Running head: VITERBO CAREER SERIVCES: SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT 1

Viterbo Career Services: Social Media Report

Katie Butzen

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

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College student engagement on social media heavily depends on the specific office's

ability to create a consistent design, moderate posts between informational and interesting, and

pandering to trending fads. Viterbo Career Services has been very successful in turning their

Facebook page from inconsistent to well developed. The process of turning their page around

took the collaboration of all of the office's staff, improved design brought in by a third party, and

the development of a strategic marketing plan.

Viterbo's Career Services (VCS) Facebook page started out as a method for the staff to

post university-wide event information and random articles relating to job search, interviews, and

more. The Facebook page was connected to the Career Services Director, Beth Dolder-Zieke's,

personal Facebook page, so she was able to monitor the page and also post as needed. Since

there were only two full time staff members in the Career Services office to server 3000 students,

posting on the Facebook page were done quickly and at random intervals of free time.

The major transformation in Viterbo's Facebook page happened over Summer 2016 when

they hired an intern to assist with marketing. The intern focused on three specific goals for VCS's

Facebook. First, was to create a consistent design for the Facebook page. Second, develop a

schedule with the office staff of what to post and when to post it. The last goal was to create an

intentional marketing strategy to boost the pages views, likes, and posts.

The consistent page design began with creating consistency in advertisements, videos,

and posts, re-creating the VCS brand, and finally, developing a posting schedule. The first

change to the VSC design was the re-branding of the office. Knowing that each marketing piece

and/or post should have a specific call to the VCS office, the re-brand started with recreating the
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Viterbo logo. Under specific school policy, the colors and the general logo needed to be the

same, however VCS put its own spin on the design. Utilizing the specific colors required by the

university, VCS created a circular design with the Viterbo white logo in Image 1.1

the middle (See image 1.1).

The logo was added on the majority of large marketing

items on social media, internship videos, posts, and posters

around the university.

After VCS rebranded, they developed a marketing

plan for social media. The plan included advertising the

internships they offered, posting occasional humorous and informative articles, and finally

posting weekly internship videos. The internship videos became perhaps VCSs largest

marketing piece on social media. The internship videos were developed by students as part of

their requirement to received funds from the Great Lakes Career Readiness Grant. The Grant

allowed students to receive monetary incentives for their work at internship sites. In order to

continuously receive funds for the grant, VCS needed a specific amount of students each

semester to be working at internship sites that were using the grant. After a small shortcoming

the first semester, the VCS team developed the internship video requirement to market to student

the types of experiences their students were getting. The students who were in the internship

would record where they work, interview a staff member, and talk a little bit about how the

internship applied to a real world career setting. The videos quickly made the VCS Facebook

page very popular and received praise from Viterbos Academic Affairs Director, Sarah Cook.

The advertisements created for the Facebook page were designed originally though

Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. However, since those programs were not compatible with
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VCSs computers and also are not user friendly, the intern started using Adobe Spark. Adobe

Spark was an online design lab to make different images, posts, posters, and more. Adobe spark

has a selection of millions of royalty-free photos and a number of picture editing tools. The most

useful part of Adobe Spark was the ability to utilize specific filters because utilizing one filter on

all pictures, images, and posts would help keep the design of the page consistent. In addition,

Adobe Spark was very user friendly and the intern was easily able to teach both Career Services

staff members how to use Adobe Spark in a short period of time.

After establishing the design of the Facebook page, VCS could focus on different types of

student engagement. Getting the page started was no easy task and trying to get students to

engage was also a slow start. In conversation with Career Services Director, Beth Dolder Zieke

and Intern and Employer Relations Coordinator, Alyssa Gostonczik, I learned more about how

they were able to start their page and their plans for the future. After the transition, Beth and

Alyssa noticed their posts were still not getting enough views nor likes. The design changes were

great, but they needed students to get through the door. After a few flat posts, they developed a

marketing plan to boost specific posts. Boosting a post requires a small payment for Facebook

to keep the post in followers feeds for longer periods of time to make sure they are seeing it. The

boosted posts helped a lot to jump-start the process of students starting to engage with Viterbos

Facebook.

