Soon-To-Be College Grad Seeks Killer Social Media Position: A Very Public Recommendation To #HireAlex

Update: Alex has accepted a job offer… at Twitter. Congratulations, Alex!

A little over a year ago, I sent this tweet:

The time has come to make good on my promise. In a few short weeks, Alex Kowalsky will walk across the stage as a UW-Madison graduate. I’ve gotten to know Alex through Twitter over the last year, and he continues to exhibit social media management skills far above what I would expect from an undergraduate student. It probably doesn’t hurt that he’s been an intern for over a year with the UW-Madison University Communications & Marketing office—the campus won Klout’s influencer insanity, was called a smart social media school by PC Mag, and their #UWRightNow project is included in Social Works, a new book about college and university social media campaigns.

Alex will be the first to tell you that he can’t take credit for all of this, but he was a part of the team that made it happen. He’s been part of social projects larger than most campuses or companies could ever dream of. And, lucky for you, he’s currently on the job market.

Alex isn’t just a guy attending a Big Ten school with a sweet internship. He’s currently managing 18 credits, working three jobs, and assisting with a social media course. Frankly, it’s maddening that he hasn’t found a job yet. So, dear readers, please pass this on to folks you know who are looking to hire a social media savvy, liberal arts-educated (poli sci & journalism double major), ambitious, go-getter type. He thinks he’d like to work in a digital agency—and I’m sure he’d excel in that environment—but honestly I think that there’s a dream job out there for him that he’s not aware of yet. Is it in your office?

That’s enough of my thoughts about Alex. I sent him a few questions so I could prep for this blog post, and I’m basically going to let him speak for himself.

Liz: You’ve managed social media for a Big Ten campus, freshman orientation & first year programs, university libraries, and a local legislator. What are the similarities and differences to your approach in these different roles?

Alex: It’s easy to forget that social media is about being social. It’s about people—whether you’re making them smile, providing customer service or any other task you could be doing. I think it’s important to make it clear that there’s a person behind the account that listens and continues to give people a reason to follow the account. Social media is a conversation—you can use it to broadcast and gain thousands of followers—but people become more engaged and more effective brand ambassadors if they know that they can come to your social media presence for assistance as well as compelling, useful content.

The biggest differences are fully understanding the nuances of tones, content, audiences and strategies for various roles. I’ve been working with an assemblyman since November and it’s been really outside my comfort zone. I feel like I’ve had to teach myself a new language for the political pages. Even thought I’m a political science major, crafting messages and managing a political social media presence has been a whole new ball game for me. With UW-Madison, I’ve had years of learning the insides and outsides of the university community—so it’s easier for me to translate my Badger pride into communicating with alumni, students, campus and other audiences on social media. The fundamentals are the same—the platform, content and approach—but the most important is the people and knowing them.

Liz: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned during your time at UW-Madison?

Alex: The values of patience and paying it forward. I think the best part of UW-Madison is how much I’ve been challenged inside and outside of the classroom. I’ve had to work to earn everything I’ve learned and done in the last four years. I tried out to be Bucky twice. I applied for dozens of campus jobs. I got rejected by the journalism school. But I kept trying and I found my way. I never could have imagined becoming a journalism and strategic communication major and the first social media intern at UW-Madison. I’ve been fortunate to have great mentors on campus like John Lucas and Don Stanley as well as the rest of #UWSocial and University Communications staff. Dozens of UW alums—too many too name—have been more than generous with their time and resources to connect me with opportunities to learn and grow in new digital media. Badgers are wonderful people.

Liz: Staying within the realm of reality, what would your ideal first post-graduation job look like?

