A new age of professional success - LinkedIn

Hello again, I'm back!

I hope you enjoyed the last post, it's the first ever time I've done a guest post and I'm so grateful to Caroline for doing it for me! She's awesome!

Today's post is about something which is becoming more and more popular in the professional world as a business tool, for bloggers and everyone else: LinkedIn.

I've been a member of LinkedIn for quite a while now. My dad is a successful business entrepreneur and he recommended it to me because he said that he's gained a lot of business connections from it. I'd never heard of it until then, and at first I was a little confused by it. I thought it was a social network, which in part it is, but I was confused about all of the details it was asking me. I was used to the usual name, age, relationship status and hobbies kind of social network profile, and being asked about my skills and work experience was something that I was not expecting. That's because LinkedIn is totally different to other social networks, and by different, I mean better.

The mistake I made at first was thinking of it as a social network, because really, it's a disguised online CV. You're putting your professional profile, contact details, past work, skills and education on your profile the same way that you would on a traditional curriculum vitae, for the exact same purpose: to showcase yourself to possible future employers. There is one huge difference though that plays massively to the user's advantage. Gone are the days when potential employers would call past workplaces for a reference; now they can see every one of your positive qualities and skills in one handy section, backed up not by one person but by many people who know you and have seen your skills in action first-hand, and endorse you for them accordingly.

So as you can see, it has huge advantages over the traditional CV for users and employers alike, and for that reason it is becoming the growing preferred route of enquiry for many businesses, who are now simply asking for links to LinkedIn profiles from potential staff instead of a CV due to the site's widespread use. Most people in the professional world now use LinkedIn, which is why it's important to make sure you are, too.

LinkedIn also allows you to make great connections. Not only can it aid you in getting a job once you've found one you're interested in, it can also help you find a job to apply for in the first place, or find people who will collaborate and work with you if you already have one. I know many people, my professional studies tutor included, who have gained valuable jobs through business connections and been very successful in them, so it's important to make as many as possible in your industry.

It also allows you to upload your work to showcase what you've done in the past: a portfolio and CV all in one, which is particularly valuable in the creative industry. If you're not on LinkedIn already, I would highly recommend that you sign up right away!

If you would like to view my profile or follow me on LinkedIn, click here.

Lauren xxx

Introducing…

Hello! My name is Caroline, a red haired 20 year old blogger who will be taking over Lauren’s blog for today – how exciting!

Basically I am here to tell you a little bit about me and blogging so let us begin.

It is just coming up to a year in June since I created my blog, theadventuresofcarolineosbel. One of my reasons for making one is because I am currently studying Journalism at university so it was important for me to get myself out there to make it in the industry.

However, the main reason is because I wanted to get a lot of feelings and emotions out about certain things. My blog is basically a way for me to express my own opinions without necessarily being judge for them. It is an escapism whilst hopefully helping people through certain experiences in their life that I have had to face.

Personally, I don’t have one specific thing that I write about on the blog. The posts vary every time. They can be anything from film/TV show reviews, the latest fashion/makeup I have bought, help and advice to my personal experiences or 20 random facts about me and vintage things. I post everything and anything.

In today's technologically advanced society, there are loads of blogs/vlog channels that focus on a certain thing such as a fashion style or a genre of music/film etc and I find them rather boring and the same. I try to break this by posting stuff that are random and that I like.

Blogging for many is a way to express feelings but also a way to just be themselves. From beauty and fashion to reviews and health pieces, you can control what you put out there. You can be as crazy as you want to be, nothing is stopping you for doing it. It is so easy to start a blog. There is Blogger or WordPress and many more to choose from so you have no excuse. By setting one up, it is also promoting you. If you are applying for a job, college, university etc, then by saying you have a blog you update regularly then you are showing them creative, organisational, writing, photography skills.

Blogging is so easy and simple to do. It is free and it makes you stand out from the crowd. It gets you talking to people you might not necessarily to talk whilst you express your thoughts and feelings.  Many people blog for fun but to become a successful blogger then it is simple: just do it.

