Trying Out Facebook Pages

So today I had my second adventure in my social media journey. The use of a Facebook page as a type of resume, where employers can instantly access your employment background, education information, and any other relevant information you would typically include in a resume. I think this is a really neat way to share your resume because it is easy to edit and is environmentally friendly because you don't always have to print out your updated resume when something changes. Also, because most employers do Google searches on job candidates before hiring them, it gives the employer a very professional result, which emphasizes the candidates dedication and maturity.

I created a mock Facebook page for this assignment because this system is new to me and I was unsure about posting such personal information in a program I am unfamiliar with. However, if I had to do this assignment again I would probably make a personal Facebook page, because I am now more confident in the usefulness and value of this form of communication with employers. I also believe that I could use this program in the future when searching for a career.

From www.facebook.com. Click on image to enlarge.

I really like how fellow student Samantha Stevens states in her blog that even though her Facebook profile does not contain any inappropriate content, she likes how she can use a Facebook page to advertise herself in a more professional way. In creating my own Facebook page I spent some time looking at the Facebook pages of other people and organizations, such as Katie Davis (founder of Amazima Ministries) and the Columbus Zoo, to get some ideas.

Getting to Know Me!

Photo of me from summer 2011. From my personal collection.

My name is Lynda Forsyth and I am a second year student at the University of Alberta. Currently I am working towards my Bachelor of Science in Animal Health with a major in Food Animals, and I hope to someday work in either the horse or cattle industry. I have always been obsessed with horses. As a child, each week I would bring home armloads of books on different horse breeds from the library, and would spend hours absorbing all the information they contained. The passion continued, and when I was 16, I began to work at a summer horse camp; a program I have been hired to coordinate for the summer of 2012. In my first year of university I discovered a whole new world that most city kids are not given much opportunity to experience: agriculture.  Though I am still trying to figure out what exactly I want to do with my life, I know I am going to follow these passions both old and new.

In my experience I have found that the both the horse and agriculture industries are fairly tight-knit, as everyone seems to know everybody else. In this way, effective communication is essential when attempting to break into either of these fields. Currently, I am primarily using email and face-to-face conversations to develop a network, but I am interested to see how social networking websites could be used to reach even more possible employers across the country and maybe even around the world. I am also interested in the idea of communications and marketing for agricultural brands using social networking websites. I was not aware that major agricultural companies used sites like Twitter and Facebook until I read a blog by one of my classmates Dani Young who talked about how she follows Cargill on Twitter. Upon reading that information on her blog I decided to do some research of my own on how connected agricultural companies are on social networking sites and I found a presentation on http://www.slideshare.net/farmsdotcom/social-media-for-the-agriculture-industry. This presentation illustrated that 54% of producers use some form of social networking, and 18% of large producers use podcasts; statistics that are much higher than I expected.

I am planning to use this blog to further investigate the relationship between the agriculture industry and social networking websites, and I hope to learn how best to advertise my skills and experiences online for the purposes of my future career.

*Background image is from my personal photos