Social Media Trends
How do you stay current with social media trends?
We have a Facebook page for the school that we post daily pictures on along with student projects. I also use my own page to stay in touch with our graduates, also a way to track them down when phone calls and emails do not work. I just learned about Pipl.com and KGBpeople.com so I will try them also. I am also on Linkedin and suggest to our students that they should join to have a professional profile they can use.
I do have a Twitter account but must say that I don't utilize it.
I have also tapped into friends and colleagues that are utilizing social networking to help understand more how I can assimilate the social media into our overall plan.
Glenn,
You sound like an early adopter! It's great you are so active on social media and that you already realize how the use of such tools can enhance your service and your career center's service. Tell me - what is your Facebook strategy? You indicated that you share pictures and student projects. I'm curious and think it would benefit the forum for you to elaborate on why this is the type of content you strategically choose to share on the Facebook platform. What have been your goals with using your Facebook fan page and what have been the challenges? How are you measuring success?
Robert Starks Jr.
Glenn,
Perhaps you would not have framed it this way, but what you describe is that you have tapped into your PLN. This is a perfect example of how social media can be leveraged as a resource. Informal learning, getting information through non-traditional sources when we need it, has grown in importance and you provide a perfect example of how social media has enabled us to learn from each other in more ways than ever. I hope after reviewing the entire course, you realize how you may be able to leverage Twitter to help you grow your PLN, and consequently, the people from which you can "tap" into for knowledge-sharing. Do you think your students could benefit from learning how to grow and tap into their own PLNs? Have you had this discussion yet with your students regarding how to use social media to do so strategically? What programs does your school offer?
Robert Starks Jr.
It is obvious that the internet has changed the way we live and how we interact with others. The amount of information that becomes available to us has grown exponentially, including the "relevant information (to each individual)" as well as "irrelevant information (noise)".
Now more than ever, every professional should have time and interest in their own growth. There is a need to reinvent ourselves constantly in order to provide an updated service to our students and institutions. I think that employers and employees should be encouraged to use more of their time for continuos education, and this should be part of their daily jobs.
In the Implications section, it was mentioned that "social media should be considered in employee reviews". How? To what extend?
Katya,
Excellent forum post and excellent question. How and to what extent social media should be considered in employee reviews will be dependent upon the goals of the department, the individual, the organization, and the role social media plays in achieving those goals. For instance, if a Career Services department were to determine that a social media strategy should be used by each Career Advisor for employer outreach defined by increasing one's employer network (relationships) in niche industries, social media goals could be established that align with this objective.
Here is an example: A Career Advisor who does not have a LinkedIn account (who may also lack confidence with "social media") can have a goal to establish a LinkedIn account and to achieve a network of at least 200 connections by the end of the year with at least 60% of those connections being in the Medical field (or whatever niche fields make sense for the programs taught at a particular institution). One could track these quantifiable goals with LinkedIn statistics provided in the "Contacts" tab of LinkedIn that allows one to analyze their network, the industries to which one's network belong and other demographic information. This is merely one example.
In this example, this employee development goal would encourage an Advisor to develop in the following ways:
1. Develop digital media literacy with an important professional social media platform (LinkedIn) by establishing an account and using it with purpose
2. Leverage a social media tool to expand one's employer relationships in targeted industries that align with program offerings (Targeted Employer Outreach)
3. Track and quantify their results relative to established goals that align with department strategy with an easy, automated system provided by the platform further developing their skill in the use of LinkedIn and analytics
4. Take what is learned through this established goal so that the Advisor can begin to feel more confident in their ability to transfer the knowledge they will obtain to the students/alumni they help. Imagine after one year, this Advisor may become extremely confident with the strategic use of LinkedIn in developing employer relationships. This Advisor may develop an entirely new presentation to teach students and alumni in workshops on how to effectively use LinkedIn for employer engagement and relationship building because of their own experience. This would have a multiplier effect on the benefits this one developmental goal has on the constituents the Advisor and the department also serve. Imagine training instructors on what is learned so that they benefit from the information and become more confident in their ability to reinforce what is taught by Career Services in their classroom student interactions. Instructors may even begin making assignments from the information. The point is that there could be a "trickle" effect where the benefits become amplified.
