Employers utilize social media

By Anjuli Hollman | October 26, 2009

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Matt Weir/The Collegian

In today’s competitive business world, students are encouraged to engage in social media not only to network with prospective employers and coworkers, but to establish an online presence. This may be the key to getting recognized for necessary internship experience and clinching an interview for a dream career.

If students are not utilizing social media they may not be aware of certain positions that are available.
“Some companies are not using job boards anymore, but instead using social media to find candidates for their positions,” said California State University, Fresno career services director Rita Bocchinfuso-Cohen. She predicts that this is only going to become more popular in cutting-edge businesses.

Fresno State is utilizing social media as well.

According to Fresno State director of social media relations Katie Johnson, Fresno State has a “friend list” that she believes to be more than 2,000 students on Facebook and 300 followers on Twitter. And before the end of this year, Fresno State will have a YouTube site.

Johnson also said many of the departments at Fresno State have social media involvement on Facebook and Twitter.

“We are [using social media] to connect alumni with students,” Johnson said. “They are able to ask them questions for the purpose of establishing a job.” The Fresno State alumni Twitter page has over 960 followers.

Another element of social media for students to consider is Skype, a software application that allows users to make phone calls over the Internet. In a recent article, “How Skype is changing the job interview,” published by Time, online interviews are becoming popular. This saves employers time and money. Students should be prepared for an employer to request an interview on Skype.

Bocchinfuso-Cohen stated Fresno State students have the opportunity to make an appointment with career services for a mock interview anytime.

“We receive feedback from employers that come to the campus to conduct interviews,” she said. “Some students are doing fine, but there is a huge percentage of them that aren’t and they could use a practice interview. “

Precautions must also be taken when using social media. Students who are involved in social media and do not filter the content on their sites can make them lose a potential job.

“A lot of students don’t realize it, but it is a public display about them and many employers consider that fair game,” Bocchinfuso-Cohen said.

Students set themselves up for success when they monitor their content, meaning no beer pong videos, profanity, and actively posting intelligent content.

To stay active on social media, students may also use sites like Ping.fm, which will update all of a user’s social media sites at once with a message, picture or status change. This application may also be used from a mobile phone.

Tips

There are many things to consider when establishing your online presence. Here are some ways to effectively use networking sites to your professional advantage.

Twitter: Use this social network and micro blog to actively post tweets that portray intellect. Make your tweets relevant to your specific professional field.

Facebook and Myspace: Keep your pages appropriate, and consider which friends you associate with on these sites. Remember to filter content to avoid objectionable material.

LinkedIn: Create an online resume, and use your information to network with professionals. Remember to build contacts with people from all aspects of your professional field.

Personal Web sites: It is important to have your own domain online. This allows you to display your creativity. You can link all of your other media to your personal site.

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Comments

  • I haven't seen colleges use social media in the way you explained Fresno State is, but it's a fabulous idea. Having alumni's connect with graduating students to provide tips about the "real world" and applying for jobs is a great utilization of social media!
  • kasumi
    This is a great idea all around, and it'll work for local businesses as well as colleges. Services that are popping up like zippee.com are really helping locals connect with other locals, and it raises the profile of places that might otherwise be drowned by national chains with big marketing budgets.
  • More and more colleges are starting to use social media to connect on every level. I know that at my college - Syracuse University - one of my professors was just promoted to head social media strategist for our iSchool. The use of social media is a great way to connect with parents and alumni to help keep them connected and up to date on what is going on.

    On the student and employment side, more employers are searching for potential candidates online to help weed out potential candidates. The majority of students are NOT using social media - besides Facbook - properly and are hurting their chances of being hired. A Google search for your name is a supplement to your resume to help differentiate yourself from the masses.
  • Excellent post. I especially liked the closing Tips for the mainstream social networks.

    As a reputation manager for various "embattled" clients, the consensus is that they wish that they had a strategy before going in to social media. Students, especially, should have a strategy - especially this young in their 'online life' which is accumulating results for their name from the moment they make their first comment or share any web content. Students need to be aware of the search egnine spider that will find that late night drunken video they posted on MySpace or even that threatening comment they left on an ex's profile page. On the other side of the coin, that same search engine spider will find the award they received and the news article that was published about their successes. By owning their name as a domain name and having a personal blog linked to their social networking accounts, it provides a place to collect all of these accolades and documented experiences for a more focused dissemination of information about them to not only prospective employers, but to the entire world wide web.

    Exercise: Do a Google search for your name. Explore the results. Now for fun, do a Google search for your name with relevant additions to the search query. Examples: John Doe 555-555-5555, John Doe 123 AnywhereRoad, John Doe employed, etc.. Still having fun?
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