Social Media Platforms

Public

Discussion:

Hi Sarah,

I'm sorry, I think perhaps there was a misunderstanding. I was asking about how you and your department use social media for your own employer outreach strategies vs. how you encourage students to connect with employers. For example, a Director of Career Services may establish formal goals for their career advisors to increase their LinkedIn network with individuals specifically in a certain industry and monitor/measure results using analytics data.

Another example might be the career services staff using LinkedIn to recruit employer guest speakers, program advisory members, or to develop other programs your school may have such as an employer webinar series, etc.

Yet another example might be to develop an employer group on a chosen platform of recruiters/employers who have hired students/grads and have a continuous engagement strategy with them sharing industry news relevant to them as well as occasionally promoting some of your top graduates who are available for employment. As a personal example, I used to share the portfolios of outstanding graduates and ask employers/recruiters if they had any feedback to share - this was a way to get useful feedback for the student but was also a subtle strategy to "softly" market the graduate to an employer audience without overtly saying "hire this person!"

I've even used social media to help the school recruit and hire hard-to-fill positions for instructors and/or program chairs with relationships in the industry that our department established. This not only helped the school, but it helped our department to have highly qualified industry professionals teaching/leading programs that prepared students for the workforce. These are merely a small sample of examples of how to use social media for employer engagement/outreach strategies to build and strengthen relationships.

There are many ways to use social media for your own employer engagement strategies - I'm wondering if you have any examples to add to the list from which others might benefit.

Robert Starks Jr.

Hi Sarah, I'm sorry, I think perhaps there was a misunderstanding. I was asking about how you and your department use social media for your own employer outreach strategies vs. how you encourage students to connect with employers. For example, a Director of Career Services may establish formal goals for their career advisors to increase their LinkedIn network with individuals specifically in a certain industry and monitor/measure results using analytics data. Another example might be the career services staff using LinkedIn to recruit employer guest speakers, program advisory members, or to develop other programs your school may have such as an employer webinar series, etc. Yet another example might be to develop an employer group on a chosen platform of recruiters/employers who have hired students/grads and have a continuous engagement strategy with them sharing industry news relevant to them as well as occasionally promoting some of your top graduates who are available for employment. As a personal example, I used to share the portfolios of outstanding graduates and ask employers/recruiters if they had any feedback to share - this was a way to get useful feedback for the student but was also a subtle strategy to "softly" market the graduate to an employer audience without overtly saying "hire this person!" I've even used social media to help the school recruit and hire hard-to-fill positions for instructors and/or program chairs with relationships in the industry that our department established. This not only helped the school, but it helped our department to have highly qualified industry professionals teaching/leading programs that prepared students for the workforce. These are merely a small sample of examples of how to use social media for employer engagement/outreach strategies to build and strengthen relationships. There are many ways to use social media for your own employer engagement strategies - I'm wondering if you have any examples to add to the list from which others might benefit. Robert Starks Jr.