Social media workshops | ben.hamilton.id.au

Today I had the privilege of running 3 workshops at Brisbane Boys’ College for their Careers and Counselling department on the topic of “Social Media – the use of electronic social networks to advance your career“. #

I found a few things of interest: #

Almost all the students were on Facebook (a guess, 80%)
A lot of the students were on MySpace (a guess, 60%)
Only 3 of the students had heard of LinkedIn
maybe 1/3 of the students knew of twitter, 1 read, but none posted much

This does line up with what I’ve read elsewhere, that is, that the largest demographic using twitter are older than the students at BBC. Although it seems that this doesn’t account for other twitter clients such as tweetdeck, twhirl, seesmic desktop. (Bonus link: Australian stats for twitter) #

I have to say that I did push the view that they should be creating themselves a LinkedIn profile now! #

Before they enter the workforce, they should in my view, fill it in with: #

their educational history,
encourage their lecturers, any part-time employers and members of any sporting clubs they are a part of to also join up to LinkedIn,
they should then connect with each other via LinkedIn
then they need to ask for recommendations.

This gives them the opportunity to write their own history online, to actively create the content that google will find when a potential employer checks up on them. #

Thanks to both David Ogilvie and Renate Falkenhagen at BBC for inviting me to be a part of the program today and a special mention to Lee Hopkins, because I’ve learnt a lot about social media and communication from him. #

My own LinkedIn profile is here: www.linkedin.com/in/benhamilton.
I encourage you to connect with me there, also, you can follow me on twitter at twitter.com/benhamilton. #

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5 thoughts on “Social media workshops”

Stephen Hamilton on June 17, 2009 at 9:08 am said:

Congratulations – it sounds like it went well. It will be interesting to see if any of the students take the initative and link with you through LinkedIn or elsewhere.
Gillian Kelly, Personal Branding Expert on June 17, 2009 at 9:19 am said:

Isn’t it great to see a school that supports its students to proactively manage their career before they leave school! In the new world of work visibility is just as important as ability, but your online reputation has to be managed carefully and strategically. I’m sure after all the fantastic tips you gave them yesterday they will be well ahead of many of their peers in this regard already.
Ben Hamilton on June 17, 2009 at 10:31 am said:

It did go well – and one of the students has already signed up to twitter and connected. See where it goes.
Jye Sawtell-Rickson, BBC Student on June 17, 2009 at 5:26 pm said:

I’m trying to get LinkedIn working! Problem is i can’t seem to verify my email address! :S But i shall keep trying!
Ben Hamilton on June 17, 2009 at 6:37 pm said:

Jye, normally once you give LinkedIn your email address they will send you an email with a confirmation link.
When you get that email, click the link, that should do the trick.
Is that happening?
Also rather than give any details away here in this comment thread, email me at ben AT hamilton.id.au and I’ll help you out.