An SU Alumna’s Career Path and Work on Social Media

Deanna Govoni, an SU alumna and the Social Media Marketing Manager at Cisco, spoke on campus yesterday. It was a great presentation, and I would love to share some of the highlights.

In regards to career management, 

• Internship is really important for college students. Deanna developed more skills and found what she really likes to do from her internship experience.  
• It is fine to “shop around” before committing to a job. I agree. Because companies and organizations have distinguished cultures, the key for a person’s long term success is to find the “best fit” organization to work for.

In regards to social media,

• “Social networking” = “building relationships.” Larger network means more opportunities. 
• Video is important in communications. Deanna has found that viewership jumps 75% for the content with video on Cisco’s blog. Employees in Cisco are also encouraged to communicate with short videos other than e-mails and/or memos.  
• Blog becomes the information hub under Cisco’s social media marketing strategy.  
• ROI (return on investment) of using social media is difficult to measure. However, a 2009 study found an increase of 18% in revenues for those Fortune 500 companies that were most actively engaged in social media and a decrease of 6% in revenues for those who were not active on social media.  
• Deanna has found that recognition is really important in engaging social media users.  
• 20/80 rule in social media: 20% information is about personal life and 80% about business. I can see the importance of posting 20% personal information on social media because it helps us, as active social media professionals, make personal connections within our social networks. For example, a professional may use blog, Twitter, and Facebook for business, but at the same, it is the personal updates that make him/her a “real” human being.  
• Gaining buy-ins from the executives is crucial in adopting a social media strategy --- actually, buy-ins is crucial in every business decision.  
• I really like Cisco’s “Reverse Mentoring” program, in which millennial employees meet with top executives and inform the decision makers what is “hot” and “trendy” out there.

If you attended Deanna’s presentation yesterday, what are your thoughts about her speech? If you work in the field of social media, what important practices would you like to share with us?

In the end, I would like to conclude today’s discussion with a video about how to lose a job even before starting it --- a real story shared by Deanna. Enjoy!

 

 

References:

Picture of Deanna Govoni is downloaded from SU’s website via http://www.syr.edu/alumni/
The YouTube video was downloaded via http://youtu.be/5eF-wb9LTxc