Capstone Research, Writing, and Progressions

Content Rules

     As I am patiently waiting for my copy of "Content Rules" to come so I can really focus on the social media plan I will propose to my boss, I am working on creating a social media field analysis, a company overview, and an audience persona.  The social media field analysis will contain the information that I found from researching and examining other recruiting agencies utilizing social media.  The company overview will contain information about Force Recruiting and Consulting, including the mission and vision of the company, the background and history of the company, and a description of the company's services.  Finally the audience persona will include information about the individuals who will be the subject of the company's online presence.  For my company, our audience is generally middle to senior level professionals with technical skills who are interested in changing jobs.
     In addition to developing these crucial pieces of information for my project, I am also working on the company's website and blog.  Ultimately, I want to be able to share blog updates on the website and on all of the social media sites, too.  I have developed the majority of the content and am now focusing on the layout and structure of the website.  I even plan on publishing the website next week!  Also, over the next month I plan on publishing two blog posts.  I am very excited about writing blogs and using different resources to assist me in writing appropriate content.  Overall, I am looking forward to really delving into different resources to assist me in developing my social media plan.  However, I must begin my plan with the necessary elements to complete the social media plan.

Capstone Progressions

     As I delve deeper and deeper into my Capstone Project, I am actually becoming rather excited to start putting things together.  After establishing a basic idea for my project, I asked Dr. Matt Kushin to be my mentor because he has the experience with social media that I need.  After meeting two separate times, we determined a much more specific project.  This project will include most of the original ideas that I had, but is a bit more clear and defined.  Dr. Kushin and I decided that my first step for the social media campaign in which I will be developing should be to spend several weeks doing research to understand the concepts behind successful social media, specifically for a small recruiting firm.  By doing this research and creating a well thought out and established plan, I will be better prepared to launch a successful social media campaign for my company.  After I have completed my research and created a plan, I can start implementing it.  Dr. Kushin and I initially broke my project into two sections.  For the first month, I will be completing my research and developing my plan.  Then, during the second month,  I will actually be utilizing my plan and creating the content and using social media.
     Another issue that Dr. Kushin and I came to a conclusion on dealt with my project being somewhat too broad.  Although my job requires me to maintain a website, LinkedIn page, Facebook page, and Twitter page, we decided that the research I conduct should focus on figuring out which form of the social media will be the most beneficial to the company.  Thus, when I actually put the plan into action, I can focus on one source of social media and use the other two forms as just two more outlets for similar content.  Also, we determined that maintaining a blog on the website may be useful.  Since I am not an expert in the field of recruiting, I can work closely with my boss to develop a by-monthly (at least to start) blog that can give our audience helpful tips about finding a job, such as refreshing their resumes or having a successful interview.  Along with some other ideas, like creating a logo, mission statement, letterhead, business cards, and other miscellaneous things, I have completely finalized my project.  To wrap all this up, in the past week I determined my specific project and my deliverables I will be able to present.

Example of following thousands of people on Twitter

     Finally, after organizing all of my ideas, I began some brief research of other companies uses of social media.  Thus far I have found that there are many recruiting firms that appear to be doing very successful on social media.  One trend I noticed is that recruiting firms use Twitter by following thousands of people.  In return, though, they have thousands of followers.  Because I am not completely sold on this idea, I need to do more research to find out it's effectiveness.  Another trend I found is posting short blog posts or articles about human resources.  I need to remember to always give my audience something important to read or they may not read it.  Lastly, I noticed that these types of companies are updating once, twice, or maybe even three times a day with open positions.  This is a place that I would like my company's social media to get to one day.  Overall, I need to do much more in-depth research to discover the proper strategies to use for successful social media.

Initial Thoughts on My Capstone Project

After three and a half years at Shepherd University in the Mass Communications department, the time has finally come for me to start my Capstone project.  The Capstone project is something that all communication students must take in order to graduate from the university.  This project allows students to showcase the specific skills, interests, and expertise that the department has taught or developed over the course of their education.  Although there are some restrictions and qualifications, students choose an advisor/mentor to assist them in developing a project.  Over the course of my college career at Shepherd, I have considered doing several different projects.  I have many different interests, including public relations and video production, so picking one specific project was somewhat of a challenge for me.  However, since the time has finally come for me to pick a specialized project, I have a pretty clear idea of what I want to do.

Social Media

     To begin, I recently was hired at a local recruiting and consulting firm for government agencies.  I am very interested in this type of work and am continuing to learn about the ins and outs of recruiting.  In addition, though, I am also in charge of their marketing, including social media, branding, and public relations.  I will be in charge of developing and maintain the company's Facebook and Twitter pages, branding the company by making logos and a website, and just helping to get the company on the map so others in the community are aware of this small business.  Even though I have learned a lot about those things throughout school, I do lack the kind of experience I wish I had.  Fortunately, I did intern at a public relations and marketing firm last semester so I have some ideas about the direction to go in.  However, I would like more help with developing the marketing for this small business.  Thus, I have decided that I would like to incorporate this into my Capstone project.  Not only will I be able to do a better job at my current position, I will gain crucial knowledge and experience from my mentor that I can use in the future.  Also, this will give me a portfolio that may give me a competitive advantage over others in the future.  Overall, I am very excited about working with a mentor that will help me develop and showcase my skills and teach me new things.