My top 5 tips about blogging:

1.       Blog about things that interest you!
There is no point in blogging something about sport when you hate it. Blog about something you love and that you are passionate about. Don’t waste your energy on writing something that you dislike.

2.       Encourage interaction!

Get your readers involved. If you have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, share your blog on there. Encourage your friends to have a read on your latest article. Then make them share the link on their profiles- more shares, more views, more readers! Able them to follow you on those different sites as well and allow the option for them to comment on your posts. It engages your readers and involves them in the article.

3.       Use images!
Break the text up with pictures that are relevant to the topic. You don’t want to read a text heavy article, people will most likely get bored. By involving photographs you create a more pleasing visual for your audience. If you have a good quality camera/phone then take videos and pictures on that. If you don’t, have a look on a search engine (be aware of copyright though). It makes the blog more appealing.

4.       Update regularly!

I try to post at least twice a week and by doing this it keeps my readers updated with what I am doing in my life. By posting various topics, it keeps them intrigued too. Fashion one post and a review another, the audience doesn’t know what is coming up next on your blog. Obviously if you want to focus on a certain aspect then do it!

Furthermore, prepare your posts! Research the topic and write them a week or two in advances. Try to keep your posts simple. Many people skip read so keep it short and to the point. This saves you from panicking the day/night before the day you publish a post.
Update, update, update whenever you can.  

5.       Be yourself!

Remember it is YOUR blog so post whatever you want. It doesn’t matter if people don’t like what you have written, ignore the negativity. You can delete those comments or simply scroll past them. Don’t let that put you off blogging.

So there you have it! I hope this has helped and that is all from me! Bye x

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Instagram: thevintagedaydream
Twitter: carolineosbel
Pinterest: carolineosbel
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New Blog Focus

Hello again everyone!

I realise in the last post I said that I had moved and that I would not be using this blog anymore. That is now not strictly true. I have still got a new blog which will be my main focus for personal leisurely blogging, but at the same time I will be continuing to blog here. The reason being is that last year, I started this blog as a fashion blog, as a project for university as part of my professional studies module. At the end of the year I thought that this module was over, hence my moving to another personal blog, but this year we are doing professional studies again, so I need to keep using it.
However, we now have to blog differently. We have to choose our main area of interest within our study and specialise in it, blogging about this in a more focused way instead of blogging about the course and fashion in general. My main interest is definitely blogging itself, so I decided to base my blog on that; hence its new name: The Meta-Blog.
So this is the cutoff point. I know that before I blogged about fashion and university and sewing, and the posts are still there as I don't want to lose all of my work from last year, but now I will only be blogging about, well, blogging. I think it will be a strange concept to do this, but nonetheless I am looking forward to doing it. I like a challenge.
I have a few ideas for posts I can do soon so watch this space...

Ciao,
Lauren xoxo

I've moved!!!

Hi everyone!

This is just a quick post to let you know where I'm at. I realise I have quite a few active followers who check my blog and since I haven't posted in a long time I thought that I would let you know why incase anyone is interested.
So as I said when I started this blog, the purpose of it was a professional studies assignment for uni. This module is now over, so whilst this blog will stay in place, and I may think about still posting things in the future maybe, I will mostly be inactive here from now on.
I have, however, started up a new blog. It is different to this one on that it is more personal; a lifestyle blog kinda. It's not for any assignment or purpose really other than my own enjoyment, so the subject matter will probably be more varied, and it will be much more informal.
I'm now over here, and I'd love it if my readers would make the switch with me to my new blog! I've appreciated your interest so very much over the past few months. :)
More posts to follow elsewhere, and I hope that you'll be reading!

Ciao,
Lauren xoxo

New term, new project!

Hello! So yesterday was the start of a brand new shiny term and it's all very exciting at the minute because that means that having handed in our visual communication and design & technical modules now, we are starting a whole new project! It's a design-only project and we are going to be working with a company to their brief. The project is on sportswear and we will be working with a UK-based company called More Mile, and designing for them a range of sportswear and running shoes. To do this, we will be completing another sketchbook like our previous design project and composing range plans on boards using Adobe Illustrator. Now I'm not usually a big sports person myself by any stretch of the imagination (however I AM forcing myself to the gym tonight!!!) but I am actually really really excited about this project! It's a short one lasting only 5 weeks but I feel really inspired and have already picked out my theme and started working, and we aren't even receiving our intro talk from the company until Thursday! I just want to throw myself into it and really knuckle down and produce a lot of different ideas. I don't know why I'm so suddenly enthusiastic but I am really glad that I am! Maybe it's because I'm excited about the opportunities working with a client to a brief could bring. Maybe all the tea I drink has gone to my head. Alas, it's a good thing either way.
Updates to follow!

Lauren xoxo

Connect with me on LinkedIn!

Hi everyone! Just a quick post to let you all know that I'm now on LinkedIn, so feel free to add me as connections! Click here to go to my profile :)

Lauren xoxo

Visual Communication: The big hand-in!

Hi everyone! really sorry I've been a bit quiet for ages again, hand-ins have been hectic! The big ones are done now though, so I thought I would just write a quick post to tell you about it. Okay, so the first hand-in I had was for visual communication; the module that the work in the previous post was for. This one was made up of two parts, hand-rendering and IT, which eventually came together in three final boards depicting a chosen collection, garment flats of it made on Adobe Illustrator, and your final illustrations of the collection which were made by hand-rendering first and were then scanned in and coloured digitally. If any of you missed my previous posts on this module, they can be found here and here! There was such a huge rush towards the end of my time up until the deadline and I was like a woman possessed trying to get it all done! I managed it in the end though with a whole three minutes to spare!!! (Time management isn't my strong point at all as you can tell!) Here's my final three boards for the project!

I'm really pleased with them, especially the last one with my final illustrations on!
Alongside this we also needed to hand in a sketchbook showing evidence of hand-rendering work and experimentation with different media. This bit was the worst and I didn't get much sleep getting it done! There was loads of work in it by the end though so I can't post every bit of it on here, but here are the best bits, and a few edits of them I did on photoshop as experiments!

Josephine Bowes' Dress, Bowes museum, from life, Oil Pastels.

Kate Moss, from reference, watercolours and fineliner.

Vanessa Paradis, from reference, ProMarkers and Adobe Photoshop.

Photoshop experiment from a reference of an Estee Lauder magazine advert.

Final Illustration 1, Photoshop.

Final Illustration 2, Photoshop.

Final Illustration 3, Photoshop.

Final Illustration 4, Photoshop.

Experiment in drippy inks, from magazine reference.

Hand studies, from life and magazine references.

Feet studies, from magazine references.

An eye, Biro Pen, from reference.

An eye, graphite pencil, from reference.

Negative drawing of a bird's nest done on a workshop at the Dorman Museum, Middlesbrough. Graphite crayon and eraser, from life.

Montana Forbes study, ProMarkers.

Freya Flavell study, Watercolour.

Freya Flavell study, ProMarkers.

Ilse Valfre study, Oil Paints.

Hajin Bae study, coloured pencils.

Sabine Pieper study, Oil Paints.

Sky Ferreira, Biro pen, from reference.

Edits, Adobe Photoshop.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my work! I'm really pleased with how it all turned out. I'll be updating my art blog with it soon. I also had deadlines for my technical folder and my design project too, but I'm still yet to get decent phots of it, but I will make a post on it when I've got some!

