It’s getting to that time of the year where us college students are wrapping up our summer internships and heading back to college. It’s pretty easy to just peace out on your last day and get swept up into the craziness that is your undergraduate education.

You don’t want to do that. Take a moment to run through this checklist to make sure you get the most and continue to get the most out of your summer job experience.

1. Create a space to maintain connections.

I’m not sure how I feel about LinkedIn. The site is pretty ugly from a design standpoint, and I haven’t made made any connections on it to people I didn’t already know. However, LinkedIn does offer a space for you to maintain connections that you made while at your internship.

Take some time to create a complete profile and then add your colleagues and connections. When you begin looking for a permanent position and need to ask for recommendations, you’ll be thankful that you stayed in contact with your colleagues.

75% of hiring managers use LinkedIn to research job candidates before making an offer, so even if you don’t see the immediate benefits on using the site, you can be sure that it is actually important to have a presence here. What if your colleagues aren’t on LinkedIn? See my next point…

2. Send a personal note to any individuals that you worked with directly.

Photo by kcolwell on Flickr

Sending a note isn’t just about sucking up to your boss (although a little flattery never hurts, does it?). Carefully think about what these people taught you and thank them for those specific things.

This will show that not only are you appreciative of your summer experience, but that you can reflect on what you have learned and grow from it. This also creates the space to contact your colleagues by email in the future.

The format of your note depends on the formality of your work environment. In more formal workplaces, a handwritten note might be appropriate, whereas in a more casual environment, a simple well-written email would be received just as well.

3. Make a list of what you accomplished on the job.

Keep a list of all the projects and accomplishment that you directly influenced and the specific impact that these projects had on your company. Be as specific as possible.

For example, instead of “Helped research search engine optimization strategies,” write down “Implemented specific SEO strategies which brought our forward-facing website from #9 to #1 on Google.” Not only will this help you update your resume more effectively, but you’ll also be able to better convey in future interviews what deliverables you have to offer.

4. Reflect on what you learned about yourself and your values.

I ask myself every Monday, “What did I learn last week?” To get the most out of your internship, you have to be consciously aware of what you are learning about yourself. Internships are the perfect time to try things out. Even if you didn’t have the super awesome internship experience you were hoping for, you now know what to look for and what to avoid when you are looking for a job in the future.

For example, I loved working this summer at NationalField because I had full control of choosing and executing my own projects. The startup atmosphere was exciting and fast-paced and I was able to set my own hours.

What did you like or dislike about your internship this summer? Make sure you remember these things when looking for a permanent position in the future.

I went to a seminar last week where Seth Godin talked about how to become a linchpin.  He talked about the things he usually talks about: being irreplaceable, spreading messages that are worth spreading, being willing to fail, etc.

Photo Credit: Wa-J on Flickr

It was an extremely engaging talk and got me to thinking about how the dance world could really benefit from his advice.

Dance is going through a very interesting and somewhat frightening revolution.  We are seeing a new culture emerge that embraces “the hired body,” the dancer that masters a set of techniques dictated by a specific dance vocabulary, almost like a checklist.

That’s a lot of jargony language, but basically what I’m saying is that today, dancers are being trained so that they can be hired.  They are being trained so that no matter what kind of movement a choreographer gives them, they will be able to do it.

The problem with this is that instead of becoming artists, instead of becoming linchpins, and instead of becoming irreplaceable, these dancers become cogs.  At the very best, they become exceptional at being told what to do.

Photo Credit: PhillyLambs on Flickr

We see this on shows like So You Think You Can Dance all the time.  They accept exceptionally trained dancers that can convincingly perform any style of dance that is thrown at them.  And they are all very good at being told what to do.

So what’s wrong with being told what to do? A lot!  It creates the impression that the only way to be successful as a dancer is to be a hirable body, when in reality if that is all you can do, you’ll be replaced by some 18-year-old by the time you are 27.

