Prof. William Jackson, M.Ed. Graduate of South Carolina State University, is a professional educator with 32 years of experience. He is on a mission to help HBCU students grow in their ability to successfully promote and grow both their personal and business brands.
“The use of technology to promote personal and business Brands has grown exponentially over the course of several years,” Jackson told the Florida Star. “Building a relationship online is strategic, planned and executed to obtain maximum visibility. HBCU students are in very competitive career choices and should apply their skills and talents online to increase their visibility and employability.”
“LinkedIn is certainly part of my plan for growing my professional brand,” said Adrianne Walker, a May 2018 graduate of Texas Southern Universty, Houston’s iconic HBCU. “Utilizing technology and social media, along with lifelong learning opportunities, has been critical in the allowing me to experience growth in my accounting career.”
Here are Jackson’s strategies for HBCU students to get the most bang out of the LinkedIn buck.
HBCU Strategies for LinkedIn:
1. Showcase your knowledge on LinkedIn in areas that you’re majoring in and trying to gain entrance. Using microblogging, traditional blogging and even podcasting can help HBCU students gain visibility.
2. When listening to Podcasts find subject areas that you can connect with and potentially be a future guest so you can share statistics, data driven results and the scalability of information.
3. Do not allow impostor syndrome to stop you from sharing your knowledge. All it takes is a few minutes to attract followers and a few good observations.
4. Show your value with the information you are shown. Regurgitate it with your spin that brings new attention can be applied to a new audience.
5. Don’t short sell yourself, know your value and your worth.
6. Grow your connections over time. Do not try to grow your audience to fast or overnight.
7. Show interest of other people when reading content, instead of just posting content continuously read or view what others are posting and provide feedback.
8. Seek engagement, building relationships that buildt o friendships, partnerships for potentially future collaborations.
9. If you tag people make sure they will respond to you, and respond to them.
10. Be mindful of your content. Comment on what is trending try not to comment on old news.
11. Have a list of people that will engage with you. Follow them and engage with content that promotes
connections and collaborations.
12. When reading LinkedIn posts think about your replies before you reply to stay on the subject, not taking it to another direction.
13. HBCU students should build their networks before graduation. It is easier to build a following slowly than to struggle in building a following with no strategies and no plan.
14. Put Hash Tags in your postings to draw more attention to your content or others to expand more engagement.
15. LinkedIn should show what you revolve around, your interests, your ideologies and your future directions.
16. Follow HBCU instructors from other schools to share content and build your PLN and PLC PLN Professional Learning Network and Professional Learning Communities.
17. Work to be a storyteller as well. People love to follow and engage with storytellers.
18. When sharing information about what is going on at the HBCU make sure it is not centered around gossip, hearsay or third person mentioning and bashing of a person’s reputation and professionalism.
19. Remember the purpose of LinkedIn to network and share content.
20. Don’t be afraid to follow HBCU instructors on LinkedIn on campus even if you are not taking their classes. Building a following by instructors can be used as reference material for future potential careers.
Prof. William Jackson, M.Ed
Email: williamderekjackson@gmail.com
Twitter: @wmjackson
Blogging My Quest To Teach
MyQuestToTeach.com/
Clubhouse: myquesttoteach
Instagram:
Instagram.com/WilliamDJackson
Tumblr:
williamdjackson.tumblr.com/archive
Blerd:
blerdnation.com/blerds/william
WordCampTV
wordpress.tv/?s=William+Jackson
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