The Higher Ed Experts Class of 2013 is composed of people just like you working in universities and colleges.
Our grads earned their Higher Ed Experts certificate by demonstrating mastery in a given critical skill for digital professionals such as Web Analytics, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Responsive Web Design and Web Writing.
All completed their 4-week or 8-week online course with a final grade above or equal to 80/100.
We are so proud of these dedicated professionals that we want to tell the world how great Higher Ed Experts grads are in a series of interviews.
Today, we start with Alicia Nestle, the Assistant Director of Multimedia and Public Relations at Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y. who earned her Higher Ed Experts certificate after taking the 8-week online course on Social Media Marketing for Higher Ed taught by Karine Joly
1) What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Alicia Nestle earned a Higher Ed Experts certificate in Social Media Marketing for Higher Ed.
I think the most rewarding part of my job is sharing stories about our current students, alumni, faculty and staff that show just how special of a place Nazareth College really is. So, whether I tell that story through video, photography or a social media campaign, if the audience feels moved or inspired by the people that make up the Nazareth College community, then I’ve done my job effectively and there’s nothing more rewarding than that.
2) What is the most challenging part of your job?
The most challenging part of my job is how rapidly social media changes. In a lot of ways, it’s also the most exciting part of my job! Because social media is always changing, you have to be open to trying new things. That’s hard because you need to be willing to fail. One thing I think I can say for sure is that I’m not afraid to admit failure because I always feel proud that I was willing to take a chance on something new. If you learn from what went wrong and try and do better next time, then you have nothing to be embarrassed about because you were brave enough to try.
3) What has been the most valuable outcome of the course you took with Higher Ed Experts?
The most valuable outcome I took from the Social Media Marketing for Higher Ed course is the ability to communicate with clients that we shouldn’t run campaigns for the sake of running a campaign. Social media campaigns, if done right, take a lot of time and resources. So, let’s first find out what outcomes we hope to achieve, who are we trying to reach, and how are we going to measure the results to decide whether the campaign was successful or not.
4) Besides Higher Ed Experts courses and conferences, what else do you recommend for professional development in higher education?
I went to my first national HighEdWeb conference in Buffalo just this fall! I highly recommend attending that. I’d attended a regional conference in Rochester a couple of years ago which was also excellent and I know they’ve expanded their regional conferences. For me, the most important thing I do to stay ahead in the ever changing world of social media is talk to Nazareth College students. I have an amazing social media student worker who I’m always collaborating with, and our department partners with Admissions on a social media ambassadors team. We meet with them monthly and share best practices and new ideas for reaching prospective student audiences.
