The Importance of Expanding Your School’s Career Services Department to Social Media
The Effective Student Marketing team recently presented “How Social Media and Online Communities Can Lead to Gainful Employment for Your Students” at APSCU (Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities). We also launched our newest eBook, ”17 Tips to Connect Career Services & Social Media.” This blog post works parallel with our eBook, so be sure to download it here.
Your school’s Career Services Department plays an important role in assisting students and graduates with their job search. Many Career Services Departments offer great career related events and services right on campus, such as job fairs, resume workshops, mock-interview sessions, guest speakers, and one-on-one cover letter and resume assistance. All of this is great; however if the Career Services Department at your school has not yet adapted to the recent change in communication, then it is probably safe to say that students and graduates are unaware of the events and services the department offers. Also, as the shift in the way we communicate continues to evolve, it is guaranteed that the majority of students are on social media platforms looking for assistance and resources during the job search. The Career Services Department needs to be where the students and graduates are.
1. Career Services Blog
In order for the Career Services to be successful on social media, the staff members in this department must agree to actively participate. A blog is essential because it acts as the hub for all career related content your school creates. The blog becomes an online resource center for students and graduates, where they can find career related tips and advice. Who knows this information better than the Career Center staff? Content from here can be integrated with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and email.
2. Facebook
The Career Services Department should have its own Facebook page. The Facebook page should be used to promote career related events that your school is holding, the services the Career Services Department offers its students and graduates, and relevant career related information, such as resume tips or how to get the most out of a career fair. To help promote the Career Services specific Facebook page, integrate it with your school’s main Facebook page and individual campus pages if they exist.
3. LinkedIn
All Career Services staff members at your school should be active on LinkedIn. Besides staff members having their own personal profiles, the department needs to have a Career Services specific group. The group is a place where all members of the Career Services Department (and other departments at your school) need to be active. Create career related discussions. Connect with employers in the community. Provide your staff, students, and graduates with training tools on how to use LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows for students and graduates to display their resume online and, if optimized properly, the possibility of being recruited by employers exists. If your school isn’t utilizing this platform and/or fails to assist students and graduates in establishing a presence on LinkedIn, then consider it a missed opportunity.
4. Twitter
Twitter is best known for being the “real-time” news platform. In simpler terms, attendees are tweeting live from an event. For example, let’s say your school is hosting a career fair. It is great to promote the event on Twitter and use a #hashtag leading up to it. Then, during the career fair, attendees can tweet live and use the #hashtag your school created for the event. The importance of tweeting real-time events is to create a unique #hashtag so that people can easily follow what is going on. It is important to tweet updates from the event and pictures.
*The # symbol, know as a hashtag, before any word creates a link. The hashtag symbol # is used before relevant keywords in a person’s tweet to categorize those tweets to show more easily in Twitter Search.
5. YouTube
Hopefully your school already has a branded YouTube channel. It isn’t necessary for the Career Services Department to have its own channel. Career related videos can be incorporated into the college’s already existing channel. The Career Services Department at your school has a lot to offer. Videos are a different way to grab the attention of your audience. The videos the Career Services Department creates should offer students and graduates career related tips and even demonstrations on different situations they may run into at an interview or a networking event.
Takeaway:
The Career Services Department at your school offers valuable resources to students and graduates. If the department doesn’t adapt to the evolving shift in communication, then what good does that serve the students and graduates?
Also, keep in mind that all of these platforms work together. Content that is posted on the blog can be integrated with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and if it’s a video, YouTube.
