My model individual for a digital presence is digital creative named Donye Taylor, based in Washington, D.C. She is active on most popular social media accounts such as Instagram, Twitter and Linkedin. She is more active on Instagram daily, but her Linkedin is always being updated.

Linkedin: Her profile is straight to the point, displaying her bio, contact info, experience and awards. I like how she incorporates her instagram post onto this profile. I believe for her first impression, seeing the instagram links allows one to see that she is socially active on other platforms.

Instagram: Her profile is also straight to the point before you scroll through her photos. The bio explains who she is, what she does and her contact information. Similar to her Linkedin profile, just in fewer words.

Her instagram is more personal yet she still incorporates her progress on certain projects, gives creative digital advice and promotes her accomplishments. Having all of this type of information allows viewers to get to know her better because of the photos and videos she posts of herself. Her captions are also key to her digital presence because she talks directly to her followers and that allows a personal connection and makes her more intriguing.

I am inspired by both of her digital presences I shared because she shows a very professional and relatable presence on social media, and connecting with your audience is key.

I am currently working on relaunching my own website for my digital presence, but as of now I am in the process of building my design page. I know my timidness hindered me from putting my all into posting content but this course has definitely aided me in the direction I want to go with my digital presence and career.

I am definitely in the top 2 of the worst over thinkers, and I am NOT #2. This exercise was very helpful in creating a good first impression on my potential employers. I intend to use this email inquiry sample as the template for my future first impression emails and or interviews. In my example, I am writing to the Chief Communications Officer of the digital media company BuzzFeed.

Dear Mrs. Carole Robinson,

I hope this email finds you well. My name is Tenelle Reynolds and I am in my final year studying Communications Technology with a concentration in Web Design at CUNY York College. I was excited to learn about you and your work while looking for internship opportunities here in New York. You have clearly had success in the field and I wonder if I could connect with you for an in person informational interview or a quick phone call.

At York, in addition to my studies, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a website for my mothers decorating service company and build my personal social media presence for my design business. As I finish my studies at York, I am eager to begin making connections with other people in the field (like yourself!) and, ideally, to find an internship. If you have a moment, i would be very appreciative. I’m eager to come to you or to call you at a time that is convenient for you.

Best regards,

Tenelle Reynolds

Being that I am taking both Final Project and Portfolio Design courses during this semester, I was able to get a head start over the summer. A proposal, in slide form, was required to get into the Final project course. Therefore, I was able to think about what kind of project I wanted to create for my last hoorah.

I wanted to do something for a special client of mine, my mother. She has always given me smaller projects to complete for her events such as flyers and invitations. Therefore, recreating a website for her business is the perfect opportunity to showcase my web skills and to expand her business platform. It seems like a win/win to me and doing it for my mother made it personal and special.

ORIGINAL PROPOSAL

Above is the link to the original slide and during todays I decided to share it with my group members so they can see what I have done and learn from it. I had to update my “Research” slide and make it more specific after learning about important it is to reaching your goal. In this slide, my research is based off of the final layout inspiration compared to the actual process to achieve that certain lay out.

But my final project has been going well so far and I am on track based off of the semester timeline I gave myself. I do believe that I bit off more than I can chew by trying to complete 5 pages for this project, so I am leaning towards 3 pages. But these 3 pages will be planned out well and efficiently.

I am so bummed that I was not able to get an internship in time for this semester. COVID is to blame because the internships I wanted to apply to were “in person” workshops and a majority of those were cancelled. It was difficult finding an online internship because most of their deadlines had already passed. I cannot put all the blame on COVID because I am definitely a huge procrastinator; and a procrastinator in a pandemic screams “last minute”.

Another bummer this year was that the workplace I have always dreamed about working in has temporarily shutdown due to this pandemic. I feel like I could have fulfilled the graphic design needs for this company because of our similar design styles. Bold font and bright colors are what we HAD in common and I know I would have been fit for this company.

My dream company that shutdown is :

WeWork | WeWork HQ, 115 W 18th St. New York, NY 10011 | (646) 389-3922 |

At WeWork I could interpret various types of content information and transform them into visually pleasing content for the web and social media.

Other companies I’ve researched are:

Microsoft | New York, NY| I would use my UX Design skills for strategy development to intrigue customers

Honestly, my lack of confidence brings me anxiety when I think of networking with EXPERIENCED people. I dread not being as experienced as those around me, but it’s a fear that I must get over. After todays class, I have learned that future peers are individuals who are in positions of work, early in their career, apart of a team that creates the work I envision in my big goal.

My fear of “future peers” went away because I was reminded that these peers are just that, people who have been in my position and are just a step further than I am towards similar goals. Personally, social media has played a big role in my lack of confidence lately because my “future peers” seem to be highly successful and perfect! But I have also realized that most of my successful peers do not share their hardships during their process to success. I feel like being authentic and sharing your journey is important to your audience because it shows realism and allows others who look up to them the hope that they can accomplish the same goals.

During the group discussion, I shared the work of someone I found via Linkedin. It’s funny because she and I have many mutual friends but I’ve never met her, yet we have very similar big goals.

FUTURE PEER INSTAGRAM

I gravitated towards her because she has shared her progress of graphic skills and net working. She used to have IGTV post about her failures and how she overcame them. I’ve noticed that her main method to gaining acknowledgement is consistency. Being consistent in promoting her skills and projects led her to catch the attention of her type of audience and future peers. I’ve also noticed that at a certain point, most of her graphics began to have a distinct look and that is when I realized that she has found her audience.

It’s funny how I’ve always had so many “big goals” and dreams, but I have never thought about the depth of the process into getting to those goals. And todays meeting was just about that. I am a dreamer and I tend to focus on the bigger picture and not the process, which is mostly important.

One word that was significant in todays class was “RESEARCH”. Research is key for networking and progressing in your field of study. It allows you to be more knowledgable of your potential peers and confident when taking the next step towards your big career goal. It’s also like a guide through your journey towards your goals and plans.

Todays class inspired me to start over, rethink my “big goals” and most importantly, prioritize them. It’s never hit me until today, realizing that I’m actually graduating this semester and how UNPREPARED I really am. It’s a lot to focus on and I have to learn how to organize my plans and thoughts, which all starts with RESEARCH.

I really cannot believe that my last semester will be ending off during a PANDEMIC! This virus seems like it completely stopped the entire world and mine! I had so many day dreams about going to my internship workshops, meeting new people and overall networking. I was excited to gain experience from an internship and I also felt like it would have prepared me more before graduation.

But on the bright side, it has not stopped anything I have going on. In fact, it has given me more down time to really work on my craft, find my aesthetic and learn the type of audience I’m going to attract. I know this course will definitely guide me through those things I am looking for and then some. I have been looking forward to taking this course, just not remotely.