Communications Specialist, Michele Walfred explains that identifying your brand and marketing that brand is key to your success with career, internship, and business opportunities. When identifying your brand the key is to keep everything with your real name moderate and professional. This includes keep social media accounts separate, it’s ideal to have a personal account and a serious account this is branded to your real name. Always use caution when accepting new friends/followers on social media, accounts could have hidden agendas. Creating a professional brand demonstrates how well networked or connected a candidate is. With many organizations moving into social media they are looking for staff that have these skills and connections. It is very hard to erase your social imprint online so it’s best to follow these tips. When having a moderate and professional brand people tend to take you more seriously and beneficial because people will want to hear what you have to say.
So what is agvocating?
Agvocating is to advocate for agriculture. Advocating for agriculture is important because there are so many negative false reports on what agriculture is. It is important for Agvocates to debunk the information that is false. To do so one can post on their social media accounts providing information about agriculture to educate people that have little information or interest in agriculture. So all agriculture lovers start Agvocating!
I found Miss Michele’s lecture to be eye-opening in one of her main points about how you must create a brand for yourself. This is the one takeaway that I found most important, partly because of where I am in my undergraduate career. Because I joined Sigma Alpha my freshman year, I’ve been lucky enough to have been mentored and guided by my peers and faculty with a focus on professional and career development. I know what not to post on social media and I’ve been lectured on how to be an Agvocate through various organizations I’m part of. I have been very mindful of my online presence, because I’ve had to be while representing a professional sorority. I have had a LinkedIn profile since my freshman year, and participate on Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, but most of my posts and profiles are completely private to my friends. Because of Miss Michele, I actually created a Twitter profile to help stay in the news of Agriculture, especially in the food industry, as I’m a food science major. I have to say, I’m very surprised to see how active the Ag sector as a whole is on Twitter. I think it’s great and will continue to use it as a professional development tool. Thank you Michele!
In today’s society social media is imbedded into everything that is done. From someone taking a selfie to businesses posting about new products, almost everyone is using some type of social media. With businesses shifting to having a bigger, more defined media presence, you yourself need to also be aware of the content you are posting. Michele Walfred spoke to the AGRI130 class on Wednesday, September 12th to talk all about this issue.
Take a look on your social media page(s). What do your postings say about you? This is your brand. One in five applicants disqualify themselves from a job because of irresponsible posting. What you post shows the employer who you are. It is important to keep anything that uses your real name appropriate. Something I found interesting was when Michele talked about having two accounts. One would be for personal use and not linked to your name, while the one with your name acts as a professional account that prospective employers will look at.
Overall, it is critical in today’s society that you watch what you are posting. One post could be the difference in you getting your dream job and you being passed over for it.
On September 12th, 2018 Michele Walfred came in and gave a lecture on Social media. The benefits that us as young adults can use it to help brand ourselves to make us look better to the company that wants to hopefully hire us. At first she began to explain to us about her and who she is, She has a BA, in Journalism with a MA, Digital Humanities. She also an administrator on several platforms from UDCANR to the MidAtlantic Woman in Agriculture. The thing I took away from here lecture was watch what you post about yourself and what your doing in that because it can effect your hiring process. Because if it shows that your bashing the company your working for does that make it look good for your next job when they pull that up. Also put only what you want to show how you “Brand” your self because if you have a embarrassing post as your wallpaper that’s what people are going to think about you. That post will follow you around for the rest of your life as well since its in your digital footprint. By doing these small things it will bring a better formal look on you instead of having bad things that can restrict the ways people look at you.
Ms. Michele Walfred’s lecture was very interesting and enlightening to me. Personally I have never used social media very much so I came in with the mindset that social media is not something that I need to bother with or that has any positives associated with it. With employers using social media more and more it does seem to be almost a necessary and universal skill that will be required. The fact that one in five applicants are disqualified by their social media accounts is very surprising to me, because that is a lot of people who are not considered right off the bat. I learned that creating a personal brand that is consistent and realistic, but does not leave out the personal aspect can be extremely helpful, especially when applying for a job. Once you develop a social imprint it is very hard to erase, which is yet another reason to be careful what you post. It is also important to do your research on fake news, and to be an Agvocate who helps eliminate some of the false notions about the agriculture community.
