The Book of Faces: More Networking Than Social

For years Facebook has been identified as "just a social networking site" where you can poke your friends and set up events (which will later result in some people posting statuses along the lines of "OMG Soooo druNk at thee bar! Best night everrrrrr!!"). As well with drunk statuses, within a few days of the event people tend to post drunk pictures or statuses about how angry they are with a nameless person who "knows what they did!!!". When it all boils down to it, for many people Facebook has become a very tell-all website, and letting their current or future employers access their pages would be career suicide.

However, little do people of my generation seem to realize, Facebook can actually be beneficial for your career life! By starting a professional profile, it is easy to allow possible employers to get a more personalized and intimate look at who you are as a person but also as an employee. You can create yourself an eye catching e-resume for the world to see. By linking to certain groups and events on Facebook as well you can start networking with the public to see if anyone knows of job openings that you might be interested in. By "liking" certain pages you can show the people viewing your profile where your interests lie and the organizations you may follow or be involved with. For more tips on keeping your profile professional check out Online College's 25 Common Facebook Faux Pas

I will admit that, thought I was originally skeptical about professional profiles on Facebook, I now see the advantages that come with them. When you look at a profile versus a paper copy of a resume, the profile has so much more potential and individual flair! The colour scheme you choose, the photos that you post, and the groups that you like are very telling about a person. As well it's an easier way to fit a lot of information into one compact space. Most resumes are only supposed to be two pages long. In a lot of cases I have found it hard to keep my resume within two pages without removing information that I found important. With Facebook though I can put in as much information as necessary without the page looking too full! To see what my professional profile looks like just click the image!

Another great example of a professional Facebook profile that you should check out was done by one of my classmates Amanda. In her blog post she discusses her own ideas of the professional profile, and links you to hers as well.

A Quick Introduction

My name is Kristin, and I am currently enrolled in my second year of the Nutrition and Food program, although this is my third year at a post secondary institution.

In my field of study, communication allows me to keep up to date with the latest news about anything and everything that has to do with nutrition and food. On twitter there are many accounts dedicated to keeping the public updated with new research findings that are written in plain English so that everybody can understand them such as @nutritionnews and @mnt_nutrition. As well there are twitter accounts created by dieticians also giving out information on new research and things you can do to be healthy in your every day life.

In terms of science journalism, many of the blogs and journal entries written, I see getting linked through tweets, that way the public can easily pick and choose which articles they would like to read rather than tirelessly scrolling through a list of articles to find one they are interested in. Which, admittedly I am not interested in scrolling through huge lists of articles, especially if not all of them will peak my interest.

As well it is important to keep in touch with researchers and other people in my field of study because it creates a network of people who can strive to do better with either the ways they communicate with the public, or how we communicate with each other. By bringing research findings together we can create a clearer image of proper nutrition, and eliminate the confusion that is seen in the general public. When things like new fad diets are released, people start to get confused on what is healthy and their idea of nutrition may radically change. However with clear communication we can work to eliminate that.

In summary, the role of communication in my field of study is to bring to the public resources about tools they can use to better their health based on new research, in a format that is quick and easy to understand.