Social media is critical tool for career services professionals to interact with and reach their constituent groups yet many career professionals aren't aware of how to develop a purposeful social media strategy. Without a social media strategy, career services departments risk losing relevance with their audience, and they also lose the opportunity of harnessing social media to achieve department goals. This course describes the phases of planning and implementing a social media strategy for your career services department. Each module is based on the fundamental steps of preparing a comprehensive and measurable plan to achieve the goals of the career services department.

Module 1: Social Media Background

• Understand the differences between social media, a social network, and social networking.
• Recognize the relevance of social media to career services.
• Understand how social media enables behavior monitoring and data mining.
• Articulate the importance of data and behavior monitoring and data mining on social networks for Career Services.
• Identify growing social media trends relevant to Career Services.
• Articulate the implications of growing trends for career professionals

Module 2: Identifying Purpose

• Identify challenges career centers face.
• Articulate the areas a social media intervention strategy can improve.
• Understand limitations of a social media strategy.
• Recognize strategy as a long-term commitment.
• Recognize sustainability as a consideration when developing purpose.

Module 3: Research & Planning

• Identify potential barriers that may hinder strategy implementation.
• Identify planning steps for developing a purposeful social media strategy.
• Understand different social media tools and distinguishing features.
• Recognize the importance of influencers.
• Understand how to identify influencers and how to measure influence.
• Identify Training Considerations.
• Identify ways to measure ROI of relationships.

Module 4: Implementation

• Understand importance of cross-platform brand cohesion.
• Understand how to establish listening posts.
• Identify strategies to delegate social media responsibilities.
• Identify strategies to create a marketing plan.
• Identify engagement best practices.