Mostly we use Facebook. Our average student is a male mid to late 40s. While they are not completely comfortable using computers some do use Facebook. Upon graduation if it is agreeable with the student we post their picture and they really enjoy sharing the school page with their friends and family.
Jessica,
Facebook makes sense for the demographic you have and because it has 1 billion users, making it the likely platform for future late adopters. I wonder if asking truck drivers to post their pictures of where they travel might be one way to engage them - seems like it would be such a great way to get them involved and more engaged by showing others where their career is taking them. Have you thought of other tactics to try to get them actively engaged? I would love to hear your ideas.
Robert Starks Jr.
I have asked for stories, opinions, and pictures in the past and have not seen a response. Our Facebook page has only been up and running for about a year now and was not actively updated until I came into the school in March.
Currently I am regularly posting pictures of graduates, providing links to noteworthy jobs, links to our "hot job" emails, and also links to the weekly employment newsletter that I began back in June. We have seen steady "like" growth of about 3-4 likes per week from this activity.
The tactic I have used so far is that I add them as a friend to our job development profile that generally only has a newsfeed from our page just for exposure. I have added our facebook tag to our stationary as well as gotten everyone on board with including it in all communications. I have been considering posting questions or comments to some of the major trucking fan pages for exposure for the job development department but have been waiting a topic to be posted where the school can have a sincere response.
Jessica,
Great strategy. Have any surveys been done with students/graduates to discover what they would like to see from the Facebook page?
Robert Starks Jr.
HI Robert,
Currently I use facebook for professional purposes only. I am able to find and message graduates via facebook as well as keep up with what they're doing and where they're working. Sometimes, I get more information that I actually care to have! I have a professional profile on linked in and encourage my near graduating students to create a linked in account as well. I struggle with whether or not to accept their invitations when they send them to me prior to graduation...and in some cases after they graduate. We don't currently have policies - but I'm not comfortable adding them to my professional network until after they graduate. This course has my wheels turning. I'm anxious to really "dig in" to creating an actual strategy with goals etc. There is so much great content in this course! How long will I be able to access the content and resources when I'm finished? I haven't even begun to be able to look at everything like I want to... I've been focusing on the modules and getting completed before my course deadline. However, I'd love to have more time with this material even after I'm officially finished.
Hello Amy,
Your struggle of whether or not to accept invitations to connect is normal. Without institution policies, I advise people to use their personal judgement since the institution has not provided guidance. I personally look at the following variables when connecting: Do I truly know the person? If I don't know the person, are they transparent with why they want to connect? Is it clear from their profile that we have commonalities? Does the person requesting a connection have a complete profile (lack of a complete profile means unwillingness to disclose and I don't accept)? With students, again, it is a personal choice on whether one feels comfortable accepting or having their own "policy" of only accepting graduate requests. I accepted requests only when students had profiles that aligned with career center instruction on how to optimize their profile. I used this as a means to help students with their profiles before accepting requests and personally felt that if a student was engaging, it was a good idea to accept requests and coach them on LinkedIn through online interactions and through the content shared via my feed (such as articles on tips for interviewing, etc.). These are some things to consider when there are no policies to provide guidance.
To answer your question regarding course length, one enrolled, participants have 4 weeks to complete the course so you have a month. This is why it is key to make sure that once you enroll, you have actually set aside time to focus on learning and interacting just as one might do with an online college course. However, The Lounge (www.careercollegelounge.com) is our post-course informal learning platform that allows you to continue interacting and engaging for the sake of further learning. I am responsive to all who participate in the Lounge just as if they were leaving comments in a course forum so we can still interact there as well. There are also some downloadable resources provided in this course to allow participants to deepen their understanding of the content and to provide guidance. Don't worry - I'll still be around to assist even when the course is complete and would be happy to further engage with you via the Lounge.
Robert Starks Jr.
facebook and linkedin. Mostly to reach out and build relationships
We have only been using facebook. However I'm quickly learning that we could be using at least a few more platforms that would benefit our school. I'm excitied to branch out, and use the different types of tracking tools as well.
We are a young school and we haven't given a lot of time or attention to our efforts in the area of social media. Our main use of social media has been with facebook. That effort has been limited. After this course, I plan to develop a much more broad and developed strategy to engage our students and build an interactive community!
We use Facebook, Twitter, Google+ but the Facebook is the most active. The twitter is now inaccessible.
Originally, the facebook "group" was established solely so that students could connect with one another and we had no connection to the group at all.
I access the facebook account for data mining (find missing grads, determine employment status),to increase the visibility of career services (job search tips, polls and humour) and to provide information for students which ultimately makes them more successful (student loan repayment information, budgeting tips) and then consequently, the school as well.
Susan,
Do you do any competitions or other strategies to use the Facebook platform to drive goals such as increased one-on-one appointments, increased event participation, earlier completion of resumes or portfolios, peer job search assistance to expand career center capabilities, etc.? Could you share your experience in using platforms to drive career center goals in various areas such as the examples mentioned? It sounds like you are doing a great job using the platform for rapport building, career center awareness and marketing - I'm wondering if you could talk about your "conversions." For instance, contest A resulted in a 30% jump in one-on-one career center appointments and resume review appointments. I'd like to hear any examples you may have.
Robert Starks Jr.
We don't really have competitions but I was hoping to increase participation in various graduate surveys (related to employment, student loan issues). To date, this has not been successful. But there have been some technical complications: people in the group are people whose data we already have and the facegroup group function doesn't allow us to invite "outsiders". My facebook account was also temporarily blocked for several days because facebook said I was "looking for too many friends".