Alex: I’ve been told that there aren’t jobs for journalism majors out there. I’ve responded that every organization in the world needs someone to communicate for them and that’s where I come in. I really believe in the social part of social media and communications. I love people. I love communications. Whether I end up doing PR, social media, digital media, sales, advertising or anything else with the internets—I’ll be incredibly grateful for an opportunity to learn as much as I can. I want to work in a forward looking organization with the colleagues that are the best at what they do. I’ve spent a lot of my time over the last several years critically engaging with the best social media companies, ad agencies and brands and thinking about how I would integrate with their current products and presences. It’s a bizarre exercise—but as a true social media junkie, I process the world through framing organizations by their social media presences. I actively investigate the web presences of schools, companies of various industries, musicians, TV shows, etc. to further my studies of social and digital media. So, I want to find someone who will give me the opportunity to harness social media to advance their cause or brand. I don’t want to work for anyone evil.

Liz: What accomplishment are you most proud of?

Alex: 1) Accepted to the journalism school, 2) John hiring me as the first social media intern, 3) #UWRightNow, 18 hours in 2012, going full 24 hours in 2013, 4) UW-Madison becoming verified on Twitter

Liz: If you could do whatever you want without having to worry about expenses and a paycheck, what would it be?

Alex: I’d open a slow food, organic restaurant and the second floor would be my digital advertising agency. Oh and you can bring your bikes to our bike mechanic operation. #AJBeyond

Liz: In 140 characters or less, why should someone #HireAlex?

Alex: Experienced. Hungry. Ready to learn. But seriously, I’m hungry to win the internet. Let’s do it together. #HireAlex

Marketing & Communication in Student Affairs: What We Didn’t Get To On Student Affairs Live

Last week I had the pleasure of participating in my first Google on-air hangout to join the Student Affairs Live conversation about marketing and communication in student affairs. I had a blast chatting with James McHaley and Kat Shanahan. Although I haven’t been working on a campus in over four months, I was immediately vaulted back in time, drawing mainly on my experience at UW-Milwaukee.

If you haven’t seen the show, I encourage you to check out the archive. We were able to cover some high-level strategy as well as nuts and bolts information within the hour. If you have any interest in marketing & communication and you work in student affairs (or collaborate with student affairs), you’ve gotta check it out. You’ll watch us discuss the following topics:

• Professional background and journey to become involved in marketing & communication within student affairs
• Our staffing structure
• A look into our day-to-day work
• Our role with student organizations
• Common challenges our student affairs colleagues face regarding marketing & communication
• Suggestions for improvement
• How we approach the maintenance of a consistent brand voice across multiple campaigns and communication channels, especially when multiple staff are involved
• Should there be a dedicated marketing & communication position within the Division of Student Affairs?
• If such an office existed, what are the essential needs (equipment, budget, staffing) to make it successful?
• Resources we use to learn how to do our job better, faster and smarter

Before the show, Ed Cabellon, our esteemed host, sent out a great list of questions. Between the great discussion and the added questions from the back channel, we didn’t get to them all. So, I figured I’d give you my answers to the questions that weren’t asked. Consider this your behind the scenes DVD feature (wait, are DVDs old tech?).

Who are you most closely connected with across campus to get your work advanced and shown on a larger scale?

When I was in a campus department, my closest connections were with recruitment & outreach, the first year center, orientation staff, IT, and the university relations team. It took a good 3-4 years to get all of those relationships to the level where they were mutually beneficial. Together, this set of relationships allowed me to best leverage in-person, online, print, and earned media to get my message to the campus at large. I learned a lot about campus politics and tricks of the trade from each of these departments. Strong relationships in these areas allowed me to do my job better, and hopefully it was a reciprocal relationship.

How do you promote innovation in your work?

I send out unsolicited, thought-provoking articles to my co-workers and supervisors. When they respond positively, I geek out.

I have a white board and I take time away from my computer to think, or read a related book to get my head out of the day-to-day. My whiteboard is a reflection of the ideas that come out of those sessions. It’s my in-between space, where I can consider an idea before it’s officially put forward, or erase it into oblivion if it’s completely crazy.

Similar to my time on campus, I try to form relationships with coworkers in different departments so I can begin to understand our organization holistically in order to contribute in a way that’s valuable to everyone.

