FNCE Reflections -- Melissa Ciampo

The first session I attended at the 2012 Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo (FNCE), was “Calling All Food Bloggers: Stay in the Game,” presented by Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN and Dana Angelo White, MS, RD, ATC. Toby and Dana are the authors of the Healthy Eats blog, located on the Food Network website.

As an amateur blogger, I was interested in absorbing as much advice as I could. For my fellow interns with more experience blogging, they found this session to be pretty basic and uninspiring. However, as I am in the process of starting my own blog, I found the session to be very informative and helpful as I begin to formulate ideas for my first blog post.

 For inexperienced bloggers (like myself), here is what you missed from this session:

1.   Blog-writing is informal. When writing a blog, your tone should be relaxed and it’s okay to use contractions. The content should be personal and humorous, yet relatable for a wide audience.
2. Keep it short and sweet. Blog posts should be between 250 – 600 words. If you want to add additional information, link to a previous blog post or to a website containing additional information.
3. Don’t use abbreviations. Your audience will include a variety or people. So when posting recipes write out the entire word for measurements. For example, gms should be grams and tsp should be teaspoons.
4. Take your own pictures. Using your own pictures makes posts personal and fun. The art of photography was a main topic at this session, to summarize here are some useful tips:

• Use natural light
• Avoid reflective surfaces
• Take food pictures at an angle, rather than overhead
• Add garnishes
• Upload photos as jpgs

5.      Categorize your posts. Use tags too, but don’t overdo them. Maximum number of tags should be 3 to 5 per blog post.

6.      Learn your “value.” Your value = your blog traffic. You can monitor it by checking the number of page views, or using Google Analytics.

7.      Promote your own posts via social media. Share the link to your newest post via Twitter or Facebook to acquire new readers and reach a broader audience.

8.      End your post with a question. This will prompt readers to leave comments, increasing the conversation and making your blog a more interactive experience.

9.      Use your resources. Develop a list of favorite resources you can use for recipe conversions, current news, and/or blog post topics. Some recommended at the session included

a.       ListServs

b.      Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)

c.     The New Food Lover’s Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst

d.    NCC’s Health and Wellness SmartBrief

e.       The Book of Yields: Accuracy in Food Costing and Purchasing by Francis T. Lynch

10.  Generate new content regularly. In order to gain loyal followers and stay current, aim for posting new entries twice a week.

After attending this session, I was finally ready to start my own blog. I hope you find this advice as helpful as I have. Happy Blogging!

Posted on behalf of Melissa Ciampo

UMD Interns, We Get Around

It feels like only yesterday that all ten of us met at Harbor Hospital for our first day orientation. However, in reality, over 2 months have passed and I’m already amazed at the variety of experiences I’ve had during my internship.



Instead of being cooped up inside the same hospital for 11 months, this internship makes you get out there and explore.  Since this journey began, I’ve mastered the D.C. metro system, battled beltway traffic, and ventured to four different states (including D.C.). Now, it may seem like a lot of driving and sometimes that’s true. However, I’ve found that being an intern means embracing every opportunity and being willing to go that extra mile (sometimes literally).

To take the stress out of a long commute, I’ve compiled this list of recommendations:

1.       Negotiate your hours. If you’d rather come in an hour early to beat rush hour traffic, go for it! I’ve found that all my preceptors are very accommodating and you wouldn’t believe the difference in traffic an hour can make on your commute home.

2.       Don’t rely solely on your GPS. When arriving to a new rotation site, I always use my trusty GPS. However, when I know I’ll be interning there for longer than 2 weeks, I like to turn it off and try navigating by memory. I feel that I become more familiar with the area and road names without the assistance of my GPS. In addition, if you forget it at home, or encounter closed roads you will be less likely to get lost.  

3.       Get a SmartTrip card. If you dread the metro, get over it because you will be using it at some point. I used the metro for Food & Friends (Fort Totten metro stop) and IFIC (Farragut West metro stop). Also, be sure to put at least $30.00 on it at a time because lines for the machines can be long and you have to pay when you exit the parking lot.

4.       Explore public transportation options. A good friend of mine informed me of the Maryland Commuter Bus and afterwards my commute to IFIC was much easier and more affordable. Other interns have used the MARC train and found it helpful as well.   

5.       Keep snacks in your car. One of our first guest speakers mentioned this to us and I feel it’s great advice. I try to have a small bag of almonds or granola in my glove box, because that sudden hunger pain always sneaks up on me in traffic.

