How My Career Center Saved My Life! - CareerEnlightenment.com

3 Things You Can Do Today to Reach More Students on Social MediaI’m often asked, “That’s great Joshua. But what are some practical things I can do to leverage social media to get my students to engage?”Here are three ideas, but there are many many more:1. Don’t schedule your events on the same day as other school eventsThis might seem obvious, but part of using social media is acknowledging the reality of your audience. And students need to see career services as simply another facet of their college life. Don’t try to compete for their attention. Your office is part of a greater whole.2. Use Facebook to demand accountabilityIf you are on Facebook several times a day, well, so are your students. If you want their attention, “hey, did you work on that resume revision I gave you yet?”. What better way to ensure accountability that Facebook. Just start a new account and connect with every student you meet. Read how one Career Advisor in Oregon uses this approach.3. Creat e cross-promotional opportunities with other officesThe greatest compliment on Twitter is a re-tweet mostly because it exposes your message to a wider audience. I’m pretty sure other departments on school attract a different audience that what you’re used to: theater kids, jocks, programmers, track starsyou name it. If you promote the sports team’s events, they’ll promote yours back. Create alliances for cross-promotion.YOU Have the Most Important Job at Your SchoolSome professors might disagree, but it’s true.Whenever you feel frustrated about keeping up with social media, technology, or hiring trends, remember you are someone’s hero. And, you can share one piece of information you learn from a blog post, email, or lecture with a student and change their life.I try to remember this whenever I’m speaking to a group of students, and I try to remind career advisors when I’m speaking to them.You are someone’s hero because you were willing to break the taboo against ta lking about careers.And, yes, I landed my first real job thanks to the brave warriors at the Brown University career center!