Is social networking the career ladder of the 00"s? Task 3a

I think it’s safe to say that without a laptop/smartphone/computer at home it’s pretty hard to function nowadays, especially if you are pursuing a career and trying to be a networked professional. I have a laptop and an Iphone and still struggle to keep up with all my email sometimes.

Networking sites like facebook, Youtube, linkedin, twitter and myspace are quickly becoming platforms for our careers rather than “fun”. Even instagram (a photography app) now has the function that we can network and look at each other’s photos. This is yet another example of Web 2.0 giving us the opportunity to show our work. 

I regularly use Facebook to upload photo’s scan the pages for my friend’s news and communicate with friends. These are all tools that are available to me free of charge that I could and should use in a professional manner. I could upload C.V’s and headshots, scan the pages for auditions and communicate with industry professionals.

With social networks there is the motivation to catch up with friends and family, share pictures or present times and memories, express your feelings and keep in touch with people who live at a distance, I believe that most people use networks for good reasons, I know I genuinely love to catch up worth old friends but there are unfortunately some people who use and abuse the internet and its dangers.

My ideal professional networking sight would probably be similar to I.M.D.B (Internet, movie, database) it provides pictures past and most recent, a recent jobs list in chronological order, with a link to see more about the film/play/TV program they were in.

Realistically as someone who isn’t very computer minded my most likely way to develop my own network would be to really work on my blog, during and even after BAPP, to try and gain some more public interest. The tools I would need to use would be the Internet networking sites that already exist but I would use a different method to gain interest and try to use some advertising. I don’t know a lot about blogging and cyber networking, but have started to read a lot more blogs and posts since doing the BAPP course.