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Written by Pete Leibman, President of Idealize Enterprises and Creator of The Dream Job College Tour
(www.IdealizeNow.com)
Notice of Copyright:
The Career Center Marketing Blueprint is copyrighted, 2011, by Pete
Leibman. All rights reserved. This electronic version is for individual use
only. No part of this electronic report may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval
system, without the written permission of Idealize Enterprises, LLC or its
President, Pete Leibman.
Material from this report can be used in newsletters with proper citation of
Pete Leibman and Idealize Enterprises, LLC. Readers are NOT permitted to
post this report online, nor to distribute to other individuals via email. If you
know someone else who could benefit from this report, please ask them to
send an email to Pete@DreamJobAcademy.com to request a copy. For
more information, please email Pete Leibman at
Pete@DreamJobAcademy.com.
Pete Leibman has spoken in-person to audiences as large as 4,000+, and he is the creator of both
The Dream Job College Tour and The Washington Wizards Sports Careers Day, events attended by
thousands of students and high school/college faculty since 2004.
Despite being told it would be impossible, Pete networked his way into his dream job to work for a
pro sports franchise after graduating from college in 2003.
Less than 2 years later, he was promoted into management for the NBAs Washington Wizards (at the
age of 23). He then managed and trained entry-level staff, while being ranked as the franchises #1
Salesperson of the Year for 3 straight seasons.
As President of Idealize Enterprises, Pete has been invited to share his career advice at some of the
world's finest academic institutions, including Stanford University and Johns Hopkins University.
Petes mission is to help students and young professionals to get their dream jobs. His first book (titled
I Got My Dream Job And So Can You: 7 Steps Towards Creating Your Ideal Career After College) will
be published in spring 2012 through The American Management Association.
Pete Leibman (back row, 2nd from right) with students and faculty from Bridgewater College
(before Petes presentation to 300+ students that night on how to get your dream job after college)
The Dream Job College Tour is a nationwide campaign created by Pete Leibman to increase awareness,
participation, and support for Career Centers, while motivating students to be more proactive in pursuing and
getting their dream jobs! Through this initiative, colleges hire Pete Leibman to speak to groups about
overcoming obstacles to land his dream job in the NBA (in 2003 at the age of 21). Petes presentations also
teach students and young professionals how they can land their dream jobs, even in todays economic climate.
Over 95% of students surveyed say they feel more confident about the future of their careers!
Over 91% of students surveyed say they are more likely to visit their Career Center!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
METHODOLOGY
STEP 1: BE STRATEGIC
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SUMMARY
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THANK YOU
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INTRODUCTION
The transition into the real-world should be one of the most exciting times of a young adults life, but recent
and soon-to-be grads are unfortunately confronted by some alarming realities:
1. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) called 2010 one of the worst years to graduate college or high
school since at least 1983 and possibly the worst since World War II.
2. A 2010 report from the International Labor Organization (ILO) stated that the world is in danger of
having a lost generation of young people since global youth unemployment has hit unprecedented
levels.
3. Nationwide unemployment in the United States is twice as high as it was before the recession began in
2008, and many experts believe it may get even worse.
4. A 2010 Conference Board survey showed that job dissatisfaction has reached an all-time high, with
workers below the age of 25 being found to be the unhappiest of all age groups.
Given these frightening statistics, its more important than ever for students to prioritize career planning as early
as possible, and Career Centers will continue to play an integral role in helping todays youth become tomorrows
leaders.
However, if your Career Center is like most, you have 2 major challenges:
1. Many of your students are unmotivated when it comes to career planning.
2. Given economic factors, your Career Center is probably being asked to do more with less (i.e. less staff,
less resources, less financial support, and so on).
The solution for both of these widespread problems is to improve the way your Career Center markets itself to
students, parents, employers, and other on-campus and off-campus partners.
You probably didnt pursue a career in a Career Center because of a passion or talent for sales and marketing. If
you work in a Career Center, its because of a passion and talent for helping students start their careers.
Unfortunately, theres a catch. If your students are not aware of your programs and services, or, if they are not
participating in your programs and services, then you cannot help them!
The objective of this report is to help you increase student awareness, student participation, and overall support
for your Career Center SO THAT you can help more students!
METHODOLOGY
The majority of the concepts in this report are based on sales and marketing best-practices that I have learned
and developed over the last 10 years. The strategies highlighted in this report are used by major organizations to
generate millions of dollars in revenue each year, and they can also be applied to your Career Centers marketing
plan.
My current mission (and my companys mission) is to help students and young professionals to get their dream
jobs after college, even in todays economic climate. As a result of this aim, my company works with Career
Centers and other like-minded organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada.