This is merely one example of how a professional development goal could be incorporated into an employee's evaluation. Many people think social media is simply a communication tool or that social media is now a job. While social media certainly is a communication channel and certainly has resulted in job development, social media represents a new skill set under the umbrella of "digital media" or what has been commonly referred to as "new media" literacy. If managers consider social media a skill set that must be acquired to grow with the changing world, encouraging employees to learn these skills in a manner that also aligns with department and institutional goals would be a strategic employee development tactic and, as the Implications section suggests, should be considered in employee reviews. Implementing such goals in employee reviews formalizes the development and ties it to performance. Given the significant implications social media has on everyone, and for career services professionals in particular, formal development goals would be a reasonable and sound strategy to consider.
Katya, I thank you for asking such an excellent question and furthering the meaningful discussion in this forum. If you or anyone else has another example beyond the one I provided, please add it to the forum. If this does not adequately answer your question or if you feel another example would be of more help, please let me know.
Robert Starks Jr.
I agree with the idea that Career Services Advisors (and all other professionals as well) should be continuously educating themselves and learning the new trends.
Even though our professional interest is to contact graduate students through social media, how can we avoid giving out too much of our own personal information? I am very reserved with my private life and would not like to be overexposed. Any advise on this?
Katya,
Excellent question. How does one manage the balance between disclosure of information and protection of information? This is a personal question as well as a social/cultural question raised by the trends in society and human behavior that we are seeing because of social media. There are multiple things one can do to manage their online information in the context of leveraging social media as a professional tool. If one decides they would like to use social media platforms professionally, they may want to consider having separate accounts - one that is for personal life and personal interactions among close friends and family and another that is used for professional purposes. Accounts are free to establish and allow you to clearly separate the intended purpose. This may be seen as a good solution to some while others may think that this adds to their work because it doubles the accounts they have to manage. There will be pros and cons to every decision but this is one clear strategy to better control the potential intermingling of personal vs. professional information shared with constituents.
You sated, "how can we avoid giving out too much of our own personal information?" All the information on social media that is shared is voluntarily provided by the user. Users decide what will go in their profiles, their privacy settings, how they will use their account, what they will "like" on Facebook, who they will accept into their networks, etc. Users opt-in to what they disclose and how they will share information so the easy answer is to simply be aware that the information provided on social media is not private and if you opt in to using social media tools, you take with it the responsibility to manage your online information. Once on the internet, data can live outside of a platform even with privacy settings. How? You don't control how everyone will interact with your data. Even friends may take screen shots of your "private" data if they wanted to and share it. You can be tagged in images, mentioned in Tweets, etc. One must be vigilant and must police and monitor their online identities along with the information associated with their online identities. How can one avoid giving out too much of their own personal information? They must simply make educated decisions which first comes with awareness of everything I explained followed by good decision-making.
You may find the 10 steps to personal branding near the end of the course to be another helpful resource that gives very basic steps on how we can take control of our online identities rather than leaving our personal brands (reputation) up to happenstance. Ultimately, make wise decisions and if one wishes to not disclose personal information while leveraging social media as a tool in their professional duties, I find the easiest way to do this is to have completely separate accounts which makes it easier to manage personal vs. professional information.
Katya, I hope that answers your question. Please feel free to follow up if you have additional questions or if you need further elaboration on anything. Once again, thanks for contributing to group learning through your excellent questions.
Robert Starks Jr.
Our school has just started considering using Social Media as an additional tool to communicate with the graduates/students. Initially, we were discouraged from having this. However, now that I have the supportive information from this course we will do this right away!
