Harnessing the Power of Social Media

Helen Pownall

University of Manchester, UK

Workshop Plan

• Describe and demo some web technologies and possible careers uses for you, your service and your students

• Discussion: what you are doing and what you’d like to do

• [If time] short ‘open mic’ for demoing current projects

Networking in a new era

• Internet and social media offer unprecedented opportunities for us and our clients to network– Global reach– Dynamic and expandable networks– Niche - easy to find and create specialist

networks– Self-promotion - more opportunity to raise your

profile online• For us – easier to network with employers

and other professionals in our areas of interest

• For job-seekers – increasingly a ‘must’ rather than a ‘nice to have’

Social Networking

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

Ning

MySpace

Club Penguin (average user age ~8!)

Social media in Google search rankings

Twitter profile

LinkedIn profile

LinkedIn• Professional networking site – no ‘pokes’,

‘likes’ or embarrassing photos from parties• Over 65 million members in 200 countries• Recruiters headhunt and jobseekers network• Students can connect with recruiters and

alumni and research organisations…• Groups are excellent for links with business,

especially by location or sector• You could start your own alumni-careers

group or post to the general alumni group for your institution

• www.linkedin.com/in/helenpownall

LinkedIn – get started

• Set up your profile (like an online CV)– Don’t forget to consider your privacy settings

• Develop your network of contacts– Degrees of separation

• Join groups for your areas of interest• Communicate

– Ask and answer questions– Tell people what you’re working on– Start and contribute to discussions– Share news

LinkedIn - an example

Networking objective:

Find a speaker for a ‘careers in events management’ talk

• Use people search – advanced settings

• Make contact by asking someone in your network to make the ‘introduction’ or send a message

LinkedIn – useful links

• Careers Services group, link to http://careerservices.linkedin.com

• LinkedIn webinars for careers professionals:http://careerservices.linkedin.com/webinar 15th June and 20th July 2010 (10pm European Summer Time)!)

• If you don’t have time, the slides are at:http://careerservices.linkedin.com/LinkedIn-Career-Services-Webinar-2010.pdf

• Refer students and graduates to:http://grads.linkedin.com (guide and video)

Linkedin – useful groups

• UK HE Careers Professionals Group (408 members) - also has ICT in Careers Work Sub Groupwww.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1948481

• Graduate recruiters groupse.g. AGR Group (944 members): www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1951518&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

Note: You will need to be logged in to LinkedIn to access these groups.

Twitter – what is it?

• A ‘micro-blogging site’ – communicate your thoughts and what you’re doing in ‘tweets’ of 140 characters or less

• Join in a massive online conversation!• Used more professionally than Facebook• People form loose connections around

common interests– Follow people who interest you– Follow topics that interest you and join in the

conversation, e.g. #careers

• People find jobs and headhunt through Twitter

Twitter for you…

• Use Twitter individually to:– Keep up to date with latest developments– Make connections across your areas of

interest– “Poll” your contacts or get advice/info– (For students) Find out about jobs

• Tip: Try using Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to organise your tweets

Twitter for your Careers Service

• Set up a careers service Twitter account to communicate up-to-the-minute news, events, jobs, top tips etc:http://twitter.com/manunicareers http://twitter.com/londongradfair

• List of careers services on Twitter:http://twitter.com/helenpownall/careers-services (18 in Sept 09 – now 51!)

Twitter – get started (1)

• Set up your Twitter profile– Don’t forget privacy settings if you want them

• Tell the world what you’re thinking/doing in your first tweets– Tweet a few times a day– Think “what can I say of interest to my

‘followers’?”– Share articles, blog posts, what you’re working

on, what you’re thinking, ask questions

• http://twitter.com/helenpownall

Twitter – get started (2)

• Look for interesting people to follow– Use Twitter search and directories– See who your contacts are following and

use that to expand your network– Use Mr Tweet to get recommendations on

who to follow– Students: follow recruiters and others in

companies you’re interested in working for

Blogs

• How are they different from website content?

Blog Website

Relevant now Longer shelf life

Informal/personal More formal/standardised

Specific/targeted More general

• General blogs, themed or audience-specific blogs, student-led blogs

Blogs – some examples

• University of Manchester undergraduate careers blog http://manchesterundergradcareers.wordpress.com

• London School of Economics law careers blog http://lselawcareers.wordpress.com

• University of Salford PhD careers bloghttp://www.careers.salford.ac.uk/students/phd/blog

Online Discussion Forums

• Internal careers forums– Tapping into the wealth of knowledge in the student

body– Accessible way to venture into ‘careers stuff’– ‘Safe place’ to ask stupid questions?– Doomed to failure because targeted group

fragmented?• 3rd party careers forums, e.g.

– www.wikijob.co.uk/forum, www.prospects.ac.uk – www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=201– Many are actively used– How reliable is the information? Health warning…

Social Bookmarking

• Example: www.delicious.com, www.diigo.com • Possible careers use: Means of organising and

sharing useful web resources across your service, e.g. www.delicious.com/manchestercareers (University of Manchester Careers Service) www.careerstagged.co.uk (Careers Group, University of London)www.diigo.com/list/sussexcdec (U. of Sussex)

One-to-One Live Chat – IM, video etc Examples:

Skype for video chat (webcams

required)LivePerson for

instant messaging (text) chat

• Possible careers use: – Off campus students/grads– Busy timetables– Reluctant to use face-to-face services

• www.manchester.ac.uk/careers/liveguidance • Better than e-guidance? Immediacy and opportunity

to quickly overcome misunderstandings?

Group web chats

• Web chats – usually refers to live group chat with expert(s) answering questionsExamples: – Prospects Careers Chat Live– KPMG -

www.kpmgcareers.co.uk/Graduates – In-house web chat systems

www.manchester.ac.uk/careers/webchats

‘Virtual fairs’

• ‘Virtual fairs’ – can include online employer profiles, scheduled group chats or webinars, individual contact by instant messaging or emailExamples: – BBC careers fair

http://events.unisfair.com/index.jsp?eid=417&seid=29

– KPMG careers fair in Second Life recently attracted several thousand people

The next thing…?

• Linking GPS and social networking(geo-location social networking applications)Times article from May 2008: http://tinyurl.com/ls7gl4

• A couple of possible uses:– Meet new people at a party who may be ‘friends of

friends’– For headhunters at a business networking event –

could do a keyword search of CVs of people in the room

• Buddy Beacon, iPhone compatible, tracks your friends’ locations

• Blip, for Blackberry

Individually, write on post-its…

1. What you or your careers service are already doing with web technologies

2. What you would like to do with web technologies [add a ‘X’ to this one]

3. Add a large * if you are happy to help others

4. Circle the * if you have something you could briefly demo

In groups of 5 or 6…

• Share your ‘doings’ and ‘would like to dos’

• Pick 1 or ‘doing’s and 1 or 2 ‘would like to do’s share with the wider group

• Discuss– Challenges and how you’ve overcome

them/might overcome them– Opportunities - “what problems does it

solve?”• Prepare to feed back to the wider

group

Reach me on…

• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/helenpownall• Twitter: www.twitter.com/helenpownall • Slideshare:

www.slideshare.net/helenpownall

Helen PownallCareers Consultant

(with special responsibility for web andinteractive technologies)

MLP, Careers & Employability DivisionUniversity of Manchester, UK