In order to write this report, I reviewed all the conversations I had with Career Centers over the last year, and I
also embarked on a comprehensive research project by interviewing nearly 100 college/university Career Center
leaders.
I sought out the leaders of career development associations, while also contacting individuals who were
recommended to me as being leaders in Career Center marketing. I also made sure that I interviewed a broad
spectrum of schools.
More specifically, this included representatives from some of the best schools in the world and representatives
from schools ranked much lower. This also included representatives from some of the biggest schools in the
world (i.e. 50,000+ students) and representatives from much smaller institutions (i.e. less than 1,000 students). I
also targeted schools in urban settings, suburban settings, and rural settings. During these interviews with Career
Center leaders, we discussed major challenges and key objectives for the next 1-2 years. We also discussed 3
specific areas:
1. How to increase student awareness and participation in Career Center programs and services
2. How to build bigger and better relationships with employers
3. How to leverage social media platforms to communicate with students, alumni, and employers
While this report is written as a blueprint, your Career Center will ultimately have to take the ideas and
concepts and apply them to your particular setting. A 25-employee Career Center clearly has different needs and
resources than a 1-employee Career Center. A Career Center located in New York City clearly has different needs
and resources than a Career Center located 200 miles away from any major cities. A Career Center for a top 10
college clearly has different needs and resources than a college ranked much lower.
Having said that, after integrating all of my research and marketing/sales expertise, I identified 6 steps ANY
college or university could take to increase student awareness, student participation, and overall support for its
Career Center. Lets get started!
STEP 1: BE STRATEGIC
Great marketing starts with a great strategy. If you were to run around in a circle for an hour, you would be
exhausted, but you would not have gone anywhere. This is also true when marketing. Certain activities will take
you much further than others. A great strategy will save you time in the end, give you a sense of control, give you
greater focus, and ultimately result in better performance.
When you look at these traits, you should not see anything that surprises you. You work with students every day.
However, if your Career Center is like most, you are NOT designing your marketing outreach with your audience in
mind.
Dont get frustrated about some of Generation Ys negative traits (i.e. impatient and easily distracted/bored) and
dont try to change us, because you cant. Embrace who your audience is, accept their negative traits, celebrate
their positive traits, and design your programs and outreach for your audience.
You Have to Change Their Thoughts Before You Can Change Their Lives
People know what they should do, but that does not mean they will actually do it.
Being overweight or obese significantly increases your chances for developing heart disease, dementia,
Alzheimers disease, and a host of other mental and physical disorders as you age, and nearly 80% of all colon,
breast, and prostate cancers are linked to diet and lifestyle factors. These statistics clearly illustrate the
importance of a healthy lifestyle. As a result, you would expect that everyone would be certain to eat the right
way and to exercise consistently.
However, over 70% of the U.S. is overweight or obese!
Is this because overweight/obese people are not aware of the importance of eating healthy and exercising? Of
course not.
Instead, most people are overweight for 2 main reasons. First of all, its because they have chosen (usually
subconsciously) to ignore the long-term, negative consequences of repeating behaviors that feel good in the
short-term (i.e. eating junk food or watching tv on the couch). Secondly, most people are out of shape because
they dont believe they can get into better shape. As a result, they dont bother trying.
Our motivations (and subsequent actions) develop as a result of our associations and thought processes, most of
which we are not aware of. In brief, if you avoid something, its because you have subconsciously or consciously
linked it to more pain than pleasure. On the other hand, if you pursue something, its because you have
subconsciously or consciously linked it to more pleasure than pain.
Students who are not participating in your programs and services are falling victim to the same self-sabotaging
thought processes as unmotivated exercisers. It may sound strange, but most students are not using your Career
Center because they are linking your Career Center to more pain than pleasure (again, either subconsciously or
consciously). More specifically, when they think of your Career Center, they are thinking the thoughts on the left
side of Figure 1. Your marketing needs to get them to think the thoughts on the right side of Figure 1.
Before your programs and services can change students lives, your marketing has to change their thoughts!
Keep reading to learn how.
Sell Benefits
Great marketers sell benefits; poor marketers sell services and features.
Like any customer, students dont care about what programs or services you offer (your features); they care about
the results they can achieve by participating in your programs and services (their benefits). Most Career Centers
make the mistake of talking only about their services and the features of what they offer, and they fail to highlight
what positive benefits their customers (i.e. your students) could experience by using their services.
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Paint the picture on what you can help students achieve if they work with you. Dont tell them that you can help
them write a better resume (your services/features). Instead, show them what they can achieve if you help them
write a better resume (their benefits).
