Social Media Use
How have you used social media in your career center?
Hello! Robert
as a matter of fact yes we do we're using FB.
Hello Lesli,
What prompted you to use Facebook as part of your Career Services strategy and how are you using this particular platform? Can you describe your strategy and how you feel it is working for you?
Robert Starks Jr.
Yes, we have a school page but I also use my personal page to keep in contact.
that is part of the relationship building process that is talked about in the lesson but I have been doing that long before this course.
Glenn,
Relationship building is key and as a social media user yourself, I can already tell you understand the importance of leveraging any resources possible to improve student relationships. You said you have a "school" page but do you have a Career Services page? If so, how might a career services page be differentiated from your school page to help you achieve your career center's goals which likely differ from a school page which may focus on retention and lead generation?
Robert Starks Jr.
We don't have a career services page as yet. We are somewhat leery about posting openings since we don't want those to be accessed by people other than our students. We do have a student portal that we post jobs on that is available to students using their access code. But there are times when looking for volunteers for events( both paid and unpaid) that we will post the information with instructions to call me at school
Glen,
Job postings represent one form of content that can be shared on a network for a career services page but have you considered other strategic communications for some of the purposes discussed in the course? For instance, how could your Career Services page publish content that contributes to student career-readiness by being a central part of a student's PLN? What type of content might that be? What ways would you use a Facebook platform not as a job board, but as a tool to build affinity with your office and increase student participation? You may get more ideas as you get further along in the course but I'd ask that you ponder these questions. Many career professionals try to use social media platforms as job boards or as distribution lists and that's not fully leveraging social media.
If you're using Facebook as another job board, have you considered how you could leverage the community and word-of-mouth to enhance your efforts? For instance, try a post such as "Word-of-Mouth Wednesdays - Share a job you found here with your classmates" in which the community shares a job opening they know about. After a while of consistent posting on Wednesdays and promoting your campaign among your influencers, this sharing on Wednesdays becomes a part of the online community culture and you harness your community to help you in your goal. This is merely one example of strategically leveraging a platform and community to enhance your efforts. Can you think of other creative ways to leverage your community and the unique platform social media provides?
Hello,
Our organization uses social media much the same way as described in the first section. Is the student working, are they in school, have they moved, are they currently going through a medical situation, etc. However, I do like the idea of marketing specifically to the student information unrelated to placement. Instead, information like music, movies, activities. I feel that would get the students to become more involved, and keep reciprocal communication alive.
Marcus,
Thanks for contributing to the conversation. Do you think that organizations use social media in the first way you describe because they don't understand how social media is/should be different than other traditional communication channels? If you recall module 1 and the introduction of how social media differs from traditional communication channels, I think you just provided an amazing example to the group on this exact point.
Organizations want to obtain information but information can be better obtained when there are strong relationships and students collaborate with the department. You hit the nail on the head when you indicated what keeps reciprocal communication alive - the same thing that keeps us engaged in all our relationships - common interests. Developing a genuine, human connection through shared interest is a much more sustainable, long-term approach to constituent engagement. All career services professionals understand how important that continued engagement is because we've all experienced the situation when our graduates fall off the radar. Better relationships means we can be better at accomplishing our goals which is all about helping students become successful. In our role, strong relationships make so much sense since our goal is to help others achieve their goals - who doesn't want to partner in that mission?
Thanks Marcus!
Robert Starks Jr.
Not really. We have a facebook page for our college but we haven't used it specifically for career services and building relationships with our graduates. We're just starting to learn how it could help us.
Paul,
Many colleges use Facebook to generate leads and to have a positive impact on retention. However, many are not leveraging it for Career Services which is unfortunate because, as the course will outline, there are many potential benefits. Hopefully, you will champion a social media strategy at your school Paul once you finish the course! Feel free to create new forum topics with questions if you have questions. We are all here to help each other learn so please don't hesitate to ask as many questions as you want - I'm here to help in conjunction with the course content.
Robert Starks Jr.
Hello Robert,
In addition to Facebook, our staff is also using Linked In. We are getting some job leads from Linked In but most of our leads are still coming from online postings and cold calling. We are a school with allied healthcare programs and have noticed that healthcare employers (especially doctors offices) have been slow to come around to using social media for hiring. Is that something you've noticed as well?
