A Guide to Writing as an Engineer, 4th Edition

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ENGINEERING YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION

Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of—for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

—Socrates (circa 469 BCE–399 BCE), Greek Philosopher

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT

Can you remember a time when we did not have the Internet? Some of us can remember when we had to rely upon the story or message that a business placed in its newspaper advertisement. We may have seen a TV ad that embellished the “facts” about a product, but we had no way of knowing if those words were true.

Have you ever stood at the fax machine and impatiently waited for your 12 pages to go through successfully? What about playing phone tag with an integral part of your engineering team? Not too long ago, engineers had to fly to meetings, stay in hotels, put up with unintelligible conference calling systems, be away from their families, and hope that the important people made it to the same meeting.

In 2012, the Mckinsey Global Institute released a study entitled Unleashing Value and Productivity Through Social Technologies, where it is estimated that social media could add $1.3 trillion to the economy in the next six years. Of special note were the fields of automotive, mechanical, and aerospace engineering. The author of the article, ...