This may sound like a small distinction, but it makes a HUGE difference. If you dont tell people the benefits of
your programs/services, they wont take the time to identify them on their own.
Let me illustrate this with a health and fitness example again. Would you be more excited about attending a
nutrition seminar on how to design a healthy meal plan (feature/service), or a nutrition seminar on how you
can easily eat your way to a 6-pack and a healthier, longer life (benefits)?
Its a no-brainer! Stop selling features and services. Start selling benefits.
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Note: companies will often provide prizes and food for you in exchange for the opportunity to get in front
of your students. As a result, you dont have to pay for the food and prizes out of your budget in many
cases. Dont just target employer partners for this. Local businesses are often very interested in building
their brand with your students, and many are happy to donate gift certificates or other items for your
events. Have you reached out to them?
2. Use contests to increase participation. Well discuss social media later on, but Id like to highlight now
that you should be using prizes and contests for social media as much as possible. Thats one of the best
ways to build excitement around participating on those platforms. For example, Matthew Brink, Director
of the Career Services Center at University of Delaware, told me about a video contest they did where
students were asked to film a creative video testimonial for the Career Center. The winner(s) got a cash
prize, which was donated by one of the Career Centers sponsors. Delaware could also use the
testimonials in their marketing efforts, which well discuss later on. Thats really great marketing, and a
promotion that many businesses could actually learn from. Very cool and very effective!
3. Use deadlines to increase participation. You can also tie this in to prizes. Its great that you are there for
students whenever they need you, but there is no urgency. You should include deadlines for signing-up
for programs and/or give prizes to the first x number of students who participate, or for students
signing up by a certain date. Just dont expect students to register too far in advance.
4. Set limits to increase participation. Value is all about supply and demand. If supply is low and demand is
high, value goes through the roof. In other words, people value programs more when participation is
limited. You should set limits for your programs to make them look more valuable. If more students want
to participate after you reach the limit you set, then just open up another program(s)!
You might think that some of these tactics are unnecessary, but they get results. Again, the more students who
work with you, the more students you can help!
formerly with Tulane University), highlighted the effectiveness of this segmentation strategy for Career
Centers.
Segmenting your database is a big challenge for many businesses that lack extensive data on their customers.
However, you have an advantage at a college because your school probably already has a lot of data on the
people you serve. You dont need 172 different categories for your students, but this is an area that is definitely
worth exploring.
Put yourself in a students shoes for a second. Wouldnt you be more likely to participate in a program or respond
to an email that looked like it was just for you, instead of a message that was clearly email-blasted to the entire
student population?
Make sure to use enticing subject lines for emails sent to students as well. Great subject lines lead to much
better open rates for email marketing campaigns. For example, an email entitled Career Center Newsletter is
obviously much less likely to be opened or read than an email entitled Stop by the Career Center for a chance to
win an Ipod.
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The Career Center helped me prepare for the Career Fair, and it was well worth it. I met a
recruiter from ABC company at the Fair, and I knew exactly what to say because of the coaching I
got from the Career Center. As a result, I just got a great offer to work for ABC Company starting
in June. Make sure you visit the Career Center and check out the Career Fair as well!
4. Use video testimonials. Students love watching video, and video testimonials are much more compelling
than text testimonials because they include body language and tone.
5. Broadcast your testimonials everywhere. You should be using strategic testimonials in every marketing
touch-point you have, whether thats a flier, your web site, your social media platforms, your email
newsletters, and so on.
Powerful testimonials and endorsements from satisfied students and alumni are the best marketing weapons a
Career Center has. Get your happy customers to brag for you, so you can focus on what you do best: counseling
and helping students succeed!
1. Well-connected: Hire students who have influence on-campus (see page 13). Look for students who are
tomorrows networking superstars. Relationship-building and connecting is in their DNA. You want the
students who know everyone, the ones who other students will listen to and follow.
2. Self-motivated: This is a trait any employer should seek. There is nothing worse than an employee who is
lazy. Hire students who work hard.
3. Passionate: Hire students who are very enthusiastic about career development and the mission of your
Career Center. Employees who believe in the mission of their employer are much more self-motivated
than employees just looking for a paycheck.
4. Good public speakers and communicators: Hire students who enjoy speaking in public. You should be
using these students to represent you in various settings on-campus, so they better be comfortable
speaking in front of groups.
5. Savvy with social media: Hire students who are active in the major social media platforms and who have
an interest in marketing your center through them. Your Career Center must have a strong presence and
understanding of how to leverage these platforms in todays economy. More to come on this later.
