Teaching Students to Use Social Media

for Personal Branding and Job Search

Denny McCorkle Professor of Marketing

Monfort College of Business

University of Northern Colorado

2016 Direct/Interactive Marketing Research Summit

Los Angeles, CA

October 15, 2016

#mktgEDGE16 Slides at: http://bit.ly/1jzRnKO

Introduction

According to research by Career Builder, 60% of the

2,000 recruiters in their survey are actively looking on

the web for information to support job applications.

And, 41% are less likely to interview those with no

online presence (2016).

Harvard Business Review refers to it as a “permanent

job search” as future employers, career stakeholders,

and others may be looking online or seeing a student or

employee’s digital footprint long before a job search

has begun (2012).

A study on millennials found that college students are

active on social media, but not in a career oriented way

(Schawbel 2012)

Introduction While most tend to think of the job search as activities “as

needed,” the concept of defining, managing, and controlling

what others find online about a student is more of a

“continuous process” known as personal branding.

Personal branding is “a way for individuals to differentiate

themselves by identifying their unique value proposition and

communicating it effectively and consistently” (Schawbel

2010).

Personal branding using social media challenges the students:

to define and develop their “appropriate self” for the social

environment (theory of sensemaking by Weick 1995),

to learn from their own experiences (theory of experiential

learning by Kolb 1984), and

to learn from how others are doing it (social cognitive theory by

Bandura 1986).

“Prepare to be

Googled.” ~ @DennyMcCorkle

“You are defined by your social profiles and social shares.”

~ @DennyMcCorkle

Find this:

And, not this:

The Problem & Solution

Growing use of social media by students, faculty, and marketers.

Problem:

Students need to prepare for a “permanent job search.”

Solution:

Teach students how to use social media for personal branding.

Benefits of teaching social media

for personal branding.

Better prepares them for their job search.

Provides them personal branding skills for

their future career.

Provides them “real-time” social media skills

development offering continuous

improvement throughout the semester.

Provides them “real-world” social media

skills that are transferrable to using social

media for a company (job opportunity).

Introduction to the Course Marketing or Business elective for Business students.

Course meets 2 days a week: Tuesdays in traditional

classroom, Thursdays in computer lab

No textbook. Just original slides and e-readings.

Course topics included:

an introduction to social media and social business,

social media marketing and personal branding planning

and strategies,

inbound and content marketing strategies, and

the strategic real-time use of Twitter, WordPress and

blogs, LinkedIn, and others.

The Project: Strategy Development Define:

career focus

personal brand identity (desired image)

Develop:

target markets for social sharing and potential employment

content marketing strategy

engagement strategies

PLN to support their social sharing and self-learning.

Create:

career focused tagline/headline using keywords for personal SEO

Biography/introduction using brand storytelling

Implement/Use:

Primary: Twitter, WordPress, LinkedIn

Secondary: Facebook Like pages, Google+, Pinterest or YouTube

Tools: Feedly, HootSuite, Klout

Student Feedback -

Benefits:

Twitter WordPress

blogging

LinkedIn

Challenging 5.19 5.31 4.19

Fun 4.71 4.91 3.77

Rewarding 4.77 5.00 4.39

Beneficial 5.35 5.47 4.90

Stressful 4.58 4.91 3.52

Essential 4.90 4.41 4.48

Practical 5.26 4.97 4.84

Real-World Experience 5.48 5.28 4.58

Social Learning (from others) 5.48 5.06 5.39

Self-Learning (from myself) 5.35 5.53 4.16

Skill Building 5.10 5.50 4.55

Expertise Building 5.16 5.44 4.68

Brand Building 5.65 5.53 4.58

Overall use of for personal

branding

5.61 5.22 5.90

Overall use for social media

marketing

5.74 5.28 5.45

Benefits of

Project

SD = 1 to

SA = 7

n = 31

Student Feedback -

Skills Improvement:

Avg.

Social media networking 6.16

Self-learning 5.74

Social-learning 5.90

Written communication 5.23

Technology 5.58

Social media marketing

strategy

6.00

Personal branding 6.03

Real-world experiential 5.52

Content consumption 5.77

Content curation 5.84

Content creation 5.77

Social media engagement 5.52

Social media influence 5.58

Social media metrics 5.90

Skills Development

From Project

SD = 1 to SA = 7

n = 31

Conclusions

Students need social media skills for

numerous marketing job opportunities.

Students need personal branding skills for

the permanent job search and future

career.

A social media marketing course can offer

numerous real-time and real-world

experiences.

Connect with Denny McCorkle at:

Blog: DigitalSelfMarketingAdvantage.com Syndicated/Featured at: Social Media Today,

Business2Community, AllTop

LinkedIn: Denny McCorkle

Twitter: @DennyMcCorkle

Email: DennyMcCorkle@gmail.com

Download copy of slides at: http://bit.ly/1jzRnKO

Denny McCorkle ★ Digital Marketing Professor

at UNCo ★ Social Media Marketing for Personal

Branding & Job Search (PB&J) ★ Blogger ★

Speaker ★ #DigitalSMA ★ #ALLinLinkedIn ★

#AhaLessons