Realising the Global Potential of Social Media and the Value of a Professional Online

PresenceSue Beckingham | @suebecks

Open Places and Social Spaces

Guest Lecture | Sheffield Business School

What we will cover

• The importance of knowing what digital impressions you leave on the web 

• The value of social networking and developing your online profile

• How graduate employers use the web to recruit and select and what that means for you

• Using social media in your search for graduate work and career development

New channels of communication are augmenting the traditional

And potentially superseding some...

The world is getting smaller

as digital social communication tools connect us

Using Social Media we can all be: creatorscuratorscriticsconversationalistscollaboratorscommunicators

BUT: Individuals perception of social media is not always the same...

That Twitter twaddle...

Why would I want to know what you had

for breakfast...

Are you a duck?

Twitter connects me with my professional

learning network

Twitter enables communication

and collaboration

Or a rabbit?

‘Education is not about adaption to an already

existing environment, but the creation of an adult

who will look beyond his own environment’

(Vygotsky,1997)

Allocating time to explore

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.

Auguste Rodin

BLOGGING

AUDIO

MICROBLOGGING

VIDEO IMAGES

SOCIAL NETWORKING

There is an ever increasing spectrum of social communication channels

https://conversationprism.com/ Solis 2013

Different levels of involvement

• Creators• Conversationalists• Critics• Collectors• Joiners• Spectators (‘Lurkers’)• Inactives

Passive Lurkers or Empowered Listeners?

New channels >>

Trans-disciplinary Skills

http://www.entrepreneur.com

Enterprise Social Networking

B2C companies that blog get 88% more leads/month than those who don’t.

B2B companies that blog get 67% more leads/month than those who don’t.

Data: Hubspot 2013

Business blogging is an increasingly sought after skill

You need to be mindful of who is observing your online actions

Unlike conversations in physical spaces we leave a digital footprint each time we visit online spaces.

A clear awareness of what our online presence looks like is

therefore very important.

http://www.alexa.com/topsites/global

!

will find your digital footprints!

Social media ranks highly

Make sure you are in the YES pile of job applications!

Understanding professional online protocols is key...

“People need to learn how to connect to new people on a regular basis. No person has all the knowledge needed to work completely alone in our connected society. Neither does any company. Neither does any government.

We are all connected AND dependent on each other.”

Harold Jarche

Connectedness

Connections

YOU

YOU

Purposes of Networking

•buying, selling, getting a job, getting a contract, advertising, etc.Transactions

•business, music, friendship, romance, hobbies, college, etc.Relationships

•campaigns, aid, human rights, climate change, politics, etc.Awareness

•medical, recovery programmes, mental health, self-help, etc.Care

•learning networks, research, personal development, etc.Knowledge

•music, video, sports, etc.Entertainment

•online religious practice, religious groups, spiritual paths, etc.Religion and spirituality

The Tracker Model (West in D'Souza 2011)

A “social network” can be defined as a set of nodes or actors (persons or organizations) linked by social

relationships or ties of a specified type.

A tie or relation between two actors has both strength and content. The content might include information,

advice, or friendship, shared interest or membership, and typically some level of trust.

Castilla, Hwang, Granovetter and Granovetter. 2000

The strength of interpersonal ties is a combination of the amount of time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy (mutual confiding) and the reciprocal services which characterises the tie. Granovetter 1973:1361

(Hoffman and Casnocha 2012:06)

However… weak ties can uniquely serve as bridges to other worlds and thus can pass on information or opportunities you have not heard about.

Six degrees of separation theoryAnyone can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances and that we are just six introductions away from any other person

1st 2nd 3rd

YOU

The Power of 2nd and 3rd degree connections

1st 2nd 3rd

YOU

Three degrees is the magic number because when you’re introduced to a 2nd or 3rd degree connection,

at least one person in an introduction chain personally knows the origin or target person

Using social media in your search for graduate employment and career development

http://careers.guardian.co.uk/

Guardian Careers Live Chats

Access to CEOs globally

Groups

Alumni connections via

LinkedIn is in the Top 10 most visited websites in the world

Nearly 5.7 billion people searches on LinkedIn in 2012 alone

It’s not simply what you know or who you know BUT who knows YOU

Create opportunities to experience mock online

interviews and meetings

Video CVs

Use YouTube as a search engine to find good exemplars to

learn from

http://www.youtube.com/user/SheffBusinessSchool

Testimonials

Embed your own presentations in blogs, websites, LinkedIn profile.

Presentation inspiration from

SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations. 60 million monthly visitors and 130 million page views. It is amongst the most visited 200 websites in the world. 

Make good use of social bookmarking to build and share useful links

Being seen to know and willing to share important things first, with

an increasingly smart and influential network, is the way to become

successful in an online worldEuan Semple

Increasing your leverage

You are confined only by the walls you build yourselfAndrew Murphy

Open Places and Social Spaces Realising the Global Potential of Social Media

and a Professional Online Presence

The exponential growth of social media has changed how we communicate. Technological convergence have enabled content to flow between different

platforms and online spaces enabling opportunities for anyone to become creators, curators, critics and conversationalists. The ubiquitous use of smart mobile devices making this increasingly possible to do so when we want and where we want. How we can use these spaces and places to develop new channels for communication, collaboration and to develop a valued online presence will be the focus of this talk.