When you hire the right people, these programs will run much more smoothly. Not every student worker needs
to have each of the above traits, but a well-rounded staff should.
managed, so give your student workers some freedom. (If this concerns you, you didnt hire the right
people!) Employees work much harder to support programs they have helped to create.
4. Appreciate and recognize performance AND effort. No matter what anyone says, we all like to be
appreciated and recognized in front of our peers in a positive way. When I worked for the Wizards, I
always said I didnt like recognition. Guess what? I was lying! I LOVED collecting monthly and annual
Salesperson of The Year Awards in front of my colleagues. Everyone wants to be appreciated and held in
high regard, and this is especially true during your teenage years and your twenties when status is really
important. Recognize performance AND effort for your employees every chance you get. This is the
most powerful management strategy of all.
In summary, motivate your employees like a sales staff, and they will run through brick walls for you, regardless of
how old they are.
Parents
2. Customize: If you try to build relationships through mass communication efforts, you will not be met with
warm responses. When a faculty member gets an email that was sent to the entire staff, diffusion of
responsibility sets in, as each person assumes that someone else will respond. Relationships can only be
built one at a time. Attend meetings as often as possible where you can get face-time with key
stakeholders. Adjust your messaging based on who you are talking to. For example, the athletic director
should hear a different message from the Career Center than a history professor should.
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3. Clarify: Most people on your campus (and most parents) probably have no idea what the Career Center
really does, where it is located on-campus, or what programs/services you have to offer. You have to
educate your affiliate partners. Be very clear about what you do (and what you dont do), and be clear
about how you can help other departments, and how they can help you. Take the lead, but encourage
other departments to share their ideas as well on how you can join forces to help students.
4. Simplify: Dont bombard partners with 57 different ways to work together. Keep it simple, and be easy
to work with.
5. Quantify: Use data to illustrate the effectiveness of your office. Whether you track student satisfaction,
actual job placement, student retention, or other metrics, use numbers as much as possible. Highlight
different statistics based on who you are speaking to.
6. Brag: Show success stories and testimonials from your students and alumni. Again, personalize this based
on who you are talking to. For example, if youre talking to the athletic director, share stories of results
you have achieved with student-athletes.
7. Reward: Show your affiliate partners whats in it for them by teaming up with your office. How can you
make their lives/jobs easier, and how can you help them achieve the results they seek?
Approach potential affiliate partners the right way, and they will be much more likely to provide marketing
support (and financial support) for your Career Centers programs.
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visit the cart by offering prizes and/or food, and staff these carts with your student ambassadors because
students will be much more likely to come over and talk to their peers. As always, make sure you have a call-toaction for anyone visiting the cart.
Figure 2. The Toilet Paper is posted inside of stalls at Dickinson College each month.
How easy is your office to find? I spoke to several schools that recently moved their Career Center office
because students had trouble finding it. What about moving your office to a location that already gets a lot of
student traffic?
Andrea Lipack, Associate Director of Employer Relations at Stony Brook University, also shared a great
branding idea that increases student awareness and traffic. Stony Brook branded their Career Center with a
zebra theme, and they have a student who wears a zebra costume around campus and to Career Center
events. The Career Center also painted a walkway leading up to their office with zebra colors (see below).
When Stony Brook markets the Career Center to students, they tell them to follow the Zebra Path to get to
their office. The Zebra Path also creates intrigue for anyone walking around campus.
Figure 3. The Zebra Path to the Career Center at Stony Brook University in New York
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1.
Tie in with pop culture: Tie your events in with TV shows, blockbuster movies, celebrities, and so on.
Billie Streufert, Director of Enrollment Management at University of Sioux Falls, wrote a phenomenal
article for the National Career Development Association (NCDA) on this topic. You can read it at:
http://www.associationdatabase.com/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/5418/_PARENT/layout_details/false
Here are some other ideas. Instead of having an Interview Workshop, what about a program around
The Apprentice with someone dressed up as Donald Trump where students do mock interviews and
compete to be hired or fired? (You could also just dress as Donald Trump and stand outside of your office
as Dave Broza, Interim Director of Career Services at Bethel University, once did!) Instead of having a
Job Search Seminar, what about doing a program around The Jersey Shore entitled Whats the
Situation With Your Job Search? (Note: If you dont watch The Jersey Shore, you wont get that joke. I
promise that will be my last Jersey Shore reference in this report!) Instead of doing a presentation
entitled Effective Elevator Pitches, what about doing a program spoofing The Shark Tank where
students could practice elevator pitches to alumni serving as the sharks? You get the idea. These types
of programs will be 10 times more enticing and inviting than the traditional programs most schools are
offering. Note: you dont have to know whats hip in pop culture to create these programs. Just ask
your student workers.
