1. Using Social Media
to Enhance Employability
HEA Employability Staff Development
Network Event
Sue Beckingham
Sheffield Hallam University
2. What is Social Media
Technologies that
enable communication,
collaboration,
participation and
sharing.
Hughes A, 2009 for JISC
Social software,
software that
supports group
communications
Shirky C, 2003
3. Social Media is
a tool
for augmenting human social and collaborative abilities
a medium
for facilitating social connection and information interchange
an ecology
for enabling a "system of people, practices, values and
technologies in a particular local environment"
Suter, Alexander and Kaplan, 2005
4. Social Media: An Ecology
An ecology, habitat, or studio is simply the space for
fostering connections. Networks occur within something.
They are influenced by the environment and context of an
organization, school, or classroom. Certain ecologies are
more conducive to forming connections. ... Connection
barriers are aspects of an ecology. ... The nature of the
ecology influences the ease, type, and health of networks
created
(Siemans 2007)
5. Why Social Media is important
The power of online connections
• maintain connections
• develop global connections
• ongoing 24/7 networking
• opportunity to learn and share
• ability to be known and found
• develop a personal brand
• six degrees of separation
• recruitment/job seeking
24. Digital Footprint
“Your brand isn’t what you say it is,
it’s what Google says it is”
It has the power to influence people to invest
(or divest) in you.
(Joel 2009)
25. Questions to consider
• Who will look at your online profile?
• What do people want to know about you?
• Where will they use this information?
• Why is your profile important?
• When and how often do you update it?
• How will you use your profile to your
advantage?
26. LinkedIn
• Include current position, past positions and
education
• Add a profile photo
people rarely forget a face !
• Make connections by inviting people already
in your trusted network e.g. colleagues and
classmates already on LinkedIn and email
contacts
27. Facebook
• Open or Closed
Consider your privacy
settings
• It can be more than just
a ‘social’ network, it can
become part of your
own ‘personal learning
network’
http://recruiting.jobvite.com/resources/social-recruiting-survey.phpAbout The SurveyThe Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey 2010 was conducted online between May and June 2010; over 600 human resource and recruiting professionals participated in the survey. Respondents answered questions using an online survey tools and the response data is available only in aggregate form.