My apologies if I'm responding to this twice. I'm new to the placement department where I work, so I'm still on the learning curve of tapping into resources. Personally, I use social media all the time and feel comfortable and well versed with it. For career and placement I can see that it would be a great advantage for our school to establish a FB page and twitter account. Our challenge has been keeping the graduates engaged and continued interest and dialog. I think FB will provide the connection we need to re-establish communication. As I mentioned in my earlier post, in the recent past my employer did not want to use social media, but with the information you are sharing I intend to re-submit the idea. Thank you for the ideas!
Carren,
Carren, thank you for sharing this. I am happy this course is helping you. I am also here as a resource if you need additional information or any other help.
Robert Starks Jr.
Carren,
Social media is a perfect intervention strategy to help you overcome the challenge you describe. As the course outlines, using social media as a department strategy is very different than merely using it as a communication tool. I hope you are more able to explain the why behind your strategy once you are finished with the course. I am here to help if you need further guidance as I will also be available in the Lounge (www.careercollegelounge.com) which is the social learning network for career college professionals so you can continue to engage me there once you complete the course and still would like guidance/information/ideas. As you continue to take the course, feel free to post your own forum discussions, ask questions, and interact will all learners.
Thank you.
Robert Starks Jr.
i agree with katia, i too want to keep my life private and i am concernred that with social media the students might see me as their peer as oppose to a career adviser. How can i keep boundaries?
alexander,
Please let me know if you would like me to further elaborate on something specific after reviewing my response to Katia's question. I believe you will find the suggestions to answer this question as your question is the same as hers. I mention that on social media platforms, the user is the one who determines what they disclose and share so if you wish to be more private, this is simply a decision to be strategic in your choices regarding your social media usage. Additionally, you can create a separate account used for professional purposes if you wish to have more control over your professional vs. personal usage if you use social media for both. Regarding the relationship you have with students/alumni, how you manage your relationship so that students don't see you as a peer vs. a Career Advisor would be the same in real life. In regular face-to-face interactions, what typically separates personal from professional is the same in the social space. I would pose the question back to you. How do you currently keep boundaries with your students?
Robert Starks Jr.
the program i am involved in is pretty small and i do spend some time with students one on one coaching them with interview techniques and resume changes. So at times this could be challenging. But i keep it proffecional by not prying too much into their personal life, using the students last name or "mr/mrs" so on. There are many settle ways to keep boundaries, i think
alexander,
I think you have already identified ways to establish the boundaries that you feel comfortable with that are no different than how you would establish boundaries in your interactions through social media. Another way to establish the boundaries that you feel comfortable with (since everyone will be different) is to simply establish expectations by educating your students on the use of social media for career development. If you guide your students and educate them on how to manage their personal online brands, how to present professionally via social media channels, how to appropriately use social media tools, and how to interact online, this not only educates them in valuable skills, but also sets up expectations of your role as a coach/educator even in the social space. If a Career Center has a Facebook fan page, it allows all Advisors to log in under the department account which is a way for you and your department to maintain the type of presence you want on Facebook. The same is true for all social media platforms. I think people are so accustomed to using social media tools for personal reasons that it can be hard to imagine using them for professional goals when in reality, it enhances one's ability to reach their professional goals. It is important to stay current with social media trends to understand the implications for career advising. How have the trends in social media recruiting, professional branding, online reputation management, social media background checks, or even the new ways in which one can research employers via social media impacted the way you adapt as a Career Professional?
Robert Starks Jr.
Our school is just starting to use social media as well. It is very hard for us because we are owned by a hospital and we are blocked out of all of these websites. We are currently in the process to appoint someone from each campus to have special permissions to access these sites. I think it will be very beneficial to us once we get everything in place.
Hello Stacey,
That does sound very challenging. What you bring up actually is very interesting to me. What do you believe to be the reasons why the sites are blocked? I'm wondering how you would describe the benefits and if you believe others see the benefits as you see them. Can you share your thoughts?
Stacey,
I hope some of the content in the course can help enhance your case for the importance of a social media strategy that align with your goals. It is definitely a challenge that can be difficult to overcome. Do you happen to know why the sites are blocked? Have all the reasons been articulated?
Robert Starks Jr.
