Not “That” Profile Picture

Most of us can remember back to the days of well thought-out and pre-planned MySpace profile pictures (even if we don’t want to). However, as we enter an age where we are forced to transform our once creative and self-reflecting profiles into cautionary depictions of our personal lives, how do we know what an appropriate profile picture really is?

No longer are we posting pictures to achieve the maximum number of ‘likes’ we are posting pictures that make us look like the responsible, hardworking, and determined young people that we are…75% of the time. According to Business Insider, there are 8 simple rules every professional should follow when choosing a profile picture:

1. Always use a photo…thank you for that brilliant piece of advice Business Insider
2. Use a recent photo of yourself…does my #tbt from last week count?
3. You should be the only subject in the photo…but what about my new puppy?
4. Your face should be in focus…well that’s unfortunate for my eyebrows.
5. Wear appropriate professional or business casual attire…or your favorite baseball T.
6. Keep your head straight and upright…what is this, senior glamour shots?
7. Use a pleasant facial expression…so not my resting bi**h…(you know where I’m going with this).
8. Don’t use your company’s product or logo as a photo…no worries, I’m unemployed.

If you couldn’t already tell, I’m less than pleased with Business Insider’s menial advice. While all of their tips seem and obvious and true, I question whether I actually want to work for a company who cares if my profile picture fits this criteria. Of course I want a job after graduation and I want to give off the right message about who I am, but at what point does it sacrifice my personality entirely? Their tips yield us to strip the profiles we have spent years building, and enter the next 40 or so years of our lives pretending that the last 20 never happened.

I still have a solid three months left of college. Three months that I admittedly, am going to do all of the things that I may not have time for after graduation. I am going to go out and have a good time with my friends, and I am going to document my experience. So what if my profile picture is of me hugging my two best friends, wearing yoga pants, with my hair in a messy bun? I find it hard to believe that my lack of business casual attire would jeopardize a future job opportunity.

All I’m saying is that if I want to display myself like the responsible, hardworking, and determined young person I am, 75% of the time, I don’t think I should be forced to hide who I am the other 25% of the time, as long as these pictures remain within the realm of appropriateness.

Below are four images, two profile pictures, and two non-profile pictures that could be found elsewhere on your page.

Example 1:

       

The photo on the left is my LinkedIn profile picture, and the photo on the right is what came up when I searched “professional profile photos” on Google. Sure, my picture doesn’t follow all 8 rules laid out by Business Insider, but I’ve got dozens of contacts on LinkedIn and work at UPMC, which has a reputation for upholding their values and appearance to the outside world, and I achieved all of this without the staged, awkward, and try-hard efforts of the photo on the right. Proof that you can BE YOURSELF. I’ve just decided I’m making that rule number 9.

Example 2:

      

The photo on the left is my current Facebook cover photo, and the photo on the right is what I imagine someone at Business Insider would choose as his or her Facebook cover photo. My point here is that I like cats, I particularly like cats wearing booties, because, why not? I shouldn’t have to pretend to not like things that are funny or cute, or refrain from posting them, just because it doesn’t scream professional. Hence, rule number 9.

So yes, you should use your best judgment and not choose a profile picture of you raging on spring break; however, don’t go through your profiles and delete every picture where you aren’t wearing business casual and demurely posing against a tree. In the end, I think all of us would be a lot happier to have a boss or work for a company that lets us be ourselves, than constantly pretending to be the inaccurate depiction of ourselves we displayed on Facebook.

Written By: Sarah Cinski

Sources

Business Insider Rules: http://www.businessinsider.com/rules-for-your-profile-picture-2013-11

Example profile picture: http://nextimpression.net/blog/2013/10/24/top-5-tips-for-a-professional-profile-picture

Example cover photo: http://redarrowmedia.com/sitemap.xml

How to Handle Writer’s Block

Most of us taking this course are writers, or will at least have to act like we are for the sake of this blog. Being one of the first people to post for the semester, I thought that I had all the options. But, like most writers fear time and time again, I got writer’s block. Surely, all or most of you know what writer’s block is; When a writer simply can’t bring themselves to write no matter what the reason may be. They choke up, they stare at their blank word document and they think endlessly of how to fill that page.