In today’s world, perception is reality. One of the simplest but most significant ways to build a positive and professional perception of yourself is through the platform of social media. Michele Walfred, a communications specialist for the University of Delaware, stressed the importance of personal branding through social media during her guest lecture to our class.
From a professional viewpoint, Michele shared that employers often use the social media image of applicants as the initial vetting process. Due to this fact, it is crucial to maintain appropriate and respectable on the internet. In addition, it is advantageous to be active on social media, sharing your own unique perspectives and showing appreciation when others share theirs.
From an agricultural viewpoint, social media has become a powerful for and against the industry. Fake news sources have been effectively able to diffuse false information against farmers through media in recent years. It is crucial for this upcoming generation to remain literate on agriculture and share the truth of the industry.
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.
On September 12th Michele Walfred came the University of Delaware as a guest speaker for the AGRI130 class. She discussed the importance of media and it can control what career you end up having. Michele started off by giving a brief background of her career. She has a BA in Journalism and a MA in Digital Humanities. Michele is the administrator on multiple platforms for UDCANR, MidAtlantic Women in Agriculture, and Delaware Press Association to name a few. After she gave her background she described our social media as our brand. Most of the individuals she was talking to were young adults about to apply for the first professional job and/or career. She explained that we should all being trying to brand ourselves with something we are passionate about and want to make a career out of. She also told us that we should should be consistent in the language we use as well as the types of photos, messages, and anything we put out on social media. I was really fascinated with all the different aspects of creating a social media brand that Michele provided. I cant wait to make my own brand in the near future.
It was fascinating hearing Michele’s story of how she became a Communications Specialist for UD. It is very important to prepare a brand for yourself on social media that is professional and can inform employers about what makes you unique and worth investing in. One in five applicants disqualify themselves from obtaining a job position by using social media in an irresponsible way that warned job seekers to look elsewhere. It is a good idea to show how good your networking skills are by using social media. You should also stay professional and avoid sharing controversial opinions on accounts that are linked to your real name as you want to appeal to the widest audience possible. Avoid drama and have a separate account that is a serious one and is linked to your real name that employers can see and assess how good you are for their company. You should focus your brand on one characteristic or field to focus and maximize your traffic.
Social Media is huge in pop culture, but it’s also making an difference in the professional world. On September 12th, 2018 Michele Walfred gave a lecture on the importance of creating your own brand. Some advice Ms. Michele gave us was to keep your profiles consistent throughout different platforms. Using the same photo, tag line, and description can help employers and followers easily recognize your brand. If you post about issues on agriculture and then share an unrelated meme, this could discredit your validity.
Social Media can not only help you professionally, but it can allow people to Agvocate. “Agvocating” is a term that essentially means advocating for agriculture. It’s something that all students at the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources should take part in, but there were some tips Ms. Michelle provided us. The first is to find a common ground. Many people can be mislead about agricultural topics, so finding something you have in common can make the encounter seem more personal. Once you’re on good terms, offering knowledge and an explanation on certain topics can help people understand the truth behind those false claims. Overall, its important to know that each person holds a unique brand, and we can use that brand to make a difference in agriculture!
Being a skilled communicator has always been a way to have a leg up in real world industries. More recently communication though social media and how your portray yourself has been having an affect on people before they even step through the door for a face to face interview. The statistic that Michele Walfred shared about one in five applicants disqualifying themselves from an interview just because of how they show themselves through social media was eyeopening and gave me the idea that there are some changes I should be making. Some of these changes will be easy to make such as changing profile photos and creating a more detailed email signature while some may be more challenging. My first issue is inconsistency since my presence is non existent on some platforms such as Facebook and Google+ but prominent on others such as Instagram and Twitter. Making connections and building a strong network in your field via social media is very important in this day in age therefore it is critical that I put the time into building a brand for myself and portraying myself to the world as an agvocate.
