Engaging Your Members Through Social Media
Just last Saturday, I had the honor of speaking at the conference of the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students (NAGPS), about engaging members of graduate students associations(GSA's) through social media. I covered a variety of tips and suggestions, and it was fantastic to have a discussion within the audience, where students talked about how they incorporated social media into their GSA's, and what were the most successful strategies. If you are, or will be, in a leadership position for your GSA, here are few suggestions for social media experts:
1) Keep content fresh: "Content is king." Experts agree that the most important element of success for a social media site (such as Facebook page, discussion board, website) is to maintain fresh and entertaining content, so your members will be motivated to keep coming back to your site.
2) Add versatility to your site through photos, provocative discussions, videos, surveys and polls.
3) Add an RSS feed from a relevant site to your social media site
4) Use Facebook or other social media to learn what your members would like to get out of your organization, rather than pushing your agenda
5) Draw in alumni, faculty and members of similar GSA's at other universities into your discussions
6) Reach out to other graduate student organizations, exchange links and contribute to each others' sites. This way, you can borrow interesting content from time to time, rather than having to create your own each time.
7) Provide a resource site for your members with links to graduate student and career-related sites. I have graduate student and job-searching related sites on my page at www.phdnet.org/links.html. Feel free to add these to your resources page.
During the discussion, I had the sense that students were comfortable with writing newsletters, blogs, and surveys, but not with putting up videos. It is true that putting a video on your site sounds intimidating at first, but once you do it a few times, it becomes straightforward. In fact, www.benchfly.com (an online community for life scientists) is based on video blogs about laboratory techniques. Benchfly also maintains a very active Facebook community with entertaining content.
For more interesting tips on successful social media sites, visit the following pages:
http://www.blueglass.com/blog/6-successful-elements-for-social-media-success/
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/203359
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/zubinkutar/212318/what-makes-blog-successful
Wishing you the best,
Dora Farkas, PhD, Founder, PhDNet
Author: "The Smart Way To Your PhD:200 Secrets From 100 Graduates."
Now Available in Kindle Edition!
Job Searching and Goal-Setting the SMART Way
If you are one of those people who are tired of setting goals, you are in good company. Many of us shudder at the thought of goals, deadlines and New Year's resolutions because we feel that we are just setting ourselves up for disappointments. Yet, without goals, it is tough to be motivated to finish a thesis, start an exercise plan or get a job.
Goals are not inherently bad. The trouble with many goals is that they are too ambitious or too vague, and people do not even know how to go about to reaching them. Organizations on tight budgets and timelines, particularly in the corporate world, had to find a way to motivate people to reach their professional goals on time. The mnemonic that they came up with was "SMART", which stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Realistic
- Time-bound
As an example, let us assume that you are on the job market, because you will graduate in six months. In six months, you will no longer receive a stipend, so you will need a job to pay your bills. A statement such as "I really need a job in six months" will put a lot of pressure on you, and might not actually help you figure out how to do it. If you decide to follow the SMART mnemonic, you can ask yourself the following questions:
- What kind of job am I looking for?
- How many jobs do typical candidates apply for?
- What types of positions am I trained for?
- Where do I find resources and support for this job search?
- What is the typical timeline for the job search? What are some shorter milestones that I can set for myself so I can find a job by the time I graduate?
If this sounds like a lot of work, you are right, simply because job searching is time-consuming by nature. ("Finding a job, is a full-time job") The difference now is that when you begin thinking about these questions, you will actually start formulating a plan and be more motivated to follow through. If you keep up the good work, you might be among the 2% minority who keep their New Year's Resolutions!
Wishing you the best,
Dora Farkas, PhD, Founder, PhDNet
Author: "The Smart Way To Your PhD:200 Secrets From 100 Graduates."
Now Available in Kindle Edition!
Elements of a Successful Thesis Proposal
The first time I went to a thesis defense was the summer before my sophomore year, when I worked in a Chemistry lab . Alice (not her real name) defended her thesis after 6 six years in graduate school (average for department), and her defense went so well that no one realized how much hardship she had gone through just to define her thesis question. In fact, she did not know what direction she would follow until she was at the end of her fifth year. The collection of the data, however, took less than a year.
Why did it take her 5 years to define her thesis? It took a year and a half to pass her courses and exams (average), but she encountered many obstacles when she started working on her thesis. First, it was challenging to find a topic that was novel and realistic for her time-frame. Second, as a young graduate student she was not familiar with many of the laboratory techniques and she spent a lot of time troubleshooting equipment. Third, even when her experiments went well, the results were not exciting or publishable.
It seems that with so much uncertainty there is no use in writing a thesis proposal. Quite the contrary, a research proposal will give a framework you can work with as well as backup plans you can turn to when things do not go as planned. Many departments require (or at least suggest) a thesis proposal during your second or third year. Given the uncertain nature of research, how can you write a realistic thesis proposal? After interviewing over 100 PhD's, I collected the four most important elements:
Choose a research area that you are passionate about. Regardless your field, you will have good days and bad days. On good days you will be enthusiastic and motivated to work. On bad days, you might question whether your research makes any sense, and you might even doubt your ability to graduate. If you pick a meaningful topic, the daily setbacks in your research will not bring you down. You will still be working in an important field, and you will be learning the skills and expertise necessary for your career.
Pick a topic that can be completed with the available resources in a reasonable amount of time.
Some students make the mistake of being too ambitious in their thesis plans. A good rule of thumb is to expect things to take three times longer than they would if everything went smoothly. Talk to your advisor about choosing a topic that is novel, realistic for your time frame, and can be completed given your resources (e.g. equipment, expertise and money).
Look for projects that incorporate marketable skills
Graduate school can seem (and feel) like eternity, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. What will you do after you graduate? It is a good idea to look at job postings in your field to find out what employers are looking for, and then design a thesis that will prepare you for those types of jobs.
Have several backup plans in your thesis proposal in case you reach a dead end.
A former graduate student who finished his thesis in 4 years (when the average for his department was 5-6 years) attributed his success to a long list of backup plans. "I had at least three backup plans for every experiment. There were times when I had to resort to my third backup plan before things I got anything useful."
Planning is crucial to success in graduate school, and the sooner you start visualizing the progression of your thesis and publications, the sooner you can get your thesis and career on track.
Wishing you the best,
Dora Farkas, PhD, Founder, PhDNet
Author: "The Smart Way To Your PhD:200 Secrets From 100 Graduates."
Now Available in Kindle and Softcover!