You shouldn’t be able to write down art.  Art is about self-expression but it seems that the emphasis in mainstream dance is trending towards perfection and mastery.  It makes people describe the dance world as “cutthroat” instead of supportive and innovative.

I’m not arguing that technique isn’t necessary.  I’m arguing that having good technique shouldn’t be measured by someone being able to execute a checklist of movements.

Singers and musicians aren’t respected just because they can hit high notes; they are respected because they put their heart and soul into their work to create true art.  Dancers should be judged no differently.

Photo by Yannick Bindert

So what do we do? We give dancers the tools to be successful while being different.  We create a community that allows people to fail in order to promote innovation.  I think we can learn a lot from the avant-garde fashion industry, which praises and respects designers and artists that take a chance, even if they (or their models) fall on their face.

We need to show dancers that you can still make beautiful art without pointing your toes all the time or being able to do a triple pirouette into a front flip suicide.

Let’s make real artists and not just hired bodies.

By slworking2 on Flickr

In a traditional company, employees roll into the office at 9 am, bleary-eyed and holding a cup of coffee, ready (or not) for another 8+ hour day.  This is the way it has always been, so why change things now?

Because the status quo in the workplace is changing.  The 9-5 workday is antiquated, inefficient, and needs to be re-examined.

A case study: 37signals, the makers of Basecamp and a slew of other cloud-based tools, instituted a 4-day work week a couple years back with the philosophy that with three-day weekends, people come back more refreshed on Monday and actually work harder and more efficiently during the four-day work week.  They found that about the same amount of work gets done in four days versus five days.

Here is my plea:

• Don’t mandate the hours that your employees work. Instead, tell them what meetings they need to be at in person and let them choose their own hours.  They will get their work done more efficiently if they work at the time that is best for them.
• Don’t measure employees’ performance by how many hours they work. Instead, measure their effectiveness by how much work they get done.
• Don’t micromanage your employees. Instead, hire people that are driven and don’t need constant supervision.
• Don’t expect your employees to work for 8 hours straight, unless you are going to provide them illegally with Ritalin and caffeine pills.

As Seth Godin has said, we might as well say goodbye to the office as it is archetypically defined.  You can embrace the changes and figure out how they affect your workplace or you can fight the changes and probably piss off your employees.

Changing the 9-5 work schedule might not work for all companies, but my hope is that companies stop blindly accepting workplace norms just because that’s the way things have been done.  Change starts with a simple conversation, so start a dialogue in your office!

This was just too cool not to share with you all. If you didn’t know, Oprah has been holding a competition to find a standout TV personality for her new network.

I’m sure the network producers weren’t expecting the TV personality that seems to be running away with the competition.  Meet: Zach Anner.

I think this is great. Zach Anner is a comedian who has cerebral palsy. These are two things that you wouldn’t generally put together, but why not? The more underrepresented minority groups we have on TV, the easier it is to fight against all forms of prejudice and discrimination. I urge you to go vote for Zach. The last day is July 3rd!

Photo by naughty architect on Flickr

There are entire companies dedicated to providing SEO, and thousands of guides out there, but I have selected my favorite tools and tips to help increase your traffic from search engines.

1. SeoQuake

SeoQuake is one of the most popular Firefox plugins for measuring SEO.  It allows you to see many important SEO parameters of your website, like Google pagerank and incoming/outgoing links.

2. Hubspot Website Grader

For the more advanced user, Hubspot’s Website Grader does a complete analysis of your website, grades it, and gives you suggestions on how to improve your SEO.

3. All in One SEO Pack

This is one of the most popular WordPress plugins for SEO.  It will automate your keywords, post titles, and include meta tags for all your pages.  For more WordPress plugins, see Mashable’s 20 of the Best SEO Plugins for WordPress.

4. WP Auto Tagger

The WP Auto Tagger automatically tags all your posts with recommended keywords based on search engine data from Yahoo.  This is a great way to increase traffic to specific posts on your website or blog.