I’ve never really given much thought to how social media can be so powerful in helping to create a positive image for myself . I’ve always seen it as an advertising technique for companies as a way to hopefully gain more recognition. Ms. Michele Walfred’s lecture exposed me to another way to look at social media. We are all brands. We should be using platforms to be positively improving our own image of how we want to be seen. The internet has made so many aspects of our lives easier, but with this power comes responsibility. Today, companies will most likely search your name on the internet while in the interview process for a new job. The company is investing in you when they decide to hire you. They want to know as much as they can before making any kind of commitment. When you work for a company, you are also representing the company and its values. If customers see that they hire well-rounded people, this could greatly improve the company’s image as a whole. One important piece of advice that Ms. Walfred gave is that it is always a good idea to reply to people on social media. People will know that you are paying attention to them and your presence will soar.
On Wednesday September 12th, 2018 we had a guest speaker on the topics of building a personal brand, social media and Ag literacy presented by Michele Walfred. She is a communications specialist for the University of Delaware. She started her guest lecture with information about herself and her journey to where she is now. It was interesting to listen to her talk about how she has continued to learn and grow her skills. It was also interesting when she talked about how she uses social media and what she puts on each of her accounts. During her speech she mentioned ways to build your personal brand on social media. This ranges from the professional side to the personal side. For the professional side she mentioned using it to comment on public pages and ones for potential employers and for the personal side she mentioned using a separate account or posting things that highlight your brand. After this she talked about Ag literacy and how to spot fake news in which they use clickbait captions like “OMG – Alert!” or articles that mention science but has no links to science or research. My favorite piece of information was during the end when she was talking about Ag literacy when she mentioned a post by Huffington Post in which the Facebook presentation was negative and the actual article was factual and led a lot of people to believe in the negative side of it with people not even reading it in the end.
I really enjoyed Michele’s talk because I realized how important social media is. I always try to watch what I post on social media but I realize now that much more can be found with just my name. I personally hate social media; I feel like it actually gets in the way of personal human interaction, however, now I realize that it could be the gateway into new possibilities. According to Michele’s lecture, if I want to “better my brand”, I need to rename a couple of my social media accounts, I need to do another sweep and make sure that I don’t have anything inappropriate on my social media, I also should probably even make separate accounts for all of my non-professional interests. I can’t promise that I will do all of those things, but I can promise that I listened and I respect what Michele does. I can also try following social media pages that interest me in what I want to do with my life so that hopefully I can get a foot in the door into the plant pathology research industry.
AGRI 130 students had the opportunity to learn about the benefits of networking and building a professional image online with Michele Walfred, a communications specialist for the University of Delaware. The lecture covered the topics of professional social media, networking, and the perceptions of agriculture. Currently, individuals are expected to be on social media for professional and networking purposes. This modern expectation causes an emphasis on personal branding and self representation. A great piece of advice from this portion of the lecture was to be professional at all times on social media affiliated with your name.It can be useful to have a separate account that is not under your name for personal subjects such as politics, sports, and family pictures. Mixing personal and professional posts on one account can cause you to lose job opportunities, connections, and followers. On the subject of networking, it is important to connect with people in person, give people your undivided attention, and be active in conversation. Networking in person is just as important as networking online. Agriculture is a science that the public has a lot of misconceptions about. It is important for agriculturalists to share accurate knowledge and educate the public. Some sources on the internet share incorrect information about agriculture. It is important to check the credibility of sources and articles on the internet. The spread of misinformation causes confusion on the credibility of farmers and the products they produce. Thank you to Michele Walfred for sharing knowledge of social media, and personal branding with AGRI 130.
