Advice for careers advisers to help students to use social media in professional development and job searching.

1. Lucy Goetz
lucy@lucygoetz.com
www.lucygoetz.com
Lucy Goetz 2012

2. The Stats
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Over 140 million users on Twitter
340 million tweets per day
43% of users are aged 18-34
11 new accounts created every second
Companies and organisations are using
Twitter for promotion, brand awareness,
customer service & engagement and
recruitment.

3. The news breaks first on Twitter!

4. Ok so what is Twitter?
The social network to share and receive
information instantly. If I need to find something
out, Twitter is often my first port of call, the
information comes to you.
A live community and information feed you
create and engage with.
Let’s try it now…

5. How do you want
Twitter to help you?

6. Our areas of focus today
• Some of the mechanics of Twitter
• Looking at how to use Twitter to promote
your careers service
• Personal use and professional development
• How students can use it

7. Let’s look at the mechanics
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Tweet – 140 characters or less
@reply someone
@mention
Direct Message (DM)
Re-Tweet (RT)
Favourite

8. Using Twitter in the careers service

10. A Case Study
https://twitter.com/#!/leedslibraries

11. What it does well
• The account is informative, gives reason for
people to follow.
• Helpful information and advice, not just self
promotion.
• Rich sources of content.
• Information has to be engaging, helpful and of
interest to hold your audience, build your
network and amplify your messages.

12. Using Twitter
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Decide on your message and ID
Set-up your profile(s)
Find people to follow – People &
organisations who tweet relevant &
useful information, use the search
function to find keywords.
Listen and Learn – What are others
doing on Twitter that you can.
Take part in conversations & re-tweet
industry news
Follow Lists and create your own
Link to your other online presence e.g.
web content, blog, LinkedIn profile.

13. Optimise your profile
• Keywords, keywords, keywords!
• https://twitter.com/#!/UoDCPeople

14. Using Twitter
What do I tweet about?
• Opportunities, vacancies, events, advice, job vacancy pages – retweet, tweet vacancies from your job opportunities, helpful
blogposts, documents, case studies, guest blogposts, live chats.
• Do you market your services to local businesses? Internship
opportunities/benefits.
Where can I source content?
• RSS Feeds – Advice blogs on topics such as advice on applying for
jobs, interviewing techniques, latest trends in recruitment, social
media advice!
• Other Twitter accounts. Not just your own information, your own
messages. Share richly sourced content with your network so they
keep coming back.
• Re-tweet and credit your community.
• Be creative – tweet events, new initiatives to encourage
engagement – media, tips, competitions??

15. What students can do with Twitter
• Optimise profile – Keywords & link to other
areas of online evidence of experience and
expertise eg. LinkedIn profile, blog.
• Follow account for vacancies posted
• Research companies in desired field. What are
they tweeting about?
• Follow recruitment agencies and careers
services for vacancies and advice &
information. Make connections!

16. Companies are recruiting on Twitter

17. Hashtags
• Hashtags are what help us filter the 200
million tweets sent a day!
• They organise the discussions from Twitter
users on particular topics. If you search on a
particular hashtag you will see all the tweets
on that topic.
• Television offers the best examples: #BGT
#theapprentice #thevoiceuk

18. Hashtags
• What are the conversations in the industry your
student is looking for work in? Can they join in?
• Examples - #ukemplaw #hr #banking #socialmedia
‘#financejobs #accountancyjobs
• Often the more niche the better!
• Using a hashtag in a tweet increases your chances of
it getting noticed. It could be seen by the right
people and amplified through a re-tweet.

19. ACTIVITY
• Search for a term
• For example: A student is looking at a career in
retail. Search for the term ‘retail’ and find the
people on Twitter talking about topics in that
industry. Who are the influencers, who are the
people students need to follow and engage with?

20. Lists
• Another way to help filter Twitter – Users are put in
‘lists’ on Twitter when they share a similar bio,
industry, areas of interested tweeted about.
• See what lists a user features on to find other similar
users.
• Check out this list for fellow careers services on
Twitter - https://twitter.com/#!/helenbuz/careersservices/members See what they are doing on
Twitter.
• Use ‘listorious.com’ as a search tool for lists.

21. Twitter Tips for students
• What work are you currently doing. Project work,
relevance in the news to work you have done – talk
about it.
• Follow companies on Twitter you have worked for
before and make it clear where to be contacted.
• Build a relationship – See what they tweet about –
what is going on in the company at the moment.
• Look at topics you can engage with them on.
Retweet them, mention them.
• Be human but be professional

22. Twitter Tips for students
• Find and search the #hashtags related your industry
of interest to filter tweets. For example: #ukemplaw
for employment law.
• Be professional on Twitter - but still be yourself
• Re-tweet useful information and get re-tweeted - Be
seen as a valued, helpful member of someone's
network
• Find top tweeters in your area of interest that you
can follow and engage in conversation.

23. How to Build Online Evidence of
expertise
• Start blogging - use a free WordPress blog (Good for
SEO)
• Use your blog as your hub for your social media.
• Blog on topics related to the field you want to work
in and spread on your other social media. (Twitter &
LinkedIn)
• Tweet it and use a relevant hashtag, you never know
who might find it.
• Blog on current topics where possible to get noticed.

24. Have you Googled yourself?
Mange your online presence with social media– what do
people see when they search for you?

25. Lists
• Another way to help filter Twitter – Users are
put in ‘lists’ on Twitter when they share a
similar bio, industry, areas of interested
tweeted about.
• See what lists a user features on to find other
similar users.
• Use ‘listorious.com’ as a search tool for lists.

26. Other useful sites
• http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm Job
listings, detailed information, reviews,
nterview questions and process details.
• http://www.watchthatpage.com/
Automatically collect new information from
your favoured source pages on the web.
• https://support.twitter.com/groups/31twitter-basics - Comprehensive Twitter Guide.