The Facebook Phenomenon

This week I made a facebook page all about me! Let me guess - you're thinking, don't I already have a facebook profile that's all about me? Well I do - but a facebook page is different from a profile. My facebook page is a professional page for potential employers, business contacts and colleagues. With my facebook page I can highlight my academic goals, skills, and work experience in a way that is easily accessible to anyone who is considering hiring me or wants to make sure I'm a reputable person. Another excellent reason behind creating a facebook page is that if or when potential employers search my name, they can see a professional, positive account of me. The facebook page is separated from my personal life and focuses on my career instead of what I did on the weekends, like my facebook profile does.

When I get my degree and become a registered dietitian this page will be very useful. Facebook pages are a great way to stay in contact with other business professionals. This is a good point made by  fellow student on his blog post. I can show it to clients to assure them that I am a professional. I can use it to stay in contact with experts in my field and business contacts. The facebook page I have created would be a fantastic forum for discussing and brainstorming nutrition ideas, tips and news. If I return to rural Alberta to pursue my career like I want to, social media sites like facebook will be vital for staying in contact with other dietitians and experts in my field. It will not matter how many kilometres I am away from business contacts I can still discuss serious nutrition issues with them in real time on my facebook page. If I am putting on a benefit or awareness campaign as a part of my job I can easily advertise and spread the word through my facebook page. Below is a photo of my facebook page.

Figure 1. Cassandra H facebook page
From C. Holte (personal collection. January 24, 2012)
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Cassandra-H/255243997879436?sk=info

One super useful tool of a facebook page is the ability to advertise through them. Whether running a small business or trying to promote a cause a facebook page is a great professional way to spread the word. This is a point also made by Allison Reilly. Being in university, with my entire adult life ahead of me, it is completely reasonable to predict that someday I will want to advertise a function, raise awareness for a cause, or even open my own business. Learning how to make a facebook page is a valuable tool that will most defiantly come in handy in my future career and life.

My Life Story *The Short Version*

Hello world! This is Cassandra speaking (or I guess technically writing) on my first EVER blog. So please bear with me as I work and stumble my way through my first post. I'll try to sum up my life story to date into a few sentences so you know a bit about me. I was born and raised on a farm outside of a small town in Alberta.  At 18 years of age, with high school behind me, I loaded up my car and came up to Edmonton to attend the University of Alberta in the Nutrition and Food Science Program. I am currently in my second year of university and am aspiring to become a registered dietitian. Once I become a resisted dietitian I plan to return to rural Alberta to pursue my career. I also play hockey on a Junior Female hockey team and I really believe that good nutrition and physical activity are vital to living a long and healthy life. Figure 1 is a photo of me playing some shinny on a slough over the Christmas break.

Figure 1.  Skating on the slough.
From C.Holte (personal collection. Janurary 16, 2012)

As a student communication is key to being successful in my academic career. Knowing how to use the university email and manoeuvre different class websites is vital for staying informed in classes. Most of my professors are very busy people so email and other social media sites are a much more convenient way to ask questions and get hold of them. There are also professors who have very few scheduled office hours. However, with the advancement of social media, this is not a big hurdle to overcome and getting in touch with a professor, academic adviser, or lab TA is an easy task. Now that I have signed up for Twitter I am learning how helpful it can be to be in contact with other students. Social media makes it easy to further discuss topics brought up in class. A good point that elycheng brings up on her blog is how important social media and networking can be for finding volunteer opportunities to that are related to your program of interest.

Communication plays a big role in the work of a dietitian. Many dietitians work with individuals, families and communities to help them apply good nutrition principles. They are also responsible for developing nutrition education programs. You can find more information about the different roles registered dietitians in Alberta here. Dietitians need to have good communication skills to get across facts and information effectively and efficiently. Dietitians also need to have resources available for clients. That could mean anything from paper handouts to reliable websites they can go to for dietary information. Some nutritionists work with different media to promote good nutrition and healthy eating. This could include television commercials, you tube videos, magazine and newspaper articles, and using social media sites like facebook and twitter to spread information. The world is increasingly using social media sites and other online tools to spread information; dietitians can take advantage of these tools to spread information quickly and increase the knowledge of many people at the same time.