What’s your favorite gadget, app, and software?

• Gadget: my iPhone. I’m boring. And I’m never going Android.
• App: Zite—sometimes I like to let other people curate content for me.
• Software: At work I finally have access to enterprise-level social listening software. I’m in love with it.

Liz, what has been the biggest change for you in your new position outside of higher ed?

Before the show I told Ed that if he asked me this I’d have to respectfully disagree that I left higher ed. True, I no longer work on a campus, but I work for an organization that provides service to an absolutely needed aspect of higher education: funding through student loans. Semantics aside, here’s what I was prepared to say:

I’ve had to let go of my all hands on deck mentality. I work for a large company where people tend to specialize. I’m used to getting involved in projects and committees that were way outside my job description (and pay grade) just to get more experience. Now, I’m asked to focus on what I’m uniquely qualified to do, and let the folks who’ve been tasked with unrelated duties (like survey research or determining our conference booth design, for example) handle their own business. I still am occasionally asked for my opinion or point of view, but I’m expected to continually excel in my speciality area and allow others to do so as well.

Also, things move faster. When I’m working on a project that requires multiple drafts, the turnaround time is usually a week or less, not next month or next semester.

Truth be told, although this question was likely the least relevant to our conversation (and likely why it wasn’t asked), it’s had me thinking about it for a week. Look for more on this in a separate post. If you have specific questions related to this topic, feel free to add them in the comments and I’ll try to address them.

Did you watch the show? What did you think? Is the marketing and communication function in student affairs given enough attention?

If You Create Shareable Content, Facebook Will Prompt Users to Like Your Page

Tonight I shared a link to the book I’m currently reading (actually, listening to) on Facebook, and noticed something new—a message under my shared link encouraging me to like the Amazon Facebook Page. This is the first time I’ve noticed this on the social network, although it appears Inside Facebook reported something similar last month.

This is just one more reason for you to create great, shareable content on your website. If a user finds your story, image, product, etc., so interesting that they want to share it on Facebook, they’ll now be prompted to like your page as well. This is good news for marketers, brands and organizations—Facebook can help you can capitalize on the audience that is already visiting your website by turning them into likes that to whom you can send a steady stream of content, advertise, etc.

What opportunities or challenges do you think this new feature presents? 

Can an Audiobook Teach Me the Art of Enchantment?

Image Credit: guykawasaki.com

Before daylight savings time hit, I was struggling to read during many of my carpool rides due to lack of daylight on the commute (it’s now smooth sailing all the way home). I decided to give an audiobook a try. My husband has subscribed to Audible using an introductory deal, so we have a subscription that allows us to download one book per month (any price) for $8/month. Not a bad deal. My choice was Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki.

The book was good, although not earth shattering for someone that’s been paying attention to influence, branding, marketing, and social media for the last few years. I’ll share some useful notes in a bit, but what I’d really like to talk about was how I experienced the audiobook—this is the first time I’ve ever listened to one.

My Thoughts on the Audiobook Format

First, the positives. I appreciated knowing exactly how long it would take me to listen to each chapter. I was able to listen during my lunch hour or commute without ever having to stop in the middle of a chapter. You just never know how long a chapter is going to take in a paper-bound book, and e-reader estimates aren’t always accurate. I also enjoyed the note taking/bookmarking feature. Check it out:

Whenever you hear a passage you might want to refer to later (or would highlight in an old-school book), simply click the bookmark button in the Audible app. It pauses the audio, adds a bookmark, and gives you the chance to add a note. I used this to write down my reactions to a passage or jot down a specific quote I wanted to remember. Here’s an example:

When I return to my bookmark, I can play the book from that point, share it via email, Facebook, or Twitter, or get rid of it. This makes me feel like I can keep the book on my shelf and page through it to refresh my memory, even if it only exists in digital form.

