5 Steps: Your Digital Tune-up
In the past, updating your resume meant adding some lines to your CV.
Now, you have to chase it around the Internet. There’s the bio and statement on your website; on your LinkedIn, Instagram, and other social-media profiles; on the sites of places you teach, professional organizations you belong to, you get the idea. Never mind those Instagram highlights from that trip in 2019.
Time for your digital tune-up! Make sure you’re in the best position to be found by people and opportunity by updating your digital resume across all platforms.
Here are some tips to get started:
1. Out with the Old
This is no time for nostalgia. Liberate yourself from abandoned blogs and dormant X (formerly Twitter) feeds; delete those antiquated Instagram highlights and overstuffed Linktrees. Remember: the more options offered, the less chance readers will find what matters most.
2. Update Your CV
Take stock of all your recent news: jobs, shows, projects, education, publications, grants, residencies, etc. Take stock of all the professional organizations, schools, and other places that list your bio. Make sure each achievement is listed where it needs to be.
3. Consider the Big Picture. It’s Horizontal
Next, check the cover art on your website, LinkedIn, X, and Facebook pages. This is valuable visual real estate, the first content all viewers see. If you haven’t switched out your images (or videos) lately, make sure they convey your updates from point 2.
4. Refresh Your Self
The profile photo can speak volumes about who you are and what you do. It can make you easier to be found and recognized. It can help you appear approachable, interesting, even fun.
If it doesn’t (or if your appearance changed during the pandemic) it’s time for a reshoot. For many this is a chore at best, but there are tricks. Personally, I never thought I’d be good at selfies, until I learned how much lighting can do. Along with smiling with your eyes.
5. Set Yourself Up for Success
If you’re an art professional building your career, you’re managing various digital platforms. You should have an email list. An Instagram (if not for posting, then for recon). A LinkedIn profile (especially if you don’t have a website). Ideally, a website. So create a content management system with folders and calendars, on platforms like Dropbox that colleagues can access.
