In The Reputation Economy: How to Optimize Your Digital Footprint in a World Where Your Reputation Is Your Most Valuable Asset, authors Michael Fertik and David C. Thompson examine the brave new world just on the horizon: the world of digital reputation. Sites like Yelp and Angie’s List already subject businesses to the mercies of customer reviews, but – aside from the occasional political aide getting fired for an ignorant tweet – individuals have been largely excepted from this new order. According to The Reputation Economy, however, these halcyon days are coming quickly to a close. Continue reading
Tag: web presence
Update: Pardon My Dust
So I’ve been gone for quite a while. To make a long story short, my last semester at USC Upstate was so demanding that it made writing here impossible. Thankfully, I finally have my BA, I’ve started an editorial internship over at The Indie Chicks, and, after two months of postgraduate life, a new normal has begun to emerge. The big, wide world of professionalism is a lot scarier than I pictured it a year ago, but I’ve decided to grab it by the horns and run. Continue reading
Show Your Work: a Review of Austin Kleon’s Philosophy on Marketing Creativity
Have you ever read a book that you just couldn’t shut up about? Even though you don’t want to be that person, you cannot help but gush, “Oh, you just have to read this book!” Your friends and family start to side-eye you whenever you work it into a conversation, but really, you’re just in love with the whole thing: its ideas, its illustrations, the funny little quirks in the typography.
Pursuing Professionalism as a Millennial: Why I Have Two Facebook Accounts
When the Millennial Generation makes headlines, the articles tell all about our disdain for organized religion, our political independence, and our dismal unemployment rates. Most thinkers paint us as coddled and self-absorbed: people “who were never spanked and received trophies for participating,” as the popular Internet quote reads. Some would-be allies claim Millennials were raised to believe college degrees would lead directly to stable and highly-paid careers, and that this ingrained philosophy has turned an entire generation into a cohort of insolent moochers. Professionalism, then, is not something for which my generation is known, and any mention of Millennials’ positive qualities is difficult to come by. Continue reading
UPDATE: An Advice Manual for College Freshmen Is Now My Main Project
I just finished Austin Kleon‘s Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered—and I’ll have a book review for you guys on Tuesday—and somewhere in the process of reading the first two chapters, I found my niche. When you start a blog, the first thing every advice page will tell you is to find your niche and identity your target audience before you write the first word. This tip was a stumbling block to me: what the hell should I write about? I don’t know about anything! Can’t I just blog about miscellany? For me, niches are elusive. As a class jack-of-all-trades, I’m good at a lot of things but not particularly great at any of them. I don’t have just one major hobby to occupy my spare time; I read, I write, I play video games, and watch movies, and look at food porn. Writing about food porn is not exactly the most promising career move. Continue reading