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Social Media serves as Personal BrandingArchive for Facebook
Perspectives of a Professional: Part III
This week, I sat down with one of my closest friends here in Austin to discuss his role in the tech community, as well as what suggestions he has for students entering the work force. I have come to rely on his advice and expertise as I navigate my own career here in Austin, and beyond.
Cesar Torres, 24, is one of the co-founders of Conjunctured, a coworking company and Austin’s first coworking space. By day, he’s also a freelance brand designer, art director, graphic and web designer and serves as creative director of TechStyles Apparel. Cesar lives in east Austin with his Mac and his dog, Tumbler.
What role does social media play in your professional life?
Social media played an integral part in the creation and development of Conjunctured, the coworking space I helped create. Since very early on, various social media tools helped us pool together a collection of people who were interested in the development of an Austin coworking space. These same tools helped us keep in contact with the community and gave us a platform to talk about everything we were learning on our journey from the inception of the idea in March to our opening in August and beyond.
Social media helped us attain the right connections to the people that were important to our success, whether that was family, supporters, members, friends outside of Austin, the national tech community and even media and press contacts (we obtained writeups in the Austin American Statesman, two writeups on the Mashable frontpage, I made some guest posts on Dell’s Digital Nomads blog and the Austin360 tech blog and we landed spots on KXAN News and NBC Nightly News as a result of our online contacts!).
How has your use of social media improved your career?
Outside of using social media tools to help promote Conjunctured, coworking and Austin, social media has been a huge help in my personal career as a designer. Through social networks like Facebook and Twitter, I have been able to create a strong presence as a freelance designer and have been contacted many times over for work via these networks. Social media helped me make connections and keep my ear to the ground as to who was in need of services I could provide.
I think people hear the words “social media” and immediately are concerned about privacy issues. I feel that the transparency of social media tools helped people get to know who I was and gave them a better understanding for the kind of work that I liked to do. Once they got a sense for that, they had the communication tools (my blog/portfolio, my Twitter or Facebook accounts, etc.) to contact me regarding work they personally needed done or leads they had.
What has your role been, specifically, in the Austin tech community and where would you like to see it go in the future?
To date, I am called on to provide feedback on branding and design elements for companies and tech starups in town and around the world, which I totally love doing.
A big portion of the membership-base in Austin for coworking is web designers, developers and other tech knowledge workers (naturally, these people have the freedom to work outside an office environment, given their flexibility thanks to technology). I get to meet these creative and talented people and hopefully help them come together and know each other—whether that’s within the walls of Conjunctured or on a one-to-one basis when I’m out at tech events. I’ve even collaborated on some cool projects with a handful of these people.
I feel Austin is at a critical mass where so many things are going on, even outside of the tech landscape, that the city is trying to figure out what kind of place it wants to be when it grows up. While much of the city is still in development, whether that’s figuratively or literally (with the countless highrises going up), I would love to have more of a say in the way the city is portrayed once it gets closer to self-actualization. I’ve been living here since I came to the University of Texas in 2002 to study Advertising and I’ve watched the city evolve right before my eyes. As a result of my background, I’m huge into branding and it would be interesting to officially be in charge of the “branding” of the city, whether that’s indirectly like I’m doing now with Conjunctured, or directly in a more formalized setup.
As a professional in the tech industry, what would you recommend to students entering the work force in the coming months?
Millennials have the unique situation of being an age group to know life with and without the internet, which puts us in a great place, I think.
I mentioned before the concerns of privacy on the internet—definitely be careful of what you or your online friends upload to the web, but also, don’t compromise who you are either. We hear countless stories of people being fired because of their MySpace profiles. Personally, I wouldn’t want to work for a company that wouldn’t hire me because I had party pictures on my profile, but do remember that once college is over, you have to draw more of a distinct line between your professional life and your party life. Two words: Facebook lists. Learn to love ’em.
