Robert Pearl Starks

Susan, If you have a Facebook Fan Page, you should be using Facebook Insights which provides statistics on engagement. It can't tell you how many total visits you have to your page but you can measure the growth of your community based on Fans gained. Remember, building and engaging community is key if you are to try to use social media as a tool to drive outcomes. You must first have a community and they must be engaged before you can design ways to try to drive outcomes that align with your career center objectives. The ideas are limited only… >>>

Susan, What type of accounts do you have on Facebook? Do each of you have profiles and are the accounts in your personal name or your career center? If they are in your personal names, have you considered the sustainability of your strategy? What would happen to the audience (friends) you have built over time if one of you left the company? Would the next person have to start over? If you are using profile accounts, have you considered your long-term strategy? Facebook profile accounts limit you to having 5,000 friends. It may see as if you'll never reach this… >>>

Susan, I do believe many share your same struggle. I don't believe you can motivate anyone - you can only remind them of what motivates themselves. This usually comes down to having honest conversations and getting to the bottom of why certain individuals may be displaying behaviors that demonstrate a lack of motivation. This is an example of why relationships with students are the first goal for any advisor and critical. We, as career professionals, must establish rapport and trust with those we serve. This allows for open and honest discussion with students, even when we must challenge them and… >>>

Susan, When you share snippets of information to move grads forward with their careers, can you share how you measure if this tactic is effective? How are you able to determine if your tactics are producing the desired result? What is the result you are seeking? The ultimate objective is to use social media as a tool to drive desired outcomes. Sharing your response can help others who participate in this forum discussion understand how others are doing in this area. I have found that many career services professionals struggle in this regard. What has been your experience? Robert Starks… >>>

Susan, Your approach of using memes as a playful reminder of a very important issue to manage one's digital footprint is a great example of catering to your audience to engage them while educating them. Regarding your question if it is too passive, I would imagine that you use a variety of approaches. For instance, do you conduct workshops on the topic or webinars? Do you share blog articles about the topic or write your own blog articles for your audience to read? The best way is usually a mix of ways - not just one tactic. You can also… >>>