6.       Make a mixed tape or buy an audiobook. Make the drive more enjoyable with a mixed tape or buy an audiobook to take your mind off the long workday.

7.       Talk to the other interns. They will always be the best source for advice during the internship. If another intern lives close by, offer to car pool to class days or ask how they commuted to their rotations.

I hope these suggestions make your commute less stressful and more enjoyable. Feel free to comment and add your own suggestions! Happy driving!

FNCE Reflections -- Maria Winebrenner

"Time to Socialize:  The In’s and Out’s of Twitter, Pintrest, LinkedIn and Facebook.” 

 As someone new to the world of Twitter, I attended this 2012 FNCE session presented by Bonnie Taub-Dix and Keri Gans to get a little more insight what the “deal is” with Twitter.  I came in only knowing the bare bones of Twitter, not having a single clue on what to do with Pintrest and only being a long time member of Facebook and LinkedIn.    I was happily surprised to be completely engaged by what these two fantastic speakers had to say. 

They reviewed everything from how to sign up for Twitter, getting your profile started, and the “in’s and out’s” of tweeting and tweeting etiquette.  On top of that, they revealed the secrets to integrating multiple social networking sites to successfully promote yourself, your brand or your food and nutrition knowledge.   It blew my mind how simple these sites are to use and how they can propel an everyday RD into the spotlight of top nutrition influencers. 

 Some top tips I learned from these social savvy ladies include: 

·         Stay up-to-date - Spend a few minutes everyday seeing what other RDs and nutrition/health professionals are saying.  This can help keep you in the loop.

·         Short and Sweet Tweets - In the world of social media, you only have a limited number of words (or characters) in which to get your point across and to keep people reading.  Be mindful of run-on or lengthy sentences.

·         Engage – It’s not enough just to send out interesting tweets or Facebook status messages.  You have to interact with other users and your potential audience.  Comment on interesting or controversial comments and give shout outs to your favorite RD’s!

 I have every intention of putting all these tips and more into practice immediately!  It seems crazy not to when there are millions of potential followers out there.  Keri and Bonnie really sparked some serious excitement in me to get out there and start being a positive nutrition influence! 

Clinical Rotation: Mini Case Study

Five weeks ago I was both excited and nervous to start my clinical rotation. This rotation is completely different from all the volunteer/work experience that I have had in the past. The clinical rotation requires the interns to learn a lot of medical terminology, food/drug interactions, medications, electronic medical record system and able to complete a full nutrition assessment/counseling in a hospital setting.

Last week I presented my mini case study and this is one of the assignments that every intern must complete halfway through their clinical rotation. For the mini case study the intern provides all aspects of the nutrition process similar to that of a Registered Dietitian for the patient, performs the initial nutrition assessment, provide any interventions and follow up on the patient’s progress. Other things to include in the case study are background information, past medical history, past surgical history, nutrition requirements, lab values, procedures, medications and nutrition focused physical findings.

Here are some tips that I have picked up on after presenting my mini case study to six clinical preceptors and my internship director:

1.     Be prepared to answer questions.

2.     Know your patient well --review drug/nutrient interactions, any procedures that might affect the plan of care and any social issues.

3.     Provide information on your plan of care if you were not able to follow up on the patient.

4.     Remember to use the nutrition care manual and the evidence analysis library to review the current literature related to the case.

I must say, now I feel completely comfortable working in the clinical setting! Some things that really helped me prepare myself for this rotation were the intern class days and the homework assigned each week. Compared to the first week of the clinical rotation, I am proud to say that I have improved immensely. I have provided heart healthy diet education, heart failure diet education, diabetes education, Coumadin education, charted nutrition assessments and provided recommendations for enteral and parenteral nutrition. I am excited to complete the remaining portion of my clinical rotation. Time to find my major case study patient!

FNCE Reflections -- Margery Swan

Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the 2012 FNCE (Food and Nutrition Conference Expo) in Philadelphia and sit in on multiple educational sessions.  Since I’m still a relatively new social media user, the session I chose to go to was:

“Time to Socialize: The Ins and Outs of Facebook, Twitter and Linked In”.

Both speakers, Bonnie Taub-Dix and Keri Gans have a background in social media and have successfully used it to promote themselves professionally.  The first application, they discussed and the one I was most interested in, as a new member, was Twitter.  Through their presentation I learned that you can send a direct message through twitter (only the recipient can see) and that there are applications available to combine the different social media platforms.