5. SEOmoz Tools

SEOmoz has an entire collection of SEO tools for your website, from keyword rank tracking to a site explorer that can explore a site’s backlinks and top pages.

6. Social Mention

Social Mention scans various social media platforms for mentions of you or your brand.  This is a good way to check to see whether you are successfully making you and your work visible.

7. Backlink Checker

This tool will show you all backlinks that link to your website.  This is a good way to see what other websites are linking to you.

8. Keyword Discovery

Keyword Discovery can tell you the search phrases people use to find products and services, as well as the search terms that drive traffic to other websites that are similar to yours.

9. Google Adwords Keyword Tool

Google AdWords Keyword Tool lets you see the volume for different keyword searches.  This is a good tool for selecting keywords to use in your post titles and tags to boost your SEO.

10. SEO Browser

This website will show you exactly how a search engine views your page.  This is helpful for artists that use a lot of images in their posts so that they can make sure everything is tagged correctly.

11., 12., 13., Search Engine Land, Problogger.net, SEO Book

These are all good blogs about search engine news, blogging, and basic SEO.

14. YSlow

YSlow analyzes web pages and suggests ways to improve their performance based on a set of rules for high performance web pages.

15. Google Search-based keyword tool

Another keyword search based on Google queries.

16. Google Analytics

Track the changes you are making with Google Analytics to see what changes have the biggest effect on your traffic, or whether they even have any effect at all.

Current trends show that 75% of adults in the United States are projected to be overweight and 41% obese by 2015.  I think that in order to fight these shocking statistics, we must first address the overt and widespread prejudice towards overweight and obese people.  We need to fight obesity through compassion and support, not discrimination and hate. 

I recently published an article for The Wesleyan Argus on Fat Prejudice at Wesleyan University, a competitive liberal arts college in Middletown, Connecticut. I am sharing it with you here because I feel like it is important to increase awareness on this issue.

Please feel free to share this with friends or family or share your comments below.

Picture by Cool Pixels on Flickr

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock and haven’t heard yet, Latino pop star Ricky Martin came out last week, making headlines on almost all major news sources.  With pop songs like “Shake Your Bon-Bon,” “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” and “She Bangs,” who would’ve guessed!

What interested me about the announcement was not necessarily the content, but how Martin chose to deliver the message.  Instead of grabbing a cover story from a magazine like so many celebrities have done (Clay Aiken, Adam Lambert, Neil Patrick Harris, Ellen DeGeneres, Lance Bass, and Sean Hayes all come to mind), Martin released a short but eloquent statement on his personal blog. This is what artists can learn from Martin’s announcement:

Photo by borman818 on Flickr

The law has been described as “the most sweeping social legislation enacted in decades” by the NYT, “biggest expansion of federal health care guarantees in more than four decades” by CNN and the “culmination of a yearlong struggle with Congress to make good on the central issue of his administration’s domestic policy agenda” by NPR.

Whether you agree or disagree with Obama’s policies, it is important to know how this bill will affect you. Here are eight ways that the Health Care Reform could affect you as an independent artist:

4. Reform will prevent insurance companies from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive.

This is especially important for individuals, both children or adults, with chronic conditions that will require lifetime medical support. Lifetime caps will be banned immediately and annual caps will be reduced until 2014, when they will be banned as well.

5. All new insurance plans will include preventative care and doctor checkups without a co-pay.

Also, reform will require plans to cover basic pediatric services, as well as dental, vision, and hearing needs for children.

Hopefully this gives you a little better understanding of how the health care reforms affect you personally. If there is something that I missed or a specific question that you have, please feel free to comment and I will do my best to respond with useful information.

