In our class AGRI 130, Michele Walfred gave us a guest lecture on how to brand ourselves and how to impact agriculture through our social media use. Social media is very useful as a tool to create your personal image, as not only your friends and family see what you post, so do employers and other possible future employers. Some things that people shouldn’t do is lie about any accomplishments, only post professional content, or have many inconsistencies throughout multiple social media platforms.  Michele also elaborated on things that should be done with social media accounts and those include using consistent language and style as well as being appropriate with language and attire.  An appropriate headshot should be present on all social media accounts, instead of an unflattering picture or a selfie. Additionally, she raised the concern about the amount of followers that people have and whether they know all of the people who follow them.

Anything that can be tied to your real name should be moderated as if you know that all of your employers are watching all the time, because chances are, that they will, if they aren’t already.  This thought should lead to an urge to modify or enhance your social media presence. There are tons of easy ways to improve your presence in the online world. Creating  a youtube channel, posting thoughtful and well organized posts or comments, and making a twitter if one already isn’t in place are a few of the ways that your social media life can be made more appealing not only to your friends and family, but also to your employers.  Having a well put together social media presence can create a beneficial professional and personal image, that will benefit you in the long run through having an easy access look into all aspects of your life.