NC State University Career Center
Rebranding and social media campaign
North Carolina State’s University Career Center (UCC) is the main resource for career development and consultation on NCSU’s campus.
North Carolina State’s University Career Center (UCC) is the main resource for career development and consultation on NCSU’s campus. The Center is responsible for advising students and preparing them for a career search after college as well as coordinating campus events and attracting corporate recruiters. The UCC wanted to enhance its perception among the student population to encourage participation, particularly in online networks. Kelly MarCom was tasked with determining how best to connect with the students, and developing a plan for utilizing social platforms for this interaction.
Kelly MarCom conducted its proprietary Brand Discovery Process with the UCC staff to establish where the organization currently stood and determine how it could potentially be repositioned. An extensive research phase was also undertaken with the student population to determine what they were looking for in a career advisor and the best ways to reach them. Kelly MarCom developed a messaging platform that spoke to the target audiences and provided a single unified plan for how the UCC would present itself. With these components established, Kelly MarCom launched a multifaceted strategic and tactical plan that included an extensive social media focus. Multiple networks and applications were launched, with individual tactics to support each and weave efforts together seamlessly. The plan detailed how the UCC staff could execute each tactic and outlined suggested timelines and advised steps to be taken for each item. For the launch, Facebook and Twitter networks were put in place for social media, and Delicious was set up for social bookmarking. They are now preparing to launch YouTube, Flickr and uStream networks.
The UCC is conducting a progressive rollout of the tactics, gradually incorporating each network into its promotional activities. Success has already been observed on several platforms as the number of students following the UCC is growing. Competing institutions have noted the UCC social model, and are moving to position themselves in a similar way amongst their student bodies.
