By Julie Montedoro (MATI 2025)
It’s not news: online visibility is a key aspect of professional success!
On October 10, 2023, we discussed this topic in a TILM Career Management class featuring two guest speakers who shared their ideas on how to curate one’s social media presence.
Here is my reflection on this very informative session.
Maddy Sanchez
(LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/maddy-sanchez & Portfolio: msanchez.middcreate.net)
It is easier to work on our goals when we make it something that we resonate with. Searching for a job or clients should fall into that category as well! One way to do so is to realize the importance of making this process not only a professional endeavor but a personal experience. In that sense, curating our social media presence is an opportunity to show the world who we are and why people on the other side of the screen should want to work with us, as a professional in our field and as a person.
This is one of the aspects I liked about Maddy’s presentation. She started by explaining the concept of Branding and how she created her portfolio so that it reflects her professional identity in a personalized way. Her tip was to pick the pictures that you feel represent you, pictures of yourself, of the people and things you care about, and to use them in a color picker to create your color palette. How creative!
Maddy shared another great piece of advice regarding social media Presence, in particular on LinkedIn. Some of us might think “I have created my profile, okay…but now, what do I talk about so I can be more visible?”. Her answer: anything that can showcase your skills, your experience, your interests, and contribute to making your professional profile strong, positive, and unique. Post about your ongoing projects, the talks you participate in on campus, the conferences you attend, the new technology you are interested in, and maybe the clubs you joined, or even lead!
Rong Shi Eisenberg
(LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rongeisenberg & Portfolio: re-interpret.com/)
It is said that the human brain learns best with stories and visualizing. These are two ways that can help us comprehend a concept or an abstract idea faster so we can retain it in our memory for future use.
Rong used this technique beautifully during her presentation. She guided us through the steps to create a website by comparing it to creating a garden. It then made it easy to understand how important it is to choose wisely what to plant, depending on what you’d like to cultivate, in other words, carefully select the information you share to attract the right audience.
Once you’ve done so, the same way you would if you were a gardener watering your plants, pruning, and trimming, it is crucial to keep your website up to date (and the same is true for e-portfolio, blog, online profile, etc.). Make sure you regularly publish new content and change or remove information that is no longer relevant. You decide how often and how long it will take you, and it is a necessary step to later harvest the fruits of your labor!
Now that you have a nice website, you also want to ensure you are findable. One way to boost your visibility is to optimize keywords for online searches. Rong pointed out that the tendency today is for people to look for information on their phones. This is why we should also focus on the mobile responsiveness of our website during the creation process (by adjusting the content, size, designs, etc. to match the phone format).
Finally, just like Maddy, Rong highlighted the importance of writing in your own voice to stand out. On her website, she added a blog section where she talks about her more personal identity that she feels comfortable sharing, as well as a testimonial section where her previous clients talk about her and her work. Don’t be shy! Once you’ve started to produce some work, ask your happy clients if they’d like to write about their experience – most of the time, they will happily do it!