Our page is a "group" so we don't get data per se as far as measurable growth is concerned. I can only offer anecdotal evidence. I can see students coach other students (having career related negativity such as: "I'm never going to find a job!") using phrases I've used whereas several months ago, these students would have commiserated with the negative comment.
Susan,
Keep in mind that if you have multiple goals, your group may not be the best means to accomplishing all. It sounds like you established the group to create a supportive community to address the feelings of "isolation" as you mentioned in a previous post. Additionally, the community can act as a resource for students/alumni to help each other. With a group, you must take the role of community builder - facilitate and guide discussion and ask for community support. There are no magic bullets with how to respond to all posts but as an example, if an individual is saying something like "I'll never find a job," how might you respond in a way that demonstrates support and encouragement while also trying to get the community involved or key influencers in the community? For instance, maybe there is a star alumni who loves your department. Might you ask this person to share their advice/words of encouragement? If they are an advocate of Career Services, it is likely they'd be glad to help.
You may find that you need multiple accounts. For example, I used to use a Facebook group for Alumni and my strategy there was to have the community help themselves which extended my capabilities. I could ask the community questions, ask them to help others, provide advice, share information, help with job leads, etc. The Facebook Fan Page was to improve student relations and build affinity with the Career Services department so our strategy there was to share helpful information, increase participation through a variety of tactics, etc. Additionally, we had a Facebook profile. We established this because our policies were that we were not able to "friend" students but we could "friend" graduates. The benefit of "friending" people is that you can private message them, view their wall posts if they are set to private, etc. which helps with data mining and strategic engagement. So, we would market our Fan Page to students but when they became graduates, we'd send a friend invite. This gave us multiple options and allowed us to use Facebook in multiple ways for our intended purposes. Facebook Fan pages do provide stats and metrics so it is something to consider if you'd like to measure your growth, engagement and what types of posts students are engaging with which can help you adjust your strategies.
Anecdotal evidence is ok - not everyone feels the need to measure hard numbers and analytics. In fact, sometimes, it can be overwhelming so do what makes sense for you and just know that your bottom line goals are what matters. Social is just a tool to help you accomplish those goals. Just as we have used tools such as the phone, the fax machine, or computers, we must also use social media as merely one more tool in our toolbox to accomplish our goals.
Thanks for sharing.
Robert Starks Jr.
Facebook, primarily for the ability to inform large groups of students & grads about events, new information and staying engaged with graduates to assist with tracking placement / movement within the industry. I have also found a few influencers for our profession on facebook and I follow their content and share w/grads things that might be relevant or interesting to them in the present.
I also have a personal/professional LinkedIn profile where I have connected with graduates, industry influencers and employers. I hope this course will help me become more proficient / effective with Linked In especially, but with facebook as well.
I use facebook daily and LinkedIn maybe 3 times a week.
I am going to start alerts, like RSS feeds so that I can better track how our brand is being seen / talked about.
I find this very interesting, I just wish I had more time & resources to dedicate to building the social media strategy! I, as so many are, am a one person department for my institution.
Susan,
Please keep in mind that while you are learning the full breadth of developing a strategy from goal identification to implementation and outcomes measurement, a reality is that people must work within their capabilities. Take what you are able to do and run with it to enhance your effectiveness and if you have questions or need assistance, remember I am here to help even after you have completed this course by connecting with me in The Lounge (www.careercollegelounge.com), the social learning community for you to continue interacting with myself and peers.
Robert Starks Jr.
We are using Facebook and Linkedin. I've been learning more about both but especially new at utilizing Linkedin. We have recently been told by our corporate office to use Facebook for graduates because of it's more 'social' aspects and Linkedin for students for it's more 'professional' aspects. As I said, I'm learning how best to use each platform as I go. This webinar has been very informative and helpful.
Kristine,
It is true that LinkedIn brands itself as a "professional" network while Facebook has a brand more associated with "social" and less "professional." The truth is any network can be used for professional purposes. It is not the platform that determines how one should use it so keep this in mind when using any platform - you are in control and can use it with purpose based on your goals. Facebook can certainly be leveraged for professional use. For example, I often tell job seekers to not only look for jobs but to look for people and the right people can lead to the jobs. Thus, networking as a job search strategy (and a perpetual career development strategy) really is dependent on building a quality, targeted network. So, social media expands one's capabilities to strategically architect a quality, targeted network no matter the platform (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) Sometimes, it isn't the big networks that make the most sense - it depends on your audience.
I'd like to play devil's advocate here. Rather than "using Facebook for graduates because of it's more 'professional' aspects," as the stated reason for choosing this platform, what is the greater objective? What is LinkedIn being used to accomplish with the alumni audience? The same applies to the use of Facebook. What are you trying to accomplish among your student audience that drives the intent of using the Facebook platform? Can you reflect on this and provide your thoughts regarding the goals you'd like these social media tools to help you achieve?
Robert Starks Jr.
I use Facxebook and LinkedIn. I like the format of both, especially facebook Instant messagaging to see who is on at the time & converse with them right there & then.
LinkedIn is great for getting graduates business info, especially for what they are endorsed.
We are currently utilizing Facebook (I am able to connect with a majority of our students and graduates on this platform); and LinkedIn. We have a surprising number of students who do not have Facebook accounts and a larger number who do not know what LinkedIn is ~ so there is a big learning curve for them when the discussion turns to LikedIn. Sometimes we find classes who will create a Facebook group and maintain communication for years post graduation. However, they tend to not be the norm.
I mainly use LinkedIn for the following reasons:
Job orders, job openings, job fairs, open houses, etc., We get immediate attention and a great response. I use facebook, but not as frequently as LinkedIn.
