising influences of Elizabeth & Mireya & this excellent Online learning tool, I feel I am starting to internalise how these media can & WILL deliver benefits to me. I am now more aware of the importance of maintaining a complete & up-to-date profile, understand connections & recommendations & have started to “follow” companies as recommended on LinkedIn. Very pleased to get my first few “endorsements” of skill sets….this is a very cool feature in LinkedIn as I feel it is hugely beneficial to receive such from other professionals as opposed to ‘blowing your own trumpet’ where prospective employers to others viewing your profile can obtain this greater assurance that you do actually have skills that you say you do. Having joined CIMA & the University Of Leicester groups to follow, I have now been receiving email updates of new & ongoing discussions of interest over the last couple of days.
Next actions for me then? Definitely tonight to start engaging with some of these discussions, but I can also however see now that I have absolutely not been thorough enough in my initial set-up on LinkedIn, so I will be updating my profile as a matter of priority & ensuring more comprehensive details & a decent professional photo is uploaded as I have not got one on there at all as yet! Now I’m away to investigate the Online Award tutorial around Twitter…..watch this space….
Cheers
Weavo
Very interesting read Brian, I like the way you put some humor into your writing. I totally agree with you about your previous views of social media networks, but i guess you never know until you give it a try.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get to continue writing on your blog even after the ONE award.
All the best