2. Tie in with sports: While working for the Washington Wizards, I created an annual event called The
Washington Wizards Sports Careers Day. The event was hosted at the Verizon Center in Washington,
D.C. (where the Washington Wizards play). Students and faculty would come to the arena on a Friday
afternoon and listen to me and several other executives from the team as we talked about careers in
sports.
After our presentation, students would participate in other fun activities, and then they would get to
watch a Wizards game that night. In our 5th year running this program, we had almost 5,000 students
attend, many of whom came from more than 200 miles away for the event! And, it wasnt free. Every
person in attendance needed to buy a $30 ticket to get access to all of the days events.
How did we get so many students to attend? We just did everything in this report! We created an event
that was cool/fun, we included prizes and food, we used great speakers, we recognized groups who
participated, we cultivated peer evangelists (using selected student leaders), we built affiliate
partnerships with key faculty at schools and organizations in Maryland, DC, and Virginia, and we created
urgency to register and participate through contests, incentives, deadlines, and limited availability.
You might not be able to create an event as exciting as a Career Day at a pro sports arena. However, why
not do something similar on your campus (or in your area) by teaming up with affiliate partners or other
organizations to include your Career Center in a sporting or social event that students would be excited to
attend?
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of
Even if you dont create a special event, you can still tie in with sports for your standard programs. Art
Taguding, Executive Director of Career Services at Stevenson University, told me about programming he
ran last spring around March Madness and the Final 4 where the Career Center had brackets for their
programs to coincide with the NCAA Basketball Tournament in March and April. You could also do events
around The Super Bowl, The World Series, The Kentucky Derby, The Indy 500, or whatever is big in your
area or on your campus.
3. Tie in with holidays. What about creating programs based around certain holidays, like Halloween,
Valentines Day, and so on? Carmen Croonquist, who works in Internship Development for University of
Wisconsin-River Falls, mentioned that one school did a Mardi Gras theme entitled Flash Your Resume,
Get Some Beads! Doesnt that sound much more fun than a Resume Workshop?
4. Tie in with fashion: Instead of a Dress For Success event or an Etiquette Dinner, what about doing a
fashion show with students? Huntingdon College in Alabama got such an event sponsored by Banana
Republic, and 100-200 students attended (through their own choice) from a campus of less than 1,500
students. Again, students came because it was FUN. Stevenson University also did a Fashion On Trial
event where they had an executive from Jos. A. Bank serve as a prosecutor on what to wear and what
not to wear. The event was setup like a courtroom setting to make it more entertaining.
5. Host Speed Networking Nights. Many schools are doing speed networking nights for students where
they bring back local alumni in a specific field or from various fields. Students love the interaction, and it
often results in job/internship opportunities.
6. Create Industry Weeks: Mike Schaub, Executive Director of The Career Education Center at Georgetown
University said hes gotten great participation from students through Georgetowns Industry Weeks.
They have several Industry Weeks each year based on career trends and based on student feedback.
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Through these programs, they have 1-2 programs a day for an entire week. For example, you could do a
Journalism Week or a Sports Marketing Week or a Fashion Week.
7. Develop Entrepreneurship programs: Several schools have recently started Entrepreneurship programs.
University of Miami won an award from NACE for their work. Samara Reynolds, Career Advisor at Duke
University, also told me about a program that Duke is starting for aspiring entrepreneurs. You probably
have lots of students interested in starting their own businesses. Are you catering to them as well? You
probably also have lots of alumni entrepreneurs who would love to talk to students about their journeys
and businesses. Again, what about a spoof of The Shark Tank where your students could pitch ideas to
alumni entrepreneurs who would serve as the sharks?
The bottom line: make it fun, and they will come! Again, you dont have to figure out whats hip on your own.
Your student workers can tell you.
succeeded against difficult odds! Remember: you have to change their thoughts before you can change
their lives.
These have always seemed obvious to me, but very few schools implement these 3 steps when bringing in
speakers from off-campus. If nothing happens after a program with a speaker, its probably because your event
was missing 1 or more of these 3 components
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If you dont have the sorts of relationships with companies that youd like, you need to take more of the
right actions.
5. Use your connections to get in. Most job-seekers also fail to leverage their existing connections and
affiliations during their job searches. Is your Career Center making this same mistake? The best way to get
in with an employer partner is through the people who you already have relationships with, such as
alumni, donors, parents, professors, and the other affiliate partners highlighted in step 2.