So, what didn’t I like? For one, I find the audiobook format challenging. If I have my smart phone out, I have a tendency to browse Facebook or Twitter and respond to any notifications that come in. As soon as I start to do this, I stop focusing on the audiobook and miss entire sections. The same thing would happen while staring out the window thinking about how beautiful the snow and ice looked on the trees. Although I often get distracted reading paper-bound books, I can easily look down and find my place—I rarely actually progress through the book without paying attention. With an audiobook, I rewind in 30 second increments hoping to find a spot that makes sense but isn’t too repetitive.

Additionally, I find it a little odd to hear multiple voices in a book. In the Enchantment audiobook, Guy Kawaski introduces each chapter, and then the rest is read by a professional male audiobook voice. At the end of each chapter there are anecdotes, and if they’re from a female they’re read in yet another voice. Although I’d prefer to hear the author reading me the book (I’ve heard Guy speak before and know he has excellent delivery), if that’s not possible I’d like to hear a consistent voice all throughout the book.

Will I use the audio book format again? Yes, but only for liesure reading. If I need to read a book for school or pull concrete concepts out for a professional project, I’ll probably stick with the paper (or Kindle) copy.

Takeaways From Enchantment

• Guy’s definition of enchantment: “the process of delighting people with a product, service, organization or idea. The outcome of enchantment is voluntary and long-lasting support that is mutually beneficial.”
• Guy talks a lot about a “cause” when what he really means is a product. If you’re looking to make people fall in love with a cause, I think you’ll still get something out of this book, but I believe he’s speaking mainly to the creators of products and services.
• At the end of the Why Enchantment chapter, Guy does an excellent job critiquing scientific research. He discusses statistically significant differences (which are enough for scientific publication) and effect sizes (which matter much more in the real world). He’s trying to teach the reader not to trust the “proof” that some people offer based on scientific research. He also encourages the reader to consider how much the sample in any given study represents the population to which the study is being generalized. This was a little nugget I did not expect to find in this book, and the doctoral student in my appreciated it.
• How To Achieve Likeability has a lot of easy-to use tips to make yourself likeable, because “jerks are seldome enchanting.”
  • Smile, dress appropriately, learn the right handshake, and monitor your vocabulary (it’s ok to swear a little).
  • Use the active voice and keep the message short.
  • Don’t dismiss people you don’t immediately like. You probably have a lot in common with them.
  • Proximity determines whether or not you connect with someone. Get up (or travel) and be near the people you want to meet.
  • Projecting your values on others may result in the opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish.
  • Tell the world about your passions. Pursuing your passions makes you more interesting.
  • You never know what may come out of a relationship with someone you don’t like. Default to yes whenever possible…or at least not yet.
• How to Prepare included Guy’s guidelines for brevity in all types of communication:
  • Email: 5 paragraphs
  • Video: 60 seconds
  • Powerpoint & Keynote: 10 slides
  • Business Plans: 20 pages

At this point I think I fell victim to spacing out….or I just didn’t get much out of chapters 5-7 (which are actually chapter 6-8 in the audio book). The next chapter that resonated with me was called How To Use Push Technology. No surprise, since I’m a communicator.

• Limit the amount of promotion you do on social media. You should be engaging with your community/followers, but you should not do that at the expense of promoting your cause. Guy says that if no more than 5% of your messages are promotional, you’re doing OK. If no one complains, you’re probably not promoting enough. He says, “the more value you provide, the more you can promote your cause.”
• How to give a great slide presentation: 10/20/30. Deliver a 10-slide presentation in 20 minutes with no less than 30 point font. Guy says that the longer you need to pitch your cause, the less important it is.
• Speak a lot. Repetition improves rhetorician. Guy advocates giving the same presentation multiple times (to different audiences, perhaps with customized pieces) to continually improve your delivery.
• If you want someone to blog about your product, help you, or do anything for you, and you don’t know them, Guy recommends the following email structure: 1) Why you’re contacting this person, 2) Who you are, 3) What your cause/product is, 4) What you want, 5) Why the person should help you, and 6) What the next step is. Guy says this should only take six sentences.