Paul
Paul,
I think you are correct in your observation that the medical field for some reason tends to have a slower adoption rate for digital media, namely, social media. Referencing Everett Rogers' Innovation Adoption Diffusion curve, you have your Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and your Laggards. One could argue that by now, those who are not using social media are in the Late majority or even Laggard portion of the adoption curve. For some reason, certain social groups will be late adopters of innovation such as social media and I believe your observation of the medical field seems to be true.
You stated you use Facebook and LinkedIn but you implied that you use LinkedIn to develop job leads when you stated "but most of our leads are still coming from online postings and cold-calling." This makes me wonder if you are using LinkedIn for some of the other reasons outlined in the course. For instance, have you attempted to use LinkedIn to recruit PAC members, guest speakers, employers who may want to conduct mock interviews, etc.? Have you taught students how to use LinkedIn to brand themselves and to build PLNs? Because career professionals are so focused on finding jobs, it can be challenging to break from the mindset that social networks should be used in the same way job boards are used - to find jobs. They can be used for this, but in a much different way. I recommend that you read the blog article entitled "Reverse Job Search" in the Lounge which talks more about how "job search" is different on social media. That article can be found at http://lwire.us/?l=WXAN.
The other thing I'd like to point out that may be helpful is that this is the reason why research is so important to a social media strategy. LinkedIn is a huge network just as Facebook and Twitter are but there are many niche networks that exist. No one will ever know all the networks that exist because there are too many so it requires investigation to see which are most relevant for you and your goals. So, for instance, here is a list of 25 social networks for the medical field - http://bit.ly/IDegTU. You may want to explore those niche sites to see if they better serve your purpose. If you are currently using LinkedIn solely for job search, I just want to point out that this isn't leveraging the tool for all its worth. Many companies may not use social media for hiring specifically, but because social media allows you to establish relationships with people you might not otherwise have an opportunity to meet in the real world, don't think of it in terms of which employers are hiring through social media - think more about how you can use social media to expand your employer network so that if and when companies are hiring, you have a large word-of-mouth network established and you have close relationships. If you have close relationships, it is more likely any recommendations of candidates you may have will be more heavily considered in the event one of your connections is hiring.
Social media usage should never replace other tactics such as cold-calling and scrolling through job boards, but rather, it should be used in conjunction with all tactics available to maximize the results you and your career services department can produce.
Thanks for the great post - I wanted to dissect all aspects of it and I hope it helps. I look forward to more of your posts and questions.
Robert Starks Jr.
Robert, thanks for the information you provided in your reply. We just started using LinkedIn to recruit PAC members and guest speakers but we need to do more of that. I really like the idea of having our students create LinkedIn profiles to build PLNs. I think the process of creating a profile will have a positive effect on the professionalism of our students. We plan to implement that soon. And I wasn't aware of the niche social networks. That is a great resource.
Paul,
You're welcome. You'll find a ton of resources in the resources section of the course near the end that will provide even more information to help you become a social media master! This will likely give you more ideas on how to specifically leverage social media (and specific platforms) to help you achieve your career center goals. One thing many people ignore on LinkedIn are the apps. When you log into LinkedIn, if you look at the top navigation bar, you'll see an option that says "more." When you hover your mouse over it, you get a drop down menu. There's something called "Answers" which is an app that allows users to pose questions to get answers from experts. Thus, LinkedIn is a great source for students to tap into experts to get answers to questions. Think of this as a new form of informational interviewing and how valuable this is as it provides access to people students wouldn't have access to otherwise. This is merely another example of how LinkedIn can specifically be leveraged by students if they are taught.
You'll notice a document that presents 10 simple steps to begin a personal branding strategy near the end of the course which is something students must now be taught more than ever by career professionals given the trends in social media background checks. Having a LinkedIn profile is a start for students to take control of their online brands and building PLNs that aid them in their professional development and networking, but you'll find even more ideas in that document near the end of the course. I'll also be available to continue answering questions and helping you apply what you've learned if you have any other questions as you start to implement things at your school. The Lounge (www.careercollegelounge.com) is the place that allows all of us to continue learning and interacting with one another so also know that if you have questions even when you are done with this course, take advantage of me as a continued resource in the Lounge in the Career Services Performance Group.
