Hello, and thank you for signing up for this course!

Before we get started I wanted to take a minute to talk a bit about my inspiration behind this class, and what I hope you’ll get out of it.

Because I work in social media for my “day job” and have a fairly active social presence as a dancer, people often come to me with their social media questions. Sometimes it’s “Do I need a Twitter?” or “How do hashtags work?” and those may well be subjects we’ll cover in another class. But oftentimes it’s less about the technical side of it, and more about… “What do I post? How do I portray myself? Why do I feel so fake online?”

As dancers, we have to think so much about how we present ourselves. We constantly have to consider which song is the best choice for an upcoming performance, which costume is best for that outdoor festival, and keeping the right tone of voice when dealing with a difficult audience member. It’s easy for that to lead to over-thinking about our social media presence, too.

My goal is to help you gain a better understanding of how to use social media to prevent an authentic version of yourself, without feeling like you’re over-sharing or losing your privacy. I also want you to be knowledgeable and comfortable with the privacy settings on the platforms that you use. I want you to be comfortable with what you’re posting and with who will be seeing it!

Don’t worry, I won’t just be lecturing you! I’ll give you some assignments you can do on your own time, from checking your privacy settings to setting up friend groups to doing some self-examination on what you really want to achieve on your social media.

And I’ll also share some cute animal pictures, because we all know that’s the real reason why we’re online, right?

If you’re ready to get to work, let’s move on to the first lesson! But first, a cat picture to tide you over.