This book was inspiring to me, but not in an earth-shattering way. More than anything, I think it affirmed that I’m on the right path with the work I’m doing, and challenged me to think differently and more intentionally about my side hustle (pretty much every book makes me think that, but more on that some other day).

Have you read Enchantment? What did you think? Are you an audiobook consumer? What do you feel are the pros/cons of the format? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Facebook’s “New News Feed” Announcement

Today, Facebook announced a major revision of their News Feed. In case you missed it, I live tweeted it for you! Check out the Storify, or read the text version below. If you want to sign up for beta access to the new News Feed before you finish reading this post, go right ahead.

• I’m ready to watch the FB news feed announcement live here http://new.livestream.com/facebooklive/stream  &  following the @mashable live blog http://mashable.com/2013/03/07/facebook-news-feed-live-blog/
• Zuckerberg says that the FB News Feed is a user’s “personalized newspaper”
• Zuckerberg say’s FB’s advantage is you can share all kinds of content in one place, unlike specialized apps.
• 50% of content in the average FB user’s newsfeed is photo & other visual content.
• 25-30% of the content in a FB user’s newsfeed is Page posts.
• New feed emphasizes photos & “visual & engaging rich stories” – your choice of topic-related feed & consistent mobile experience
• Right now 40% of your FB home screen is dedicated to news feed. They’re making that bigger w/ the new version.
• Photo albums get a “major facelift” in the new FB news feed. AKA…..they get bigger.
• FB says the new display of a shared link looks like “the table of contents of a well-curated magazine” includes logo of publisher in corner
• Elements of timeline move to Newsfeed: You’ll see cover photos, profile pic, and in-common friends in newsfeed when friends add new friends
• Your cover photo (page or profile) better represent you or your brand. It’s going to be all over the new News Feed, front & center.
• Pinterest pins get much larger prominence on Facebook to “better reflect the experience you’ll get on Pinterest.”
• 3rd party content will now be more reflective of that service. AKA FB doesn’t want you to use the other services much anymore.
• When multiple friends share the same thing, you’ll see faces of them on the left-hand side, instead of the bottom list that appears now.
• News Feed will include upcoming events that FB thinks you’ll want based on what your friends are doing & where you’ve checked in before.
• News Feed will now give me the highlights of the best NPR stories of the day b/c it knows I like NPR.
• The  “recent articles about” feature that has been creeping into the current news feed will be featured in the new version.
• This allows you to see content about things you’ve liked on Facebook that don’t actually come from the things/pages/places themselves.
• The left-hand navigation is gone on the new News Feed. Absorbed into new space. Still ads on right, of course
• Next up: they’re going to tell us about how we can choose different versions of the news feed
• “I’m a dude and I work at Facebook. Therefore I wear a hoodie.”
• Can filter new news feed by events, photos, music, and other feeds.
• You can also choose close friends, most recent, games, pages you’re following…there’s a “switcher” in the top right to choose.
• Music news feed shows what friends are listening to, concerts in the area, albums that have been released related to all artists you like.
• New news feed ads a small text overlay on the top of shared photos. Make sure you don’t put your precious 20% text there, marketers.
• “following” news feed aggregates all the page and public figure posts you follow/like
• Following feed will be in chronological order so “content publishers know their fans can see every post they make.” You’re welcome, Pages.
• Feeds in the switcher will be sorted based on how often you use them. So the games feed will drop from mine, eventually
• Next, they’re talking about consistency between the desktop and mobile Facebook experience.
• This Facebook guy is wearing a plaid button up that’s not buttoned up quite enough. Didn’t get the hoodie memo.
• “Truly Global Navigation” allows you to get to/from any page without having to go back to your Facebook homepage.
• 35% of current FB web users don’t get to use chat b/c their view size isn’t large enough. That will change in new design.
• FB says some feeds may make more sense to view on desktop or mobile b/c you’ll want to spend varying amounts of time with them.
• “new stories” bubble has moved from mobile to the web experience. Good choice.
• Alert: super cute baby wearing a monster jumper on demo FB screen right now.
• Press event live feed just quit without them allowing time for questions. Seriously?
• Apparently Q&A is happening (according to @mashable live blog) but isn’t being streamed.
• Q: Previously, you used algorithms. Are you handing control back to the user? A: We’re like a newspaper. More sections-no change in algorithm
• Press asked about effect on Pages. Zuckerberg apparently shrugged. Other rep said “this won’t affect Page at all.”
• That’s not exactly what they said when they explained the chronological nature of the “following” News Feed.
• The waiting list for Facebook’s New news feed is now open: https://www.facebook.com/about/newsfeed
• Q: Should FB users expect to see more ads? Should investors expect to see more revenue? A: Evaded question & said “more demand for content”
• Official Q&A is over. Media have mobbed Zuckerberg with more questions. Check good tech news outlets for more info