Hootsuite, for example, allows you to post/tweet things simultaneously and has a built –in option to shorten URLs when tweeting.

During the session they also talked about the differences between a professional and personal Facebook.  They suggested creating a professional page if you want to create a brand or if you have your own practice.  They also recommended the following tips:

1)      Try and make your Facebook and twitter look similar to enhance your brand.

2)      Don’t be afraid to promote yourself – Facebook about your blog or tweet about your Facebook.

3)      Follow up with friends and followers whenever possible and answer any questions.

One of the last topics was Linked In.  This was something I was curious about because I have not yet created a Linked In account.  This is because I didn’t really understand how to use Linked In or how it would benefit me as a professional. During the discussion, I learned that Linked In is an important tool to connect with other professionals and to promote yourself.  Linked In members can also join discussions and post questions to different professional groups or categories. 

So, the message here, don’t be scared to experiment with social media, the pay-off can be huge and it’s a great way to connect with people, while still promoting yourself and your business.

FNCE Reflections -- Mavis Ren

As a dietetic intern one of the best opportunities is to be able to attend the 2012 Food & Nutrition Conference and Expo (FNCE) in Philly this year. Along with the Expo with many different companies showcasing their new products; there were also around 10 lectures going on at the same time. I learned a lot while I was in Philly and now I will share some information from one of my favorite sessions that I attended that weekend. One of the sessions was titled:  “Calling All Food Bloggers: Stay in the Game”. I chose this session because my internship has a focus on information technology and I learned a few basic blogging tips that will be helpful for me to start my own blog. Here are some of the blogging tips that I learned during this session:

 

 

 

 How often should you blog?

Along with our full time jobs many people do not have the time or opportunity to blog daily. One option is to create the blog post, save it and then schedule the post date on your website so that it automatically updates for you. One thing that I learned is that time to post a blog that will attract the most viewers is on Wednesdays or Thursdays.

 How long is the post?

Blogs are generally short, understandable, does not have to be in essay format because people typically skim through blog posts on the web.

 

Research

Stay updated on current research! It will help to cover yourself so that you provide accurate information on your blog posts. Find research from literature, magazines, journals and recent research. It does not have to be reported in research format, set your own tone.

 

Format

Write about things that matter to you and have a consistent format for blogging. Provide pictures if you are giving sample recipes and it does not have to be a professional photo.  Try opening a forum at the end of the blog to generate more comments on your post and see what readers have to say.

These were only a few topics covered during the lecture on how to create a food blog. I found these very helpful for me and will definitely consider these key points/tips while I create my first personal blog.

Posted on behalf of Mavis Ren

FNCE Reflections -- Nikki Bolduc

For my second blog post, it couldn’t be more appropriate to re-cap the 2012 FNCE session “Time to Socialize: the Ins and Outs of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.”  In this session, Bonnie Taub-Dix, MA, RD, CDN and Keri Gans, MS, RD, CDN gave a comprehensive summary of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest and exemplified how each of these social media avenues can contribute to your career as a Dietitian.   

Starting with Twitter, Bonnie and Keri explained how this social media outlet is a “conversation” that cannot be ignored.   Twitter can connect people through interests, groups, and hot topics.  They recommended using TweetDeck to write your tweets, but admitted it is not recommended for use on your iPad or iPhone.  In which case, they recommend using HootSuite or Echofon. 

Facebook can be a great tool for communicating your business vision by posting articles, events, and professional accomplishments.  However, Bonnie and Keri cautioned us that it may be appropriate to have a personal page and a business page in order to market your professional brand more accurately.

LinkedIn is a business tool that is similar to Facebook, but with more opportunities to market yourself as a professional.  Your LinkedIn profile is much like a resume.  Bonnie and Keri also explained that you can become part of a group to ask questions and start a dialogue. 

Last but not least, Pinterest is recent phenomenon that is based on visuals.  Pinterest is a great way to draw traffic to your blog or website.  You can post pictures, create contests, sell products, and generate revenue while creating a brand.  “Boards” allow you to gather a number of related pictures to showcase your talents and/or interests for others to see and be inspired by.    

  
I hope I have inspired you to get involved with one or more of these social media tools like Bonnie and Keri have inspired me.  With the way social media is exploding, Bonnie and Keri say, “you can’t afford not to be involved.”                                                                                                                                          

Posted on behalf of Nikki Bolduc