Careers Centre ARTS & PVAC Personal & Professional Development Workshops: Get online Venita Girvan

Careers Centre Overview of today’s session  Why use Social Media?  Platforms  Graduate Recruiters’ use of Social Media  Things to be aware of with your current use of Social Media  Starting points for using Social Media for your Career Development.

Careers Centre Why Social Media?  /watch?v=3jhe657AoLs /watch?v=3jhe657AoLs  Thoughts and comments?

Careers Centre LinkedIn Useful for: Research (individuals, career paths, companies) Commercial awareness (news, groups, discussions) Networking – groups, staying in touch with people you meet Self-marketing – (discussions, use ‘add sections’ feature Finding job opportunities (and seeing if you’re connected to company)  Purely professional  175m+ users in 200+ countries  Students & graduates fastest- growing demographic  Treat it like a online ‘CV’ – care needed to create strong profile  Connect with people you already know (friends, family, tutors?)  Observe etiquette   Our mini-series of Screencasts on using LinkedIn effectivelyScreencasts

Careers Centre Twitter  Less formal than LinkedIn – show some personality  Bio – informative and professional  address + real name  Further information link – blog/online CV/ portfolio etc  Tweet, re-tweet and help promote others  Professional picture  Completely open* (*can protect tweets) Useful for:  Research – follow companies/ individuals/ discussions by using hashtags  Self-marketing – share relevant/ interesting content, showcase your work (blogs etc)  Networking – re-tweet others, reply to their tweets, participate in conference/ event discussions using hashtags  Job opportunities

Careers Centre Facebook Useful for:  Consider how you want to use it; social/ professional / mix?  Many people prefer to keep it completely social  If so, ensure privacy is tight – especially re public search  Existing network – largest (probably)  Research – many companies provide a lot of information/ live Q&As etc through their Facebook pages  Research – seek info/ advice/ contacts from existing network  Networking - through groups, competitions, discussions etc  Application tips  Company insights

Careers Centre How Graduate Recruiters are using Social Media According to the High Fliers survey 2013:  89% of employers used social media in their graduate recruitment promotions 2012/13.  71% of these increased their emphasis on this method from previous years.  This is evidence of the increased use of social media by graduate recruiters.

Careers Centre How graduate recruiters are using it... As part of the application process:  Some companies are now asking candidates to use social media as part of their application process.  This has been seen in the Saatchi and Saatchi summer internship, Channel 4 graduate scheme and Nestle graduate scheme.  You are also much more likely to now see proficiency with social media as a required skill on a graduate job description.

Careers Centre How graduate recruiters are using it... To communicate with potential applicants  Recruiters want to build relationships with the best candidates and find they can do this well through social media.  Many companies will use a range of platforms and mediums including competitions through Facebook (Unilever), blogs, Q&A sessions with current grads (Civil Service) and You-tube channels.

Careers Centre How Graduate Recruiters are using it... To promote their opportunities  Twitter is used by many companies as an easy way to promote opportunities they have coming up. This can often be easier to follow than trying to juggle several websites.  Often you will find out about opportunities and internships through social media that you wouldn’t find on jobs-boards.

Careers Centre What to be aware of Digital Footprint:  You can learn a lot about employers & organisations, and vice versa  Traces you leave online; photos, comments, things you ‘like’, your connections, form submissions/ registrations etc  Broader than social media – but social media is one of most obvious & easiest to manage  Anything posted online is potentially permanent  Consider ‘discoverability’ and audience before you post  Activity - Google yourself

Careers Centre Managing your digital footprint  Know what it is – Google yourself regularly  Create alerts? (can also do this for job search queries)  Take steps to remove any potentially negative content  Make positive outweigh negative  Stay on top of privacy settings  Consider aliases if needed  Could use Reppler – manage your online image across social networksReppler

Careers Centre How can you use social media for your career development?

Careers Centre Use of Social Media for Career Research  Research and preparation are key to success in gaining graduate opportunities or internships.  The immediacy of information available through social media makes it a great tool for career related research. Example of Accenture’s corporate Facebook page – excellent for enhancing commercial awareness.

Careers Centre Use of Social Media for Career Research  Linked-in can be used to research the career paths of 230m+ career paths  Twitter lists allow you to organise your follows to get up to the minute news and opportunities from the industries your interested in. Subscribe to the Careers Centre lists for a great starting point

Careers Centre Use of Social Media for self-marketing  Social media can be a great tool for promoting your skills and experience to a wide market.  It can allow you to demonstrate passion for an industry, display your work and enhance your professional persona.

Careers Centre Use of Social Media for self-marketing Think about:  Consistency – what image are you wanting to portray through social media? Is this consistent across the different platforms you are using?  Regular activity – this doesn’t mean endless updates, but ensuring that you keep on the radar of your contacts and that your profiles look ‘cared for’ is important.

Careers Centre Use of Social Media for networking  Important that you have done your research and considered how you want to portray yourself before you connect with others using social media.  Can be a great way of expanding your network if used correctly. Platforms often work well used in conjunction with one another e.g. Linked-in and Twitter. Ben Roback – 2 nd year POLIS student used Twitter t o secure himself work experience with Hilary Benn at Westminster.

Careers Centre Use of Social Media for networking  Linked-in groups are a great way for you to gain insider advice from experts already working in the field.  Social media can also be used to complement face-to- face networking e.g. by keeping in touch with people you meet on internships, at careers fairs etc.

Careers Centre Careers Centre social media workshops:  3 Ways Social Media Can Help Your Career: 30 th October pm;  Using social media to break into Journalism : 17 th October pm  Using social media to break into Scientific careers : 4 th November pm  Using social media to break into Media careers:  21 st November – 1.00pm  LinkedIn Labs :  PART 1:6 th November pm  PART 217 th October pm; 14 th November pm Book online at

Careers Centre Moving forward... List 3 things that you will go on to do following today’s session.