After the advertisements began gaining more attention, companies began engaging with

the page as well. Laneboro Arts is one employer who liked their ad on the VCSs Facebook

page and also commented on some of their posts. Viterbo began tagging employers on their

Facebook to grab the attention of both the students and company. Alyssas skill with social media

has also benefited VCSs Facebook page. Alyssa planned several events between Goodwill and
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Style Encore on professional dress. Alyssa posted several weeks in advance to prepare students

for the events and tagged both places in her posts. These posts had over 200 views and students

who commented on them.

Alyssa who worked mostly with the internship opportunities mentioned some students

who were looking for internships stated seeing them on their Facebook was helpful to see what

kinds of opportunities are available. The internships come out of Viterbos Purple briefcase.

Purple Briefcase is a host to student-employer relationships, resume reviews, and internship

opportunities. Although the same ads are available in Purple Briefcase, Alyssa noted often

students do not take the initiative to look into their account. Having the internship opportunities

advertised on Facebook puts the information right on their feed.

The look and marketing strategy of VCSs Facebook page has direct relationship to how

they view student engagement. Alyssa and Beth use both an informal and formal learning

approach to their social media. Formal learning in social media is learning that happens in

formal learning environment,, via formal instruction (Junco, 2014, p. 129). Alyssa

specifically used formalized learning with social media because as part of the Great Lake Grant,

she required students to post on Facebook and create marketing videos for the Facebook account.

By making the videos and posting them to Facebook, the students better understood the student

learning outcomes set by the student and Alyssa when they started the internship. By sharing

these videos on social media, they also allowed others to see how they had accomplished their

learning outcomes as well. The internship videos also assisted with identity development for the

students. The students recognized that these videos are going to be public and represent their

experiences as interns. Therefore, the students developed the videos in a way that is going to

represent themselves and their workplace in a professional manner.

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VCSs Facebook page also helped students with informal learning because the Facebook

page presents professional information in a relaxed, easily accessible manner (Junco, 2014).

Although the internships were geared towards junior students, all students could see the

opportunities that were available through the Facebook page. I think that when younger students

understood what to expect and could look at the internship opportunities without commitment, it

helped them prepare for when they are looking to get an internship in the future. In addition,

campaigns such as Alyssas on the Dress for Success also helped students understand what

dress is seen as appropriate for their future careers in an informal fashion.

In my personal opinion, I think the most informal learning comes with the design and

accessibility of the VCS Facebook page. I think the way the page looks as well as the types of

posts that are happening show students the office is open to all students. Beth and Alyssa agreed,

often Career Services can seem intimidating because its working with internships, employers,

and potential careers. Students may feel anxiety about these things because the professional

world is much different than their typically academic environment. The page helps students

realize that many folks interact with the Career Services staff in a non-formal way and that

Alyssa and Beth are quite approachable.

In conclusion, the amount of work Alyssa, Beth, and their intern put forth was well worth

it. Their Facebook page which started with just under 100 likes in September 2016 now has

around 300 likes. The result of updating their Facebook page was around 25 more likes per

month and around 10% of students from Viterbo who liked their page. VCSs success has lead

them to open new accounts on Twitter and Pinterest. VCSs Twitter allows them to create better

connections with their events such as their #VHaksVolunteer hash tag. Their Pinterest account is

in the works but is available to help students with potential professional projects and resume-
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building skills. I think Viterbo Career Services will continue to be innovative with their Social

media. Alyssa is currently on a marketing promotion to reach 500+ likes by advertising the

500th person will receive a fitbit. In addition, VCS consistently has new interns in their office

who will continue to innovate new ways to engage students on social media.
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References

(A.Gostonczik, personal communication, April 13th, 2017).

(B. Dolder-Zieke, personal communication, April 2nd, 2017).

Hootsuite. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2017 from the Hootsuite Wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hootsuite

Junco, R. (2014). Engaging students through social media: Evidence-based practices for use in

student affairs. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass