Science Communications

For better or worse, your profile picture is the first thing that anyone surfing the web will see, so it's important to put your best face forward. Here are some guidelines to help you choose a great profile photo for our website:

Many of you are probably working in organizations without public relations departments or staff. Even for those of you lucky enough to have press offices helping get the word out about your work, they may not be targeting all of the best places or doing so in a way that will help your career. The answer? Develop your own personal distribution list, or press list, and feed it regularly with thoughtfully selected news and carefully crafted messages.

In August 2011, federal marshals raided the Gibson Guitar Corporation in Tennessee, apparantly preparing to charge the famous builder of instruments with trafficking in illegally obtained wood. In the aftermath of the raid there was intense media attention on the company and its sourcing practices. Andrea Johnson of EIA was interviewed by NPR because of her previous work on Gibson's allegedly illegal sourcing practices in Madagascar.

On May 21, 2012, we hosted a lively and informative panel of published Switzer authors. Below is a synopsis of their comments and advice for anyone considering writing his or her first book. Please use the links to access their full comments and advice. We're also including two video interviews with authors who could not join us, David Sonnenfeld talking about the texbook market and Sharon Smith on what it takes to successfully market a book.

Google offers a dizzying array of free and low-cost tools to use in your organization. Cloud email, shared calendars and simple websites are just the beginning. This webinar looks at how you can shift your organization to cloud computing with Google, including tips on how to get buy-in at all levels. Originally broadcast April 30, 2012.

Now that we are offering more webinars, I've discovered that very few Fellows have much experiece with delivering them. That's to be expected since webinars are still very new in some fields. Their use is increasing rapidly, however, so I want to offer a resource for learning more about planning, delivering, and following up after webinars to everyone in the network.

Although most Switzer Fellows don't consider themselves marketers, we are all responsible to some degree for getting the word out about what we do. The number one place to do that cheaply and quickly is on the web, but where should you start?

I recently received the following question from a Fellow: In updating my profile, I was wondering if Lauren offers any advice to Fellows on how to present themselves and their work. I feel like my profile could use a bit more polish. I find it's most effective (and easiest) to write one online professional profile and use it for everything from LinkedIn to conferences... to the Switzer website! It should include the following to make it searchable by search engines and quick to read:

Swimming in files and information? Learn how to organize your existing life, and then stay organized with simple systems. On December 5 we held a webinar that covered how to organize: - your online reading- photos, music and videos- personal documents- finances- bookmarks- passwords- your to do list- email- backups (you ARE backing up... right?!)Check out nifty free services, get tons of useful bookmarks (all neatly organized for you already), and then pick and choose the ones that make sense for you.