Social media / networking sites
Social media
After being advised multiple times by guest lecturers, I have made sure all my social media sites are clean and professional. Laura Whitaker from Dynamic said she regularly checks the social media of applicants to try and get a feel for their personality.
The process of cleaning my social media involved going back to the start and checking for any profanities, inappropriate rants and drunken photos. Fortunately for me this was a quick process as there were only a few images that had to be removed.
In the guest lecture from Delete, I was also advised to make my accounts private to stop employers viewing your profile. However this goes against what Laura said as it would prevent employers from getting a feel for you.
I decided to compromise and follow both pieces of advise: keep a clean and professional social network that promotes me as an employable individual.
Networking sites
After some quick research and listening to my peers in the tutorials, I discovered that Linkdin is the best site for professional networking. After setting up my profile, I attempted to connect with every relevant professional, to get my name out into the industry.
So far I have successfully connected with several of my lecturers and I will continue to use Linkin to network in the future.
I have also taken it upon myself to create accounts on various sites I regularly use to help with my uni work. In the past I have used this sites without an account, benefiting from their users without giving anything back to the community. By creating accounts I can get involved in forums and share my work / ideas; thus acting as a great networking tool.
These sites include:
Pinterest
I have created multiple design boards and shared them with the community. In my opinion this is the best site for design; and is where I get a lot of design inspiration from.
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/charleykirton/
Codepen
I am yet to get directly involved in sharing work on this site due to a lack of knowledge in coding, however I hope to be more involved in the future as i develop my skills. Codepen has been a useful tool for aiding me with my portfolio site, I have used code snippets for help with the more advanced aspects of the site. I made sure to comment and 'up vote' on code as a way of saying thank you to the author.
https://codepen.io/charman94/
Youtube
Youtube has helped with two aspects of creating my portfolio site and promoting myself as a professional.
Firstly, it serves as a fantastic platform for me to demonstrate my motion graphics work. To share my work I created an account and uploaded my work.
Secondly, there is a huge selection of tutorial content available. Youtube helped me to create my portfolio site as a horizontal scrolling site.
Before uploading I completed thorough research of similar videos and other student portfolio work. The knowledge I gained from this research was to make use of the 'video tags' option. Videos with tags such as "portfolio", "title" "sequence", "motion graphics" and "design" have the most views, and thus the work is shown to more people. The more people that see my work, the higher the chances of gaining recognition and possibly being offered work in the future.
I also added a description to my video: letting viewers know the work was for university; my name and portfolio URL.
Despite wanting to go into app development and not motion graphics, I feel it is still important for me to share other aspects of my work. This will help me keep my options open in the future if I were to change career paths; and it also helps demonstrate my creativity and wide skill set.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl7CRdFN8DcIhRXQVVCNY2w?view_as=subscriber
Vimeo
Vimeo is a similar site to Youtube, it is a great tool for sharing motion graphic work.
https://vimeo.com/user82918775
Vimeo vs Youtube
As the two sites serve offer similar services, I thought it would be apt to compare which site is better for me to share my work on.
Advertising
Vimeo does not support ads on videos, meaning a higher chance of having my video seen if the viewer doesn't have to sit through an advert. Further down the line this may be an issue if I wanted to monetise my content; however views are the current priority.
Cost
Vimeo charges monthly fees for uploading large amounts of content; youtube does not. As with the advertising, this won't be an issue in the short term as I do not currently have 20gb of work to upload per month; however it needs to be considered in the future.
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/youtube-vs-vimeo-business/
Linked in
Described as the best professional networking tool by many people I have spoken to.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/
Instagram
Github
https://github.com/char94
Stackoverflow
One issue I have faced with creating so many accounts over a long space of time, is that I have had to use different username on different sites. This is an issue as It will prevent me from gaining any recognition between site's communities.
After being advised multiple times by guest lecturers, I have made sure all my social media sites are clean and professional. Laura Whitaker from Dynamic said she regularly checks the social media of applicants to try and get a feel for their personality.