I encourage you to watch the Job search 3.0 video I created in the Lounge and feel free to use it to show students if you think it will help you make them aware of how job search has changed - the video blog I created on this can be seen here: http://lwire.us/?l=JA18. I believe the video presentation will add to your learning so if you have 21 minutes (that's the length of the video), I encourage you to watch it.
Thanks Paul for your contributions. I look forward to more conversations.
Robert Starks Jr.
We use Facebook and LinkedIn in our career center. Facebook allows us to interact with our students and LinkedIn introduces our students to employers and potential job opportunities.
Angela,
When you describe using Facebook to interact with students, I am wondering what is meant by this. For instance, are you using Facebook as another communication tool or are you using it in some other way? Have you begun thinking about how you might use tools like Facebook or LinkedIn beyond the ways you currently use them? For instance, do you use Twitter or LinkedIn for your own professional development strategically building your own personal learning networks? Do you use LinkedIn not only for employer outreach, but for employer engagement? Have you thought about leveraging groups so that you can expand the Career Services team by essentially having the community (group) of alumni or students help each other? These are some ideas I'd encourage you to consider if you haven't already.
Thanks.
Robert Starks Jr.
Currently we are working on a Facebook page. I am able to use LinkedIn and have added a discussion about it to my resume workshop for our students. We highly promote networking and advise them to establish a LinkedIn account as soon as they start our program and network throughout the program and it has assisted our graduates in securing employment.
Stacey,
I shared these 10 tips in forum 3 but since you mentioned LinkedIn, I thought I'd share them with you in case any of them might be helpful to you when discussing some basics on optimizing a LinkedIn profile:
1. Build a 100% complete profile and create a vanity URL for your profile. To create a vanity URL, instructions are in my blog post: http://bit.ly/u7iH0k
2. Use a professional-looking head shot photo consistent across all social media platforms you use (This is brand consistency)
3. Optimize key words in your profile that align with target industry/job since profiles become searchable by recruiters. Optimized key words lead to increased likelihood of being found by your target audience.
4. Use the three listed URLs LinkedIn allows to link to other online collateral that can persuade an employer to be interested. This may be your personal blog, an online portfolio, an online infographic resume, your VisualCV profile, etc.
5. Request meaningful endorsements for past positions - At least 2 endorsements for each past position is a good goal for students.
6. Use the LinkedIn Apps to differentiate and optimize your profile - Many people ignore the apps LinkedIn offers which can be found in the top navigation bar under the tab "More." Specifically, the WordPress app is great to insert a personal WordPress blog into one's profile and Slide Share is a great app to incorporate a relevant PowerPoint or video presentation (or even a video resume) but video is only allowed for premium accounts. Box.net is great for including files in your profile that might be samples of work to share as a LinkedIn portfolio or even a PDF version of one's resume.
7. Identify relevant targeted groups to join and engage in discussion
8. Etiquette rules - Always be professional, polite, helpful, courteous, and thoughtful. Show your expertise when appropriate in answering questions and providing your own insight and thank others for their contributions
9. Leverage LinkedIn Answers to take advantage of the expertise of others on LinkedIn by getting answers to your questions. Other professionals on LinkedIn offer their insight using this app. Moreover, answer questions to demonstrate your expertise in a topic and build connections.
10. Once you have a complete profile, include your LinkedIn Vanity URL on printed marketing collateral such as a business card and of course, the resume. Consider a QR Code on a business card that allows someone with a smart phone to go directly to your LinkedIn profile.
Some additional tips would be to ensure the profile is made public so they can be searched by recruiters and employers and the other is to consider including your email in your headline. The headline is the first visible part of a profile and shows up when other users hover over the profile picture of someone with their mouse. Unless you have a premium account, you are limited with inmail options on LInkedIn and unless you are connected to someone, they won't have access to your email so including it in the headline makes it easier for people to contact you which is important for a job seeker.
I hope those help.
After completing the first section of this course, I feel that our career services department can learn more about using social media effectively. We use it currently by locating graduates that are difficult to contact by phone or email and also to communicate to those who live further away from the school to see what they have been up to since graduation. It is also a good way to reach a lot of people quickly, for example, telling grads that there is an upcoming career workshop that they can sign up for. I look forward to building more strategies to use this helpful tool.