6. Meet in-person. Another huge job-seeker mistake is spending too much time in front of a computer screen
and not nearly enough time with people who could help you get the job you want. How much time does
your Career Center devote to meeting employers in-person? Its hard to build trust and rapport (2 keys to
any professional relationship) without meeting with people face-to-face. Participate in professional
associations that are comprised of employers you want to connect with. Some examples include NACE (and
its state/regional chapters), local SHRM chapters, chambers of commerce, and other associations for
industries relevant to your students.
There is an association for everything you could imagine. Identify the associations that make the most
sense for your students to be involved in, and make sure your Career Center has a presence in those
organizations. Even better, get someone in your Career Center to take on a leadership position in these
organizations to increase the visibility of your office.
You can also invite a targeted association to host one of their events on your campus. Jennifer WilsonSpataro, Director of Career Services at Shenandoah University, said this has been a great way for her to get
quality face-time with potential employer partners without her having to go off-campus. Offer meeting
space on your campus for free, and associations will love you. You can also join networking groups on
LinkedIn for relevant associations.
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them when you need something. This sounds basic, but its easy to take existing relationships for granted,
especially when you are understaffed and busier than ever, as you probably are right now!
2. Slam-dunk your best employer partners every year. We also had a customer service strategy called slamdunk moments where we would have 1-2 actions each year that were highly personalized steps where we
went above and beyond to show our best customers how much we appreciated their business. For example, I
once brought a 3-foot tall bobble-head (signed by one of our All-Stars) to one of my VIP customers offices. It
actually looked a little creepy, but you should have seen the reaction I got from him and his staff when I rolled
it into his office lobby! It was like I had dropped off a box of gold. (The reactions I got on the train ride to his
office were also pretty memorable.) You dont need to spend a lot of money to show people how much you
care. Most of our slam-dunk moments cost us nothing or very little, but they were tremendous for
strengthening relationships with our customers (and getting them to spend even more money).
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Gary Miller, Assistant Director for Social Media and Innovation for University Career Services at University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, also recommends Career Centers check out www.hootsuite.com for
managing and updating multiple platforms from one web site.
8. Follow others. Check out Facebook fan pages, LinkedIn groups, Twitter accounts, and so on for other
Career Centers (and other non-profits or major companies) to see how they are using their accounts. You
dont need to figure it all out by yourself; just watch your peers and incorporate what you like into your
efforts as well. Most information is publicly available to anyone on these sites, so you can actually see
social media campaigns and strategies being used by other organizations. Personally, I follow many
individuals and organizations just to see how they are using social media for their marketing.
9. Focus on Facebook. While a Career Center can benefit from each of the big 5 platforms (Facebook,
LinkedIn, You-Tube, Blogs, and Twitter), you should definitely focus on Facebook. Since the number of
students using Facebook is significantly higher than any other social media platform, youll get the biggest
bang for your buck on that site. As discussed earlier, if you have too many calls-to-action (i.e. Hey
students, make sure you like us on Facebook, join our LinkedIn group, follow us on Twitter, read our blog,
AND watch us on You-Tube), students will be overwhelmed, and they will ignore you altogether.
Dominate Facebook first, and gradually add in other platforms as you go. If you try to be a social media
jack-of-all-trades, you will be a master of none. Many Career Centers are diluting their results because
they are unsuccessfully trying to have success with too many platforms at 1 time. In the recently
released, best-selling book, The New Rules of Marketing &PR by David Meerman Scott, even the author
(one of the worlds best social media experts) admits that he does not use some of the major social media
platforms for this very reason.
10. Dont fall into the black hole. Social media participation can become a huge waste of time IF you let it.
Use your time very carefully. I actually keep a stopwatch on my desk and time all of my activities with
social media. As one of my mentors Mark LeBlanc says, work shorter and sharper. Keeping your social
media accounts open on your computer all day long will destroy your productivity for everything else you
are trying to do. Do NOT do that. While we are on the subject, dont keep your Outlook inbox open all
day long either! Just check it every hour or at several predetermined times each day, and watch your
productivity go through the roof.
11. Stick to it, and be realistic. Just like the January fitness enthusiast who stops working out after not losing
20 lbs. in a month, most people give up on social media sites before they have had a chance to be
effective. Give them a chance, and results will follow.
In summary, your Career Center will have success with social media if you follow the recommendations from the
rest of this report! In other words, be strategic, make it fun and interactive, get students and affiliate partners to
help you with marketing, and so on.
