Life According to Krista

Scott Horvath from USGS came to talk to our class about social media and making a brand for yourself

Here are some of the social media tips he lectured our online journalism class about:

• What you do on social media is creating your own brand. You must manage your reputation so that employers find you to be a good “brand” to choose. Social media and getting a job is all about selling yourself.
• Some ways USGS tries to connect to their audience is through contests, brand management, good customer service, science education, etc.
• Some sites he mentioned were Flickr, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Google Plus, and Reddit (and other online forums).
• Everything on your social media website will add up. Employers will look at these sites to generate a picture of you to see if you fit their criteria.
• The lifetime of a tweet is about 6-8 hours before it starts to drop off the front page. Keep retweeting information so your followers get your messages!
• “The Internet isn’t written in pencil.. it’s written in ink.” You can never undo something you have put online, so make sure you are careful with what you put up!

In a nutshell, be careful what you put up online. It will be lost in cyberspace and is no longer in your control once you put information out there.