Harnessing the Strengths of Social Media

screen shot, a photo by Juliamd on Flickr.

Over the last several years there has been an increase in the ways that people will communicate.  The biggest way has been through Social Media tools such as Facebook.   The popularity of Facebook has grown beyond what most people could have imagined.  With increased number of users, the makers of Facebook have come up with more uses for the site.  Businesses are now able to advertise on Facebook through "side bar" advertisements.  They can also advertise through the creation of their own pages.  An example of this is a bakery in Edmonton, Alberta called Bon Ton Bakery.  They have been able to show their current and new products being offered through simply uploading pictures onto their page
( http://www.facebook.com/bontonbakery?ref=ts ).

Another use of Facebook that has been brought to my attention, is the ability for a person to put a professional business resume on Facebook.  Above is a picture of a screen shot of my Facebook resume page.  On "Evelyn's blog" they also discuss resumes being posted on Facebook ( elycheng1992.blogspot.com ). Pages like this can spread awareness to more then one employer about his or her resume.  This is a great opportunity to use Facebook because when you usually  submit one "paper form" of a resume it usually only goes to one possible employer.  With my page on Facebook it can be submitted to employers that I have not found out about.  This also benefits employers because they have a wide variety of possible employees.  For people that are unemployed it gives them a platform to show skills that may benefit different companies that are not advertised well.

In summation, I believe that Social Media, specifically Facebook, is a wonderful tool to create awareness of career seeking individuals and different companies.  If this technology is utilized well it can give great opportunities to many people.

My Facebook resume page is at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julia-D-ALES-204/337771032913011?sk=info .

Introductory ALES 204 Post: How We Communicate

http://cheezeworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/pen-paper.jpg

Hello! My name is Julia D. and I am currently in the nutrition major at the University of Alberta.  I did not grow up wanting to go into the nutrition major but rather it was something that I stumbled into.  I have a love for people and I also enjoyed science in school.  I am also, what I like to term as being a “foodie”, which just means that I have a love for food.  The nutrition major was an amazing way for me to bring my passions together.  My hope is to get into the dietetic internship and then to go on to become a dietitian.

Outside of Facebook I have not used social media as a valuable means of communication.  However I have been given many examples of how it can be a great asset to use things like twitter accounts and running a blog to create more awareness about my interests and aspirations.  Future employers may use the social media sites that I am a part as part of their hiring criteria. Last semester there were some of my peers that also started blogs.  Emily started her own blog that also talks about the communication aspects of nutrition.  She talks mostly about how the different communication tools help to share new nutritional information between health professionals as well with the general public. http://emilyshand.blogspot.com/

Over the last several years is seems there has become a growing concern for an individuals nutritional needs.  This may come from different connections that have made about our diet influencing illnesses such as diabetes.  Diabetes has become more common over the years and there have people that have been able to create awareness through things like journal articles and more recently there has been websites and blogs started.  The dietitians in Canada have set up a website to bring nutritional information to the general public and this is a very useful communication tool. Their site is http://www.dietitians.ca/.  This method of communication allows for information to get out to the general public and not just be contained within the professional health community.

Well here is my first attempt at using a blog as a means of communication and I look forward to learning more about the technology as I go.