1. Set up a fan page. There are 3 ways to create free accounts on Facebook: as an actual person, as a group
that people can join, or as a fan page that people can like. Some Career Centers have set up accounts as
actual people, which students would then have to become friends with. This is actually against Facebook
rules, and one Career Center Director told me Facebook made them shut down their account for doing this.
(Students probably dont want to be friends with the Career Center anyway. Sorry to break it to you!)
Make sure not to set up your account as a group either. If you set it up as a group, you can send
messages to the Facebook inboxes of everyone in the group (which you cannot do with a fan page), but your
status updates will not show up in the news feeds of people in your group. If I lost you, here is the bottom
line: groups are much less interactive than fan pages, which is the opposite of what you should be aiming for
with your presence on Facebook.
2. Provide incentives for liking your page and participating. Many schools do contests (i.e. fan of the week)
and offer prizes to students for liking the page and for participating in the activity of the page.
3. Get a vanity URL for your page. Go to www.facebook.com/username, and create a personalized URL for your
Career Centers page. Many Career Centers dont realize they can personalize their URL for their fan page
rather than keeping the really long URLs Facebook assigns automatically when you set up your page. If you
are using the URL Facebook gives you, you cant give students the exact address for your page, which creates
an extra step for them to find you on Facebook. Get a vanity URL (the easier to remember, the better and
the shorter, the better), and then you can mention the exact address for people to find you. For example, the
URL for your fan page could be www.facebook.com/XYZCareerCenter. You just need 25 fans to do this.
4. Post pictures and videos from your events and/or of your students and alumni. Its much more fun than just
posting status updates that are 100% text. You can also tag the people in these pictures and videos.
5. Promote your events through Facebook. Student ambassadors can come in handy here to invite their friends,
and this often leads to better results since students get the invitation from their peers rather than from the
Career Center. Another great perk of promoting an event on Facebook, if you marketed the event correctly, is
that students can see which of their friends are attending.
6. Use your fan page for your calls-to-action. You can drive students to your page when you meet with them
individually or in groups, and you can also drive them to your fan page in all of your other marketing
materials, i.e. your fliers, email newsletters, and so on. Its easier to do this when you have a vanity URL as
mentioned above.
7. Advertise on Facebook. You can also pay for very targeted advertising on Facebook to promote your fan page
and/or your events. The targeting on Facebook is really slick because you can have your ads appear only on
the pages of your current students or alumni of certain ages. Several schools told me they were pleased with
the results from this advertising, and its very cheap to test it out. Its not as good as getting your peer
evangelists to spread the word for you, but it will help you connect with some people you might not
otherwise reach. Check out www.Facebook.com/advertising to learn more.
You can also visit www.facebook.com/nonprofits and www.facebook.com/facebookpages for more tips.
2.5 LinkedIn Tricks for Enhancing the Performance of Your Career Center
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LinkedIn has its limits for interactive communication, but it is unrivaled in terms of facilitating alumni and
employer connections and doing research on employers, industries, and other Career Centers. Here are 2.5 ways
to have greater success through this site:
1. Participate in LinkedIn groups. You can join groups on LinkedIn that other Career Center professionals and
leaders in career development will be involved in. Most are free and open for anyone to join. By joining
these groups, you can receive daily or weekly updates on content-rich discussions that are already happening
on many topics relevant to your Career Center. You can also post questions for others career center leaders
to respond to.
For example, if you want to know how other schools are getting their students to like their fan pages on
Facebook, you could just post a question on one of the discussion boards for a relevant LinkedIn group.
Another trick I occasionally use is to search through the archives of prior discussions to see if my question
might already have been covered in a prior discussion. There are thousands of groups in LinkedIn, so do some
searches to see what other groups make sense for you. If you are part of a professional association, they
probably already have a group in LinkedIn that you could be participating in for free. There are also informal
groups as well that are run by individuals rather than associations. Here are 7 of the most relevant, largest,
and most active LinkedIn groups for Career Center professionals:
(a) Career Services Professionals
(b) Career Counselor Technology Forum
(c)
EACE
(g)
2. Conduct targeted employer research. As discussed in Step 5, one of the best ways to build employer
partnerships is through your existing connections (i.e. your alumni). LinkedIn can really come in handy here.
For example, lets say I worked in the Johns Hopkins University Career Center, and I wanted to establish a
relationship with National Geographic. I could do a search for people currently employed by National
Geographic who attended Johns Hopkins University (see below). I actually did this search and found 24 JHU
alums currently working for Nat Geo, so I would have 24 ins to the company. (Note: this is also a
phenomenal strategy for job-seekers, and one of the many social media tricks that will be covered in my
job/career advice book due out in early 2012!)