Oops! From RIPizzo on Flickr

With all the mainstream media’s attention on social media, there are a lot of eager people jumping into the game without knowing what they are doing.  While that is one way to learn, and don’t get me wrong, I am a huge advocate of learning through experimentation, it is also useful to learn from other people’s mistakes.  Here are some common mistakes that I see every day:

1. Assuming Content Will Build an Audience

Building an audience has three basic steps: (1) The initial hook, (2) Drawing in with engaging content, and (3) Bringing them back with the promise of more.

This takes lots of time and lots of work.  No one just publishes a book and instantly becomes famous (except maybe JK Rowling), and content on the web is not different.  People aren’t going to look at your work just because online content is easier to access.

True, good content is by far the most important thing to have when trying to build an audience, but it by no means will build you an audience.

Just three days after filling the house at Boston’s Symphony Hall, where averaged priced seats run at $100 a pop, world renowned violinist Joshua Bell performed 6 classical pieces for 43 minutes at the L’Enfant Plaza metro stop in Washington, DC as part of an experiment organized by The Washington Post.  Out of the 1,097 people that walked by, only one person stopped to listen to his music.

What does this tell you?  You won’t find success with talent alone.

2. Sacrificing Usability for Design

Artists generally want a unique looking web presence.  We don’t like templates, we don’t like anything mainstream and we don’t like being forced to look like something.  That is why I love artists, because we reject the status quo and innovate instead.  But what we have to be careful of is pushing the envelope too far.  If you are going to go with something unconventional, make sure you still have the 6 Elements of a Killer Website.

3. Not Using Analytics

What do you want out of being in social media?  Blog subscribers?  Traffic?  More sales?  Don’t just blindly trust that your practices are actually helping you reach your goals.  Whatever you decide your metrics to be, make sure you are tracking them.  Google Analytics is a great tool for tracking progress (and it has easy integration with WordPress).

4. Inconsistent Branding on Multiple Platforms

Artists want to be as prolific as possible, which means being present on all the various social media platforms.  These various profiles should not be managed as separate entities, but rather as a comprehensive representation of you as an artist.  While different platforms have different purposes, a viewer should have a similar experience and be able to access similar content on all of your social media profiles.

Last week, I showed you some artists that have great homes on the web. As an artist, it’s important to have a web presence because it is often the most effective way to connect with potential clients and fans.

No one cares how good you are if they don’t know who you are. For this post, I collaborated with my colleague and friend (oh, and brother), Teague Hopkins, MBA student at Babson’s Graduate School of Business to show creative-minded people how to get their own website.

Plot of Land

Just like you need a plot of land to build a house on, the physical space where you store the files that make up your website is your web host. Some domain registrars also offer web hosting, and while the integration may be appealing, it can make it more difficult to switch if you should have problems with either in the future. Web hosts come in a variety of flavors, but most small sites just getting started will choose shared hosting. Shared hosting simply means the web host is using one server to host multiple sites. This makes it less expensive.

By Olof on Flickr

A couple of businesses that offer shared hosting are BlueHost and DreamHost. Shared hosting for either of these runs about $6/month, and may require a one- or two-year contract. While both of these companies offer unlimited bandwidth and storage space, you should check these two numbers if you choose to find a different host. Storage or hosting space is the equivalent of our square footage, and simply governs the amount of stuff that you can put on your web host.

Bandwidth doesn’t have a direct analog in our physical building analogy, but in talking about web hosts it is a measure of the amount of data transferred to and from your web host in a given month. A large number of people downloading large files from your website will use a lot of bandwidth.

Once you have both a host and a domain name, you can log into your registrar’s control panel to point your domain to your new host.

Merchandise

Once your building (CMS) is up and running, the last step is to move in. Add content to your site through your CMS and check out your new website! Tell all your friends. Add links to your website to your profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

There are limitless possibilites for what to do next, but this is the extent of this primer. If you have questions about anything you read here, please leave a comment and we’ll try to answer it or point you to some more comprehensive resources. I hope you found this introduction helpful and send me an email once you’re moved in!