The process of cleaning my social media involved going back to the start and checking for any profanities, inappropriate rants and drunken photos. Fortunately for me this was a quick process as there were only a few images that had to be removed.
In the guest lecture from Delete, I was also advised to make my accounts private to stop employers viewing your profile. However this goes against what Laura said as it would prevent employers from getting a feel for you.
I decided to compromise and follow both pieces of advise: keep a clean and professional social network that promotes me as an employable individual.
Networking sites
After some quick research and listening to my peers in the tutorials, I discovered that Linkdin is the best site for professional networking. After setting up my profile, I attempted to connect with every relevant professional, to get my name out into the industry.
So far I have successfully connected with several of my lecturers and I will continue to use Linkin to network in the future.
I have also taken it upon myself to create accounts on various sites I regularly use to help with my uni work. In the past I have used this sites without an account, benefiting from their users without giving anything back to the community. By creating accounts I can get involved in forums and share my work / ideas; thus acting as a great networking tool.
These sites include:
I have created multiple design boards and shared them with the community. In my opinion this is the best site for design; and is where I get a lot of design inspiration from.
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/charleykirton/
Codepen
I am yet to get directly involved in sharing work on this site due to a lack of knowledge in coding, however I hope to be more involved in the future as i develop my skills. Codepen has been a useful tool for aiding me with my portfolio site, I have used code snippets for help with the more advanced aspects of the site. I made sure to comment and 'up vote' on code as a way of saying thank you to the author.
https://codepen.io/charman94/
Youtube
Youtube has helped with two aspects of creating my portfolio site and promoting myself as a professional.
Firstly, it serves as a fantastic platform for me to demonstrate my motion graphics work. To share my work I created an account and uploaded my work.
Secondly, there is a huge selection of tutorial content available. Youtube helped me to create my portfolio site as a horizontal scrolling site.
Before uploading I completed thorough research of similar videos and other student portfolio work. The knowledge I gained from this research was to make use of the 'video tags' option. Videos with tags such as "portfolio", "title" "sequence", "motion graphics" and "design" have the most views, and thus the work is shown to more people. The more people that see my work, the higher the chances of gaining recognition and possibly being offered work in the future.
I also added a description to my video: letting viewers know the work was for university; my name and portfolio URL.
Despite wanting to go into app development and not motion graphics, I feel it is still important for me to share other aspects of my work. This will help me keep my options open in the future if I were to change career paths; and it also helps demonstrate my creativity and wide skill set.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl7CRdFN8DcIhRXQVVCNY2w?view_as=subscriber
Vimeo
Vimeo is a similar site to Youtube, it is a great tool for sharing motion graphic work.
https://vimeo.com/user82918775
Vimeo vs Youtube
As the two sites serve offer similar services, I thought it would be apt to compare which site is better for me to share my work on.
Advertising
Vimeo does not support ads on videos, meaning a higher chance of having my video seen if the viewer doesn't have to sit through an advert. Further down the line this may be an issue if I wanted to monetise my content; however views are the current priority.
Cost
Vimeo charges monthly fees for uploading large amounts of content; youtube does not. As with the advertising, this won't be an issue in the short term as I do not currently have 20gb of work to upload per month; however it needs to be considered in the future.
The Community
"This idea is related to the notion that Vimeo has more quality content. Since the site is much more niche than YouTube, there is a good chance that only serious video creators and watchers are frequenting the site on a regular basis. People viewing and commenting on your videos are a lot more likely to give you constructive feedback."
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/youtube-vs-vimeo-business/
Linked in
Described as the best professional networking tool by many people I have spoken to.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/
Github
https://github.com/char94
Stackoverflow
One issue I have faced with creating so many accounts over a long space of time, is that I have had to use different username on different sites. This is an issue as It will prevent me from gaining any recognition between site's communities.
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