Who do you follow on social media. Who influences and teaches you?
You've learned about the importance of purposefully constructing your own personal learning networks (PLNs) for professional development and you know the concept of influencers. Who influences you on social media? If you aren't currently a heavy user of social media, explain how you will now go about constructing your personalized PLN.
I'll provide you a short list of some of my favorite people to follow on Twitter from who I learn a great deal:
@heatherhuhman - Career expert who focuses on advice for Gen Y and for those seeking entry-level jobs
@JohnSumser - Editor of HR Examiner who is always on the cutting edge of HR trends.
@jaybaer - social media expert with the number one blog on social media, convinceandconvert.com. He is a great presenter who explains social media's significance both powerfully and simply.
@briansolis - social media expert who focuses on the sociology of social media and its influence on human behavior. Brian focuses on research and studies making keen observations about the implications of social media. He focuses on business but his insight is universal.
@DanSchawbel - Expert on personal branding for your career. Dan focuses on social media and personal branding strategies to help people build their careers.
That's my short recommendation list and I think you can learn a great deal from these people. I'd love to see who you recommend, who you plan to start incorporating into your PLN architecture, and/or what you think about some of my recommendations.
Hi Linda,
Student involvement is a great way to start off right before diving in. The better the understanding of the audience, their behaviors, and their preferences, the more intentional you can be with using social channels to achieve your goals. An issue I have seen is schools trying to use their channels for multiple, different purposes. For example, Admissions wants to generate inquiries (leads) whereas Career Services wants to brand the career center and increase student participation. The goals change the tactics, the messaging, the content....everything essentially. Consequently, some institutions have different accounts for different purposes. Take all of this into consideration combined with your research and you will be off to a great start.
Robert Starks Jr.
We, as a school, are not heavy users of social media. This information was very informative to where I can sit down and discuss with the staff the importance on social media. We will probably do a survey with the students to see what the majority use and go from there.
Tara,
If you haven't already, I suggest you download this resource: http://www.careercollegelounge.com/pg/blog/rstarks/read/35342/a-beginners-guide-to-social-media-for-the-job-seeker. It is a student handout that can help you begin your journey of educating students. Whereas students may understand the functionality of platforms, it has been my experience that many lack an understanding of how to use social platforms in an intentional manner that progresses their career goals. I think this resource will help you teach them some basics.
Robert Starks Jr.
Thank you, Robert. I have to sy because I am still very new to them, I have not taught students/grads to utilize it as much as they have taught me to use social media!
I will definitely be an advocate for them to do so in the future.
Tara,
It seems you have been very strategic in how you have designed your own personal learning network. Do you teach students to do the same and how PLNs enrich their knowledge? If so, what activities/exercises do you incorporate to help your students understand how to use social media to build PLNs for professional development as you have?
Robert Starks Jr.
Since I am associated with Health & Wellness Education, I follow many holistic practitioners, as well as post info from medical,holistic, nutrition, and human interest journals.
Also, our company has a Career Services website from which I take suggestions to post marketing ideas, resume tips, and interviewing skills, etc.
LeWando,
Heather and Dan are great to follow about professional development. Specifically, Heather focuses on Gen Y professionals and Dan is an expert in personal branding. Jay and Brian are social media experts. Make sure you construct your PLN in a concentrated area. They all have blogs which are great reads and of course, you can follow them on Twitter. If you do, I suggest considering two separate lists so that your social media experts are on one list and your professional development experts are on another. I highly recommend Brian Solis' books - he is one of my favorite authors regarding social media. Jay has a great book as well.
Robert Starks Jr.
Mr. Stark, until this moment,I was not a user of social media. I am going to use your list as a base for my PLN structure. Based on the information given: @heatherhuhman, @jaybaer,
@briansolis, and @DanSchawbel. I am excited to
to begin building my PLN. I feel an empowerment developing to motivate my students to create positive 2.0 experiences for their careers.
Amy,
Things like how to open a Twitter account are not covered in this course since this course is focused on developing a strategy. However, it is quite easy to open any social media account you want. Twiter, just like all other platforms, walks you through registering a new account when you simply visit the site. Part of developing a strategy does require you to first become familiar with the tools so you gain a better understanding of the culture of the communities behind the tools. Don't forget, these aren't just tools, there are people behind these tools so we are truly talking about online communities with cultures, social group behaviors, values, etc. that shape how one interacts on different platforms. You'll be happy to know that learning tools is the easy part and is the least important part which is why this course doesn't walk participants through each tool. Strategy is the challenging part as many struggle with developing purpose behind their usage. You'll find that different departments have different goals. It is likely Admissions uses Social Media to generate leads. That wouldn't necessarily be the same as your objective so think about how you can collaborate while still being able to focus on your primary objectives in the Career Services office. Make sure you download the guide I made and posted in the Lounge that is designed to be a handout to help you start educating students on how they can leverage social media - it will provide you with a long list of recommended thought leaders to follow on Twitter in different topics: http://lwire.us/?l=63C9.
Please continue asking questions - I am here to help.
Robert Starks Jr.
Hello Robert,
I'll be completely honest - this section has "rocked" me a bit and truly enlightened me on how very much I don't know in the social media world. My eyes have now officially been opened! The first step for me will be to open (if that's the correct word) a twitter account. I don't currently have one or even really know how to get one. I know that some of this session's content will help with that. From there, once I figure out how..I'll begin with subscribing to the recommendations you've listed here. Truthfully, this is exactly why I took this course. I believe 100% that our Career Center can be improved significantly through a purposeful and well thought through social media strategy. Our college is small and we already have a presence in social media through our facebook page and our twitter account. I can work very closely with our Director of Admissions, who currently manages our overall social media effort, to see how best we can sync our strategies to create the most effectiveness.
To answer your question...up to this point..no one has influenced me on social media! I'll start with my own school's twitter and facebook accounts and move on to your list! :)Thank you!
We are not heavy users of social media but definitely are aware it is something we need to integrate more substantially into our strategies for meeting goals in all departments.
It is my hope that we will make more time available to further discuss the next step for us as a school / company to increase our use of social media. We need to formulate the goals,the means to measure our success, the message and the best means to communicate it. We will likely need more outside influences to learn from and begin our trial and error journey.
Grace Kutney of http://blog.sweetcareersconsulting.com/ spoke at a conference I attended last year. Wonderful speaker with great ideas for incorporating social media resources and career services. As our department considers which platforms to use and how in our social media strategy, we'll be keeping our eye on Grace and Sweet Careers.
