Erica Moss is the community manager for Georgetown University’s online masters in nursing programs, offering one of the nation’s leading womens health nurse practitioner programs. She enjoys blogging, TV, pop culture and tweeting @ericajmoss.

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Instagram has found itself in the news a lot lately, and not for all the right reasons. Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies asks, “Has Instagram Jumped the Shark?” citing a growing number of spam accounts and a lack of real community on the platform as of late.

A recent Mashable article argues that what the app does isn’t special and points to its recent beef with Twitter, which just added Instagram-like filters to its apps.

Continue Reading »

Amelia Hadfield is a recent university graduate and freelance writer, currently working with UK promotional gifts distributor Ideasbynet on their personal branding series. This resource helps guide job seekers through the ins and outs of developing an online personal brand.

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There’s no doubt that Facebook has been an exceptional platform for connectivity and self-promotion since its inception. It can seem like the best option for keeping in touch and promoting your personal and business brand. However, when it comes to personal branding, Twitter that’s worth a look, and maybe even a ‘like’!

WHY EMBRACE TWITTER AT ALL?

(1)   You’re going to reach another segment of social media users if you branch out beyond Facebook!

You wouldn’t go to a networking event and intentionally ignore a portion of the people there, so why would you pass on a social media tool that may help you touch more people? Twitter is a markedly different platform from Facebook, meaning there’s a potential for a new audience if you expand into the Twitterverse. Continue Reading »

Jeffrey Roe is the community manager for the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education. USC Rossier Online provides current teachers and those working on becoming a teacher with the opportunity to earn a masters in education. When he’s not working, Jeff enjoys attending concerts and developing his talents as a videomaker.

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When it comes to establishing your online brand, search engine optimization isn’t the only tool at your disposal. SEO and social media share a mutually beneficial relationship that can simply be described as a symbiotic. If your SEO strategy doesn’t leverage social media, you’re ignoring this important relationship.

Quality content is still the foundation of online branding. Search engines love websites with articles, blog posts, infographics and videos that are interesting, insightful, entertaining and even controversial. When your content incorporates SEO principles like keywords, tags and search-able titles, search engines will send visitors to your website. Continue Reading »

Sara Jenson is a freelance writer for Degree Jungle and other student resource sites. She has a degree in Electrical Engineering and loves writing about college education.

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Over the years, the number of highly talented school graduates applying to colleges has been rising steadily in almost every corner of the world. Recently conducted studies reveal that in the next five to ten years, the number of high school graduates will rise by at least 10 percent in the United States alone. What this means is that the standard of scrutiny of college applicants will be raised high especially in the well established and reputable colleges. Generation Y students should now come to terms with the fact that in our current generation, competition is getting keener not only in the business world but in almost every other field. Learning the necessary tips that can successfully get generation Y students through the college application process therefore becomes a necessity. Continue Reading »

Josh Tolan is the CEO of Spark Hire, which combines a video job board and online interviewing platform to enrich interaction between job seekers and employers. Connect with him and Spark Hire on Facebook and Twitter.
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At the start of 2012, when you thought of the social media giants the ones that came to mind were likely Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and LinkedIn. That’s a pretty good list but now you’re also adding another – Pinterest.

Pinterest is the most rapidly growing social media platform and relies heavily on visuals, allowing users to create their own boards in a variety of topics and “pin” images they like. As you likely know users can also “repin” images they like from friends and followers, with most of these pins linking back to websites featuring products and services.

Why is Pinterest important when it comes to your job hunt? Because its rapid growth is telling us something about our culture’s appreciation for the visual medium. Pinterest is one of the fastest sites to ever hit 10 million unique monthly visitors and users are spending over an hour on the site, compared to a half hour on sites like Twitter.

The insight that the popularity of Pinterest gives job seekers is simple: image matters. The difference between Pinterest and other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter is that Pinterest is almost entirely image-based. People are responding to Pinterest because people respond to visuals! For the job seeker, this means that the visual medium cannot be ignored on the way to your perfect position.

Just like graphic-heavy sites are spiking in popularity, employers are also embracing more visual hiring methods. From a picture on a job seeker profile or Twitter account to a video resume, employers increasingly respond to seeing candidates before the actual in-person interview. Make sure the images these potential bosses and co-workers see will enhance your brand, not detract from it.

After all, some employers are even asking employees for Facebook login information. (Whether or not this is ethical is still being discussed.) Either way, the popularity of image intensive sites proves that a picture really is worth a thousand words. So make sure the images on your various social media profiles are telling the right story.

Making a video resume could be a good way to take advantage of the visual trend and let employers see your personality. Recruiters can now not only view your resume but also see a video alongside it. Now is not the time to discount the power of the visual. Just because you might be filming your video resume at home doesn’t mean you should do it while sitting on your bed in your fanciest ducky pajamas. Dress as if you were going to a professional in-person interview and find a background that is clean and lacks distractions.

What we see is often what we believe. The popularity of increasingly image-based social media sites can teach us to be aware of the how we present ourselves on the job hunt. Take advantage of all the tools in your toolbox and don’t discount the power of image.
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