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Figure 5. A screen-shot for a LinkedIn search for JHU alumni working for Nat Geo.
You might be wondering why this is necessary, and why I wouldnt just ask the JHU Alumni Office which alums
work for Nat Geo. However, check this out. Figure 6 shows a screen-shot from an email I got from LinkedIn in
January 2011. Apparently, 210 of my LinkedIn Connections (I had about 1,000 connections at the time) changed
jobs in 2010 alone.
Do you think those 210 people actually told their alumni offices or Career Centers that they changed jobs? No
way! However, they did take the time to update their information on their LinkedIn account. Bottom line: your
alumni office has NO IDEA where most of your alumni work right now. You probably have some ins to
companies that you and your alumni office dont even know you do. You can find them through LinkedIn
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2.5 Bypass Some of LinkedIns New Privacy Features. You may have noticed some of the new privacy features
LinkedIn recently added to their site for people who just have free accounts, rather than premium (paid)
accounts. In particular, when searching through LinkedIn with a free account, you cant always see the last name
for people coming up in your searches. You also cannot reach out to some people directly through LinkedIn, and
this is an obstacle.
The loophole is www.Jigsaw.com. Its a free web site where you can use points accrued on the site to buy
contact information for millions of professionals worldwide. Very cool web site. Check it out. Its also a great tool
for a job-seeker!
Last point on LinkedIn Even though your alumni office has no idea where most of your alumni work, you should
still partner with your Alumni Office on anything you do with LinkedIn. They may already have some efforts in
place, and you dont want to double up efforts unnecessarily or have them feeling that you are going around
them.
1. Let students write about their experiences. Students are much more interested in reading blogs about peer
experiences than they are in reading career advice from much older counselors.
2. Ask readers to participate. Readers will not assume you want them to comment on or share your blog
entries unless you tell them. Be direct.
3. Use images and videos. Blogs that are 100% text remind students of their textbooks. Not a good thing.
Make your blog entries more reader-friendly by including pictures and videos.
4. Be concise. Readers go to blogs for short entries, not for pages and pages of content. Keep blog entries
under 500 words as much as possible.
5. Use bullets, lists, and catchy titles. This makes the blog much more reader-friendly and makes the reader
curious. People judge books by their titles, and they do the same thing with blog posts. For example, even if
the content is identical, a blog entry entitled 7 Ways LinkedIn Can Help You Get Your Dream Job will get a
lot more interest than a blog entry entitled Using LinkedIn to Get a Job. You can also create a title by using
a question and list together, i.e. Are You Making These 7 Deadly Networking Mistakes? Wouldnt you want
to read that?
6. Include a call-to-action as a P.S. You have the readers attention. Why not try to get him/her to take the next
step by using a clear, easy, compelling call-to-action at the end of each blog entry (i.e. P.S. Like us on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/xyzCareerCenter for a chance to win a weekly prize).
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SUMMARY
In todays economy, its more important than ever for Career Centers to get their students to prioritize career
planning as early as possible. However, this is not an easy task, with many students lacking motivation, and with
Career Centers being asked to do more with less.
You probably didnt pursue a career in a Career Center because of a passion or talent for sales and marketing.
However, better marketing will increase student awareness, student participation, and overall support for your
Career Center. In other words, better marketing will enable you to help more students!
The 6 steps in this report serve as your Career Centers Marketing Blueprint!
Step 1: Be Strategic. Understand your audience and design your marketing with your audience in mind.
Step 2: Build Social Proof. Use success stories and testimonials, along with endorsements from peer evangelists
and affiliate partners.
Step 3: Stand-Out At High-Traffic Locations. Just like an Internet marketer, the best way to drive traffic for your
Career Center is to go where the traffic already is.
Step 4: Create Cool Events. Make your programs sound fun, and students will come!
Step 5: Connect With Employers The Right Way. Approach employers like a job-seeker should, and treat
employers like VIP customers.
Step 6: Embrace Social Media. Social media has permanently changed the way we communicate and build
relationships. Embrace these platforms NOW, or be prepared for your Career Center and your students to fall
way behind the Career Centers who do.
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While all content is copyrighted, your Career Center may link to any articles from Pete Leibmans Career
Muscles archive on your web site or social media platforms. Check it out, and subscribe to receive future articles
for FREE at http://CareerMuscles.Wordpress.com! On average, 1-2 new articles are posted weekly.
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The individuals listed above shared their time and ideas during the research phase of this report, either by completing an
Internet survey about their Career Center or by participating in a phone interview.
We would also like to thank the individuals who asked to remain anonymous, and all of the individuals who shared their time
and ideas before we started our formal research for this report.
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