What do you think about the changes? Implications for brands? Please discuss in the comments.

Facebook Graph Search for Business

The night I got Graph Search beta access, I wrote about opportunities it presented for college campuses. The next day, I received a phone call from the organizer of the Central Wisconsin Social Media Conference asking me to present my ideas to a business audience. The result was this presentation, which I gave for the first time yesterday.

Facebook Graph Search For Businesses from Liz Gross

The attendees seemed pretty excited to jump in and develop strategies that applied to their business, whether that was a coffee roaster, healthcare provider, or commercial printer.

Alongside the enthusiasm was a healthy dose of skepticism. I summed it up in this sentence, which Eva was kind enough to tweet:

Yes, Facebook Graph Search is creepy, but valuable. @lizgross144 #cwismc

— Eva Donohoo (@EvaDonohoo) March 5, 2013

Overall, I think Facebook Graph Search is a treasure trove of information that businesses can’t afford to ignore. It’s not a replacement for market research or competitive analysis, but it’s an excellent compliment or starting point.

I had conversations with a few attendees about the advertising opportunities of Graph Search, and I’m willing to make a bold prediction – when Graph Search exits beta and is available to everyone, I fully expect the results to be available to purchase as a custom Facebook advertising audience.

What do you think? How else can a business use Graph Search?

Event Twitter Feeds Provide Unexpected Insights

Isis, our host for the evening, walks the stage in front of the live Twitter feed.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the UW-Milwaukee Drag Show. For years, this event has been sponsored by the UWM LGBT Resource Center to support Milwaukee’s Project Q. Students and professional performers mix on-stage to celebrate their ability to express themselves in an inclusive environment.

When I arrived at the event I was greeted by my former colleague who asked if I could help them project the live Twitter feed. Like any good student affairs professional (even a former one), I jumped in to help. While a little curious about how the feed would play out, I got the #UWMdrag2013 feed going just as the event got started.

I knew the feed would encourage people to tweet. I also knew it might include some vulgar language, which the staff were prepared for. What I did not expect to gain from the feed were insights into why students chose to attend UW-Milwaukee. This tweet immediately stood out to me:

The existence of an event that celebrates all types of inclusivity, including sexual orientation and gender expression, played a role in Zak’s college choice. This is very important information for the LGBT Resource Center to know when advocating for funds, and for recruiters to know what types of events matter to students.

Another tweet reinforced the pride associated with having this type of event on campus, but also highlighted a student that didn’t know about the event. Using this information, event organizers could reach out to Grace and try to find out other promotion strategies they could have used to make sure students like her knew about the event.

If you have access to a computer and a projection screen, the logistics of displaying a twitter feed are easy (We used TwitterFall based on Ed Cabellon‘s recommendation). Yes, there are risks associated with projecting unfiltered student speech for all to see. But, for most events, I feel the potential rewards (increased audience engagement, event publicity reach, and real-time feedback) outweigh the risks.

Have you live streamed an event on campus? Why or why not? Please share in the comments.