Robert Pearl Starks

Hi Karina, Just to share some experience, my office used Facebook in different ways for multiple goals. We created a Career Services Profile page so we could "friend" graduates. We had to wait for students to be graduates as "friending" students was against fraternization policies. Once we friended graduates, our shared Career Services profile could be used by all career services advisors to private message graduates, see their wall posts, and get their updates in the news feed. This helped us data mine, monitor behaviors, and communicate with graduates which helped us optimize our ability to achieve employment rate goals.… >>>

Hi Karina, You may find it interesting that a report published by Devry's Career Advisory Board entitled, Career Services Use of Social Media Technologies, showed that Social media technologies were used in career centers as asynchronous communications devices, i.e., principally to transmit information in one direction (from the career center to students or employers or alumni) about events. I personally believe this is likely due to three primary reasons: 1) Unilateral communication is the simplest/most intuitive way to use social media because it's how we use all other traditional communication tools, thus career centers simply use it this way because… >>>

Hi Karina, Excited to hear your enthusiasm for this topic. One of my favorite social media experts, Jay Baer, said people need to realize that social media has transformed to a skill. We don't think about it now but the telephone, fax machine, and computer were seen as simple "tools" when they were first introduced to us and they became skills when they became an integral part of our daily work environments. Using phone communication effectively to quickly develop rapport, sell products/services, and provide customer service are examples that we see all the time. Social media is now used in… >>>

Hi Christina, I have found that students don't truly comprehend the concept of being a brand and that a resume is merely one way we have all been trained to promote our brand to an audience of employers who may potentially hire us. Have you tried an assignment where students do their own social media audit either on themselves or a classmate to see what they find? The process teaches them the basic research skills an employer might do but also has them audit their own online presence. They are some times surprised at what they find. What other ways… >>>

Hi Christina, You share an excellent example of strategically using a social network to meet your identified goals. The description of your intentional use of LinkedIn to specifically connect with colleagues, local recruiters, and HR managers is a perfect example of how you've deliberately designed your PLN (Personal Learning Network). Using the word-of-mouth information shared by your carefully selected network, you learn in real-time and continuously. The examples of useful information you share such as IT certification trends, fresh job orders and leads, and even employer feedback on the characteristics they seek in candidates are all a result of your… >>>

Hi Margaret, One of the things you talked about in another forum post was given the fact that employers are searching for and reviewing the online presence of candidates, content such as a professional LinkedIn profile or a list of accolades helps. I agree but I think many career advisors frame the issue of students not having an optimized, professional online presence as not having a "LinkedIn" profile or not having a professional "Facebook profile," etc. This brings me to this point - video resumes are simply another form of marketing collateral that can live online to optimize one's professional… >>>