Language show live career boosting social media for linguists

21 Oct 2012 © Marta Stelmaszak

Career Boosting Social Media for Linguists

Tips, Strategies and Best Practice


Agenda • About the speaker

• Languages as business and communication

• What is social media?

• Who uses social media?

• What is social media for?

• How to use social media? • Facebook

• Twitter

• LinkedIn


About the speaker

• BA in Applied Translation

• MSc in Forensic Linguistics

• DPSI and experience in court interpreting

• Management Committee of ID

• E-business training at LSE

• Pg Certificate in the law of new technologies

• IT as area of specialisation


Languages = communication

• Communication is… • Source of our work

• Purpose of our work

• Tool to do our job


Can you imagine working in languages without…

• Pen and Paper

• Computer

• Telephone

• Internet

• Email

• Downloading/sending files

• Social media?


This is the age of social media.

You should be part of it.


What is social media?


What are we concentrating on?


Who uses social media?

Linguist

Teacher

Student

Company

Agency

Translator

Interpreter


Teachers • Katarina Volarić I love meeting new people, learning new things, getting to know new cultures and social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn - to name the ones I resort to most) provide me with just that. Sometimes I feel like the social media breaks barriers, and it did for me because it makes me feel like I have stepped out of my freelance office into the brave new world populated with wonderful linguists who inspire me, teach me and hear what I want to say!


Teachers • Nina Hanakova

When it comes to the freelance business, I strongly believe in attraction marketing and social networking. Why not showcase what you´ve got to offer in the online world, the right people will show up (both clients and interesting contacts/colleagues). Blog, post on FB/twitter, promote yourself on Youtube! It works!


Teachers • Aleksandra Milcic Radovanovic My students use social media to communicate with friends and play games, of course. I decided to use SM as a language learning resource and I had an excellent feedback. In our spring 2012 classes we used Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest as a resources in language exploration tasks. For instance, students had to find blogs on a certain subject in English (i.e. translation of children literature) and then tweet about some chosen article while trying to extract the essence of it in 140 characters. They also had to translate to Serbian some of the FB content in English and explain if there is something lost in translation and how that change can affect readers/followers. This semester we’re going to create a blog for the whole class and they will have to post according to the theme and schedule we’ll create. They will also have a Pinterest board where they will share interesting things and facts regarding various languages.


Students “I am constantly using social media (G+, Twitter) not only to stay in touch with friends, but to be completely up-to-date (too much, perhaps) on everything related to the areas that interest me, such as language, films and music.”

I’m on social media to stay in touch with other students and to share interesting articles. I study a rare language, so it’s much easier to find helpful people and useful resources online.


Agencies • Kobalt Languages

We use different social media for different purposes. We use Facebook to keep in touch with our translators, to let them know what's going on in the company and also to find suitable candidates for our projects. Linkedin, on the other hand, is very useful to identify potential clients and approach them to propose our services. Twitter is an in-between for us and we use it to market our services, build our brand image, but also to keep our translators engaged with the company.


Agencies • Global Lingo Global Lingo utilises social media across the company as a way to engage on a personal level with our clients, suppliers and internal teams. It’s crucial for us to show a human side to our business and social media allows us to do that to great effect.

• Translate Media TranslateMedia uses social media for a wide range of different activities ranging from customer service to building communities for our translators. We also use social platforms to promote digital marketing campaigns like our recently launched International Guide to Social Media

(www.translatemedia.com/igsm.html)."

http://www.translatemedia.com/igsm.html)


Translators and interpreters


Translators and

interpreters


Translators and interpreters • Judy Jenner In order to grow a translation business – or any business, as a matter of fact – it’s imperative to grow one’s circle of influence. We need to spread the word about our services so potential clients know that we exist. 20 years ago, we were limited to going to networking events and had to rely on traditional (and very expensive) advertising to spread the word about our business. The advent of social media has changed all that. Most of it is free, and it allows small business owners to expand their network with the click of a mouse, from the comfort of a home office. It’s easy and fast and I really don’t see a downside to the use of social media for professional purposes, although I highly recommend establishing a daily time limit so you don’t spend all day online rather than doing actual work. This is the age of social media. You should be part of it.


What is social media for?

Networking

Development Marketing


Facebook (1) • Friends

• Chat


Facebook (2) • Pages


Facebook (3) • Groups


Facebook – Best Practice Reader or publisher?

Professional not private

Page or profile?

Sharing relevant information

Liking relevant pages

Joining groups


Twitter

(Stelmaszak, 2011)


Twitter • Tools available on Twitter


Twitter – Best Practice

Professional not private

Profile description

Hashtags

Sharing relevant information

Branding

Who to follow?


LinkedIn • Tools available on LinkedIn

» Profile

» Messages

» Keywords

» Search

» Groups

» Company pages

» Jobs

» Questions

» News


LinkedIn – Best Practice Complete profile

Adding keywords

Using applications

Joining groups

Connecting with experts


How to use social media?

• What do you want to achieve?

• Who is your target audience?

• Which platforms do you want to concentrate on?

• How much presence do you need?

• How much time do you have?

• What is your plan?


Any Questions? • Connect with me

• Practical guide to social media

• Business School for Translators

• www.iol.org.uk

@mstelmaszak

WantWords

Marta Stelmaszak

[email protected]

Documents

Language show live career boosting social media for linguists