Robert Pearl Starks

Tara, Recently, there was a report published by NACE and Devry's Career Advisory Board which indicated a training gap among career services professionals regarding social media usage. I think you are correct - more people could use training to improve their skills in this area which may lead to more measurement of results using such tools. Fortunately, with LinkedIn, the platform already has built-in tools that allow you to see your network statistics. For instance, if I have Advisors trying to help graduates get jobs in Allied Health, I can establish formal goals for my Advisors to expand their employer… >>>

Jason, I encourage you to ask questions if you need clarification on anything discussed in the course and/or to address any of your specific interests not covered int he course. I even offer myself to schedule phone calls if anyone would like to discuss in further detail to better understand any of the concepts we cover in this online course. I also encourage you to take your time and not rush through the course. You will get a lot more out of the experience if you take your time and actively participate. I look forward to participating in this journey… >>>

Tara, Likes and shares provide feedback on how engaging your content is for your audience which correlates to building affinity with your group and engaging them to remain connected. This is definitely important and useful feedback that allows you to adapt and adjust what you share to engage your community. I'm sure you use other tools in your office such as the phone or the internet to do things like "Increase job leads, expand employer partnerships, increase student event participation, increase student career center usage, etc. Moreover, I'm sure you have some forms of measurement such as cold-calls made, job… >>>

Carolyn, I hear you. I thought perhaps there was data that would support ideas of more appropriate admissions criteria. For example, a program that has an abnormally high drop rate with a correlation discovered that particular classes relating to advanced mathematics are where the majority of drops occur within the program. This may lead one to believe that perhaps a math assessment should be implemented prior to enrollment as it has been determined that an appropriate admissions criteria would be a specific(measurable) mastery of math prior to admission in the program. This is just an example and though you might… >>>

Tara, If I were to restate your strategy, it seems you have chosen to use the Facebook platform (likely because of popular use from your grads) for the purpose of building/strengthening relationships which is essential to establishing a working alliance that increases the likelihood of collaboration in their job search as well as their willingness to disclose updates to you. This is a good start. Beyond contacting grads for updates, do you use the tool for building/strengthening rapport? If so, how do you do this and how do you use the information you can gather through social platforms to adjust… >>>

Amber, Well stated! Given that platforms have shown to fluctuate in popularity overtime, platforms are likely to come and go and there is no telling what will be here in the future and what will be replaced. I believe that it can be easy for people to think "social media" is a fad not realizing the difference between the broad nature of "social media" vs. a particular platform. That being said, how do you and your staff manage, not only learning to be skilled at using existing platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, but learning and constantly researching new tools… >>>