Also, I would say, once school is over, you’re at a unique age where you can make mistakes—and it’s okay to make them! Dream big. This is a great time to go out and experience new things to help you gain perspective. Travel, meet everyone you can, talk to people (if you’re willing to listen, older people know what the hell they’re talking about, as it turns out), read a lot, journal your thoughts and ideas about the world and your life, get a mentor or five, learn to look at your folks as peers, surround yourself with the right kind of friends and just come to figure yourself out. Come to learn that anything ever is possible, as long as you work your ass off to get it. It may be hard work, but in the end, it’s better to have tried than to sit around unhappy, wondering “what if.” No regrets!
What social media tools do you find the most useful in both your professional and personal lives?
I was one of the early adopters of Facebook when it launched at UT, so it’s safe to say I’m addicted to that still. I love how it’s transitioned and evolved with me as I’ve gone through school and into a more professional role; I find that it’s definitely a reflection of myself. I’m hopelessly addicted to Twitter (follow me @cesart) and I’ve been blogging for about seven years now. You can find my posts at http://c3sart.com. I have replaced reading the paper on the weekends with Google Reader and I unconditionally love any tech startup that comes out of Austin.
Is there anything else you would like to share with readers?
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes: “No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. … If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal,— that is your success.” -Thoreau, Walden
Perspectives of a Professional: Part II
Since moving to Austin, I have had the pleasure of meeting many amazingly talented individuals in the technology industry. One such individual is Kristine Gloria, an Account Executive at Waggener Edstrom PR Firm. Kristine has pioneered the use of social media within her company and understands the importance of 
both developing and maintaining an image of professionalism.
This podcast is a collaboration between myself, Sloan Chouest and Adam Raven. Refer to the Show Notes below for an outline of our interview and links mentioned throughout the podcast:
0:00 Intro
0:35 Describe Waggener Edstrom and your role at the firm?
a. Waggener Edstrom (WagEd) specializes in technology and is incredibly relationship oriented. Specifically, WagEd has a long track record with Microsoft.
b. Kristine Gloria is the liaison with account work and digital strategies.
1:17 How has social media evolved and what is your role?
a. Social media has grown from social networks such as Facebook, to micro blogging on Twitter, and has developed into a tool for both personal and professional purposes.
b. WagEd often uses LinkedIn to do bio searches on their clients and future employees.
c. Kristine’s role has been to implement these tools in the business. She is not an early adopter, but watches the space closely.
2:27 How did you gain an initial awareness of social media and how have you implemented it at Waggener Edstrom?
a. SXSW 2007: Sarah Lacy/Mark Zuckerberg Interview and the importance of Twitter
b. Took this momentum to the office.
i. Began a WE Digital Think Tank
4:06 What forms of social media do you use and how does it benefit you as a P.R. firm?
a. Twitter: “Everyday, every hour”
i. Relationships with reporters
b. Facebook
c. LinkedIn: Bio searching specifically
5:11 Commercial
5:41 What is Waggener Edstrom’s involvement with the blogosphere and how do you approach bloggers with pitches?
a. Active bloggers on external side of WagEd as marketing
b. Use of blogs internally
6:13 What do you think the relationship between bloggers and P.R. firms should be?
a. Understanding the avenue of communication is key
b. Building relationships is essential
c. Bloggers write what they want to write-it’s not personal
6:50 What social media tools do you use on an everyday basis and how have these tools expanded your personal and professional relationships?
a. Keep things professional
b. Social media has helped expand Kristine’s network
i. Helps others understand social media tools
7:41 You mentioned social media as a double-edged sword, can you elaborate on this?
a. Blurs personal and professional life
b. Social Media is extremely self-involved
c. You must be in tune to your own personal brand
i. Austin 3.0
9:12 Where do you see social media going in the future in both public relations and personal lives?
a. Kristine does not see blogging as taking over the journalistic venue
b. The public will begin to understand idea of the “double edged sword.”
9:53 Outro
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