Hopefully, with this post you’ll be able to read up on some circumstances and tips that should keep you from falling down that dark hole of inspiration-less, hopeless writing endeavors. First problem that we usually face, especially with writing a blog is not knowing what to write about. You’re stumped. What do you write about? Do you share a story that somehow teaches a lesson in the end? Do you just pick one of the topics that Sarah put on the back of our blog sheets? What if you don’t like them, what if you can’t connect? Well, to all of those questions, here is my advice:

Source : http://www.laserfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Writing2.jpg

Do some writing exercises. I know you just want to get the post finished, but taking even five minutes to practice a ‘how-to-do’ something or a scene of an event that happened to you today or yesterday or last week. It seems pointless, but often once we get started with something small it gets us thinking of a million other things that could ignite a spark in your brain that is desperate to fill the page. If that’s not working and you really got a bad case of the inspiration-less blues, Google it. Seriously, google writing ideas or writing advice or social media stuff. Whatever topic sort of calls your name out the loudest and read up on the content for ten minutes. Surely, you’ll leave one of those pages with an idea or two that you can expand on.

Now, we all know that writer’s block doesn’t just mean that we can’t think of anything to write about, but maybe we do and it peters out too short. You lose the commitment, like a childhood crush gone wrong. My best experiences with this awful predicament is to throw those ideas out the window. It is better to find something that you can talk about forever then to force the same idea in a different way in every paragraph, leaving your reader to skim and become bored. Though this is easier said than done, don’t stress, give yourself some time to think. It isn’t a bad thing to step away from your work. That is unless it is due in an hour, then you might be screwed my friend. If worse comes to worst, try thinking of ways to mend those multiple ideas you have together to make a full piece. If you can’t fill the writing with one, incorporate the others and make your idea bigger!

Source : http://www.brainpickings.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/twain.jpg

Okay, so maybe by now you have this idea and you’re writing and writing and you feel like you could actually finish this post. You’re literally over half-way through the word count requirement and bam! You are hit with the loss of thought. You can’t go on. You fear that you may have to start all over, again. Don’t. A lot of writers make it so far then once they’ve stopped, they fear it might be all over. It’s not, in fact, it is normal. Mark Twain spent months stuck in the middle of Huckleberry Finn before he decided that Huck and Jim would take the wrong river and end up on a different path. Now, we’re not spending months on these pieces but it just goes to show that every writer hits a wall in the middle of a fast writing adventure. Like in the previous predicament, you have a few options here: You can step away for a while, work on another project or read a magazine article, get on your social media, whatever. You can also choose to reread your piece and see if it refreshes your memory of where you left off. Or maybe rereading it, you’ve decided on a different organization or where to insert another paragraph. Change up the structure and see what it does to your blog, you’d be surprised what a clever switch up could do.

Finally, if you’re still stumped or there is something about your writing that you feel I haven’t covered there are multiple writer’s block webpages you can visit. Three of my favorite websites to visit are:

http://boostblogtraffic.com/writers-block/

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Over-Writer’s-Block

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/7-ways-to-overcome-writers-block

I hope that with my advice and the extra help from these sites, all of you will be more equipped and confident in writing your future blog posts!

Welcome to Our Blog

Hello and welcome to the blog for University of Pittsburgh ENGCMP1250: Advanced Topics in Public and Professional Writing: Professional Uses of Social Media.  Whew, what a mouthful—perhaps we need a bit.ly simply for our course title!

In this course we are studying the use and craft of digital writing on social networking platforms toward the advancement of one’s professional persona or organization. Students and guests will be posting weekly, and we hope you join us in the conversation.