Alumni Career Services for Schools

January 21, 2012 7 Comments

Last week a young alumna called me asking for help. She was looking to make a career change, and was hoping I could provide some networking resources.

We chatted for a while. She outlined the field she was interested in, showed me her resume, and described her future plans. In turn, I gave her the names of some people from our School community who I thought she should speak to (alumni, faculty, parents). I directed her to our LinkedIn group, and gave her some networking tips. At the end of our conversation, I also suggested make use of her university alumni connections, and explore their career services.

She remarked that she had tried, but found her university services lacking.

This led me to the following thought(s): do independent schools in general offer alumni career services? If not, why not? Is the assumption that a university or college alma mater will be the more likely place for a graduate to turn, and therefore it isn’t worth it to run full-fledged career services? While many alumni would think immediately of their university for alumni career networking, I wonder how many would also think of their high school connections.

I plan to explore this in a future post, and am using this one as fodder for conversation, feedback and resources. Give me your two cents in the comments. Thanks!

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Changes and Other Perspectives

December 11, 2011 Leave a Comment

Living in a new place and taking on a new role means that things have changed for me both personally and professionally; changes that will likely be reflected in this space.

I’m no longer managing school-wide communications campaigns, BUT that doesn’t mean I’ve lost interest in social media and outreach tools. Far from it in fact.

It does mean, however, that I will likely start injecting other aspects of communications, engagement, outreach and relationship management into my posts here. Heck, you might even get a few, “here’s what I’ve learned about living abroad” tidbits too.

In the spirit of all that, here is one of those tidbits: when you move to a new place, you have the opportunity to meet a lot of new people. This is your big chance to stick your hand out and say, “Hi, I’m new here.” It’s networking, that thing we all talk about doing online. Making those connections up front will help you in the long run, professionally and personally. Thanks to my new friends and colleagues, I learned how to get my home internet set up quickly. I learned where I can find root beer. I even avoided certain disaster by purchasing and utilizing dishwasher salt.

Sure, those things are somewhat silly and trivial (not the internet one, though – that was vital). But those people, their knowledge and their connections will help me out in the short and long terms. And hopefully my connections and knowledge will help them as well.

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New Role, New Home

October 23, 2011 4 Comments

I am thrilled to announce the next step in my professional life. As of Monday, October 24, I will begin a new full time position at the American School in London as Associate Director of Advancement for Alumni Relations. I have relocated from Southern California to the UK and am living in central London.

ASL is a k-12 independent school with a diverse, international alumni base. I’ll be a part of an enthusiastic advancement team, and I will be using my alumni relations and social media experience to deliver programs and services to ASL’s alumni.

I plan to continue to blog in this space, to present at conferences and workshops, and to volunteer. But for now, I’ll be spending the majority of my time getting settled and learning all I can about ASL and the UK.

Thank you all for reading, and being a part of a start of the next chapter for this blog and for me.

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Don’t Panic!

October 10, 2011 3 Comments

When to act, and when to do nothing?

Community and social media managers deal with this conundrum on a regular basis. When managing a social media presence, what constitutes “action-worthy” audience behavior, and when should you just stand by?

The chart below was inspired by Charlene Li’s “social media triage” as blogged here by Andrew Careaga. The idea is to use the chart as a way to determine the “threat level” – from low to high – and assess the amount of action required to manage it.

Social Media Threat Level Graphic

Most of the issues we deal with on a regular basis fall into the “low” category: combative comments, unofficial groups, spam, etc. These require little to no action to manage, other than consistent monitoring. In fact, reacting too quickly or being defensive could do more harm than good.

“Medium” level issues not only need more attention, but also may require the involvement and input of higher levels of management and other members of your team, including alumni volunteers and other campus departments.

Finally, “high” issues require coordinated action and involve the highest levels of management. While situations that fall into the “high” category are relatively rare, it pays to have a strategy in place for managing these types of situations, similar to a crisis communications plan. Be sure to include strategies for coordinating efforts across campus departments. Also think about how and when to involve Provosts, Vice Presidents, and general counsel. These high-level administrators should know about the situation, and your strategy for managing it.

This chart is meant to help guide your thinking about social media issues, and does not cover every single situation that might come across your desk. It should, however, help you prepare for what lies ahead.

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Keeping Up

August 3, 2011 Leave a Comment

One of questions I hear most often is, “How do you keep up with all of this stuff?” Meaning: “how on earth to you find the time, energy and motivation to keep up with the latest trends, tools and social content?”

The short answer is that I find “this stuff” interesting, so keeping up is easy. I want to do it. But if you are new to all this, or maybe just burned out, here are a few specific ways you can keep up with the social media universe:

1) Use Twitter.

Follow people who distribute great content. Follow hashtags like #casesmc. Engage in conversations. Using Twitter to both obtain and distribute information and ideas is one of the best ways to use the tool.

2) Read blogs.

There’s a list of some of the blogs I read in the right sidebar on this page (“Blogroll”). Check them out, subscribe, and hear from some of the smartest, coolest, most thoughtful people in education and communications. Also see EdSocialMedia and BlogHighEd; both have a diverse array of contributors with great insight and perspective (full disclosure – I’m a contributor to both of those sites).

3) Talk to people.

Go to a Tweetup. Start an email thread. Pick up the phone. Attend conferences. Having actual conversations with people you respect, find interesting, or just want to learn from is a great way to get new information – and to spark your own creativity.

4) Get industry news.

Read industry sites like Mashable. Even though it isn’t education-specific, the trends and tools they talk about will likely apply to your institution, school, etc. Sign up for the Smart Brief on Social Media. It’s a daily (M-F) email and it always, always has great content. Smart Brief has digests on EdTech, Education, and many other topics as well.

What did I miss? What other resources do you use to “keep up with this stuff?”

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