The Power of a Brand

When you think of brands you love, what comes to mind?  Ask any Apple user if they'd ever use a PC and they'd laugh in disgust.  Ask a Coke person what they think of Pepsi and they can't even believe you would ask such a question.  The point is that brands have power.  Brands influence people's thoughts, decisions, behaviors, and even their feelings.  A brand is the value perception placed on an entity and powerful brands influence people.  Now, if you haven't thought of your Career Services department as a brand, think again.

The Career Center as a Brand

What is your brand among your students, alumni, and employers?  How do they feel about you and what do they think about you?  Do you think their perception of your office influences their decisions to interact with your office or take advantage of your services?  Of course it does.  Those who rave about your office are your most loyal brand advocates spreading the word that othes should come see you or use your services.  How are you taking control of your brand to market your services to increase your constituent outreach and participation?  Don't you want more employers to engage with you?  Don't you want more students to utilize your services?  This is the mission of any career center - to serve, yet in order to maximize your efforts, you need to build and manage your brand to influence constituent decisions, attitudes, and behaviors.  

Social Media Strategy

Much of what career services professionals do is marketing and branding but career services training rarely focuses on these concepts relative to the specific goals of the career services department.  A career services department's social media strategy is about fully leveraging social media as a means to maximize reach, marketing, brand, engagement, and enthusiasm.  Building community, engaging community, and building brand advocates harnesses the power of branding which we've already established, influences decisions, emotions, behaviors, and attitudes.  The more people you can influence, the higher the chances of your success because your department exists to serve others - employers, alumni, students, and internal departments alike.  A career center's success depends on the breadth and strength of their partnerships with others.  The closer partnerships you establish with constituents can result in numerous benefits from increased job leads, success stories from graduates, employment rates, and more.  Imagine having loyal fans of your department like Apple, Google, or Starbucks has...what type of impact do you think that would have on your goals?    

Have you thought about your Career Services Department as a Brand?  What do you do to strategically influence brand perception?  How do you promote your brand and how do you leverage your brand equity?