Lauren xoxo

Christmas catch-up

Hello everyone! Really sorry I haven't posted in absolutely ages, I've been so so busy with it being Christmas and everything I just haven't had time. I hope everyone's had an amazing Christmas and New Year! I have, but the downside to that is that I now have a LOT of work to do for uni before Monday... one of these days I will learn not to leave it until last minute! Nonetheless, I've had a really productive night so far. I'm trying to catch up with my work for Visual Communication because the deadline for the module is really soon after we go back after Christmas. Something I've been meaning to do for ages is do my artist research, so I've been focusing on that for the past few days. I have to do 5 studies of the same piece in different media, for 5 different artists/illustrators. I've chosen Ilse Valfre (one of my favourite illustrators!), Sabine Pieper, Freya Flavell aka. Doodloodloo, Montana Forbes, and Hajin Bae. So far I've got through all five for Montana Forbes and Sabine Pieper. Here's a look at what I've done so far. I'm only posting one of the Montana Forbes ones though because it's the only one of those five that I really liked; I just don't think that the other media I used really lent itself very well to the image. I guess that's why you experiment though, to find these things out! Anyway, here they are:

Another thing I've been really excited to tell you guys is about my Christmas presents. I know what you're thinking: how is that relevant at all? Stay with me though! There's two that I'm particularly excited about. The first one is this baby...

ISN'T IT GORGEOUS?! (Like I needed to ask!) This is the Nikon D3100. I've been lusting after an SLR for quite some time, I've been sick of distorted and pixelated and blurry images and I thought that since I run a blog now and my course is one that will involve photography at some point, it makes sense to have an upgrade. Courtesy of Santa, of course... (ahem, thank you Mother!!!)
I also got a long distance focus lens and a tripod for it off my Dad. So expect better quality images hereafter! Yay for great cameras!
Onto the second thing. Here she is...

(Excuse the hairy carpet, I have two Jack Russells and no motivation to hoover.)

How gorgeous?! I'd be over the moon if I got this just as a pretty ornament, but I'm particularly excited because it's fully serviced and working, so I can actually use it!!!
Which brings me onto my exciting news! I shall be using my new machine very soon, because over the holidays my inner entrepreneur has been niggling away at me, and I am very excited to say that I am opening my own online shop! I'll be selling handmade things, however I'm not going to spill the beans on what that is until it's fully up and running, but a post is to follow announcing the launch very soon I promise! Eeeek! :D
I'm wondering if I've missed anything to tell you all... I've always had the memory of a goldfish, no doubt I will have missed something. Oh well, if I have it will come to me. I'd better go now though because I have to be up in eight hours for work! No rest for the wicked...

Ciao for now,

Lauren xoxo

Flickr

Hello everyone! I'm really sorry I haven't posted in ages, I have upcoming deadlines for my design project and it's keeping me really busy, but I'll try and post some more when I can. Just a quick update to say that I've just opened a Flickr account, and if you want to view my photos or follow me, you can find it here. I have some upcoming posts about museum trips and things where I took a lot of photos which I want to share with you all, so I thought I could just start creating albums on Flickr and link you all to them when I post about each trip so that you can see properly!

Lauren xoxo

Fashion friend promo: Hannah Crabtree

Today I'm promoting my friend Hannah! I met her before I started my course just after I met Toni because she added me on Facebook too. She's from down South and she's the only one in our group with a decent accent, haha! She's a really lovely, funny, down-to-earth person and she has a great sense of style. Followfollowfollow!!!
http://orchidandtiara.blogspot.co.uk/

Fashion friend promo: Toni Eaton

Today I'm promoting my friend Toni from uni! She's actually the first person from my course that I got talking to because she was tracking everyone down and added me on facebook haha! She's such a lovely bubbly person and her blog is SO cute, as anything vintage always is! Followfollowfollow!
http://tonivintage.blogspot.co.uk/

Fashion friend promo: Rosie Earnshaw

Hi everyone!
Ok, so as pretty much everyone on my course is just starting out blogging, like me, I thought that promoting would be a good idea to help out. Every now and then I'll promo one of my friends from my uni course or another new blogger, which my followers should follow too because if you enjoy reading my blog, you should enjoy theirs too! So today, I'm promoting my friend Rosie. She was the first person I met on my course because we got the train together on our first day here, and we still do! She's lovely and she has a really cool style and her blog is super cute. Followfollowfollow!!!
http://rosie-earnshaw.blogspot.co.uk/

Lauren xoxo