New to Career Services AND Social Media
After almost 20 years as a government employee, where absence from social media is encouraged, I made a career switch to Career Services, where a social media presence is paramount. How does one in this situation quickly build a presence & rapport on social media? Which media would be best to start with?
Hi, Shelisa and welcome to the rewarding world of Career Services!
I was much like you when I started in Career Services 7+ years ago. I was "social-media-averse" in my personal life and had no cause prior to this job to use it in my professional world.
I first dipped my social media toes into the LinkedIn pool. In my humble opinion, this is the best place to start for a novice, because it has a very professional feel/culture about it. To me, it was also more user friendly/intuitive than Twitter or Facebook. I didn't feel I had to learn all sorts of new jargon or customs to participate productively.
I also like it as a good first step because, for me, I got much more rapid ROI with LinkedIn. Our role is to build relationships with both students and industry. LinkdeIn is a very quick way to do so. You can easily find relevant employer contacts, jobs, peers, a PLN, and alumni. It's almost like "one-stop-shopping" for Career Services folk.
Lastly, it's increasingly more important to have a powerful LinkedIn profile to land a job, so you'll have to educate and engage your students on this platform anyway. You might as well take it for a spin if you're going to promote it to your students. Right?
Hope this helps and I wish you much luck in your endeavors!
My first suggestion would be to start off easy and small. Create a Twitter Account and then type in some companies or interests that you have just to get a feel on how it works. For instance, when i first started, I searched for companies such as Nike, UnderArmour and Glassdoor, and Indeed. just to get an idea on what those companies were tweeting about and how that information impacted me as a follower of their brand.
baby steps is key. If twitter is a bit too intense (which it certainly was for me), then maybe start off on your own Facebook page looking up brands companies etc...
I'm also relatively new to social media so this course is very valuable to me and I look forward to learning how to navigate and benefit from social media.
Hello Amy,
I'm glad to have you in this course. Social media can be overwhelming if one focuses on all the tools that exist. What's more important than any tool is having a fundamental understanding of what differentiates social media from traditional communication channels so that it can be used and play a part in helping you achieve your identified goals which may differ. You might want to use social media to help build an online presence so students build affinity with your office or you may want to drive office visits from your social media efforts, etc. If you have questions, I encourage you to ask.
Take care.
Robert Starks Jr.
Thank you for this information, Robert. I'm fairly new to social media as well, and your advice and the course resources will be of tremendous help as I educate myself on the various platforms and then begin to strategize their use in my Career Services role. Much appreciated!
Hello Shelisa,
Congratulations on your career transition! Because you are new to social media, the most practical advice to help you accelerate building your presence is to first educate yourself about some fundamentals which this course will provide. In the Resources section of this course, you'll notice "10 Steps To Establishing A Personal Brand" which is a document that gives you 10 specific action steps toward building your online brand. I recommend following these steps as it will help you be strategic about what type of "presence" you are building, the consistency in which you build it, and how rapidly you develop your presence. What platforms are best to start with depend on your goals. For instance, if your primary goal now is to simply quickly learn the platforms for your own personal knowledge before you start using them as tools to be a part of your overall Career Services strategies, then I'd recommend starting immediately with the biggest, most widely-used networks including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Explore and use the help forums these platforms provide. For instance, LinkedIn has great resources to help you learn their specific platform at http://university.linkedin.com/. This course will specifically discuss how social media can be used strategically and the steps to consider when your department wants to start using the tools as part of a cohesive, intentional strategy to accomplish Career Center goals. Platform-specific knowledge comes from diving in and learning and using the help resources the platforms have provided. As you begin to use certain platforms, if you have questions about them and how to do certain things, please ask - I'm here to help.
Robert Starks Jr.
