It's that final time of the year with strategies and plans being put into place. Application open dates are just around the corner and the fight is about to begin. With vacancy numbers returning to their peak rates it's sure to be a bitter battle on campus.

So what can do you do off-campus that adds impact to your brand and your campaign? Social media is on everyone's lips as part and parcel of their campaign - but what does that really mean to you and how can you be part of the action?

There are numerous ways to engage with your target audience that don't rely heavily on additional resources or tools. Before you start, here are 5 tips to get clear and get rolling on your social media plan for the season:

1. Audit

Using sites like Glassdoor and whirlpool, find out what is being said about your employer brand as well as your competitors - understand the good, the bad and the ugly about both you and your competitors.

2. Objective

What is the absolute purpose behind your activity? Is it to build brand or get mass applications? For some it's about being out on campus for the first time, for others, it's about changing the perception of their program. Social media can assist with those objectives and more. Clarity will allow you to have focus instead of jumping around each time something new comes around.

3. Measure

How will you measure the success of your social media activity? What is most important to you? You can measure your activity by getting reports on your partner sites (we provide reports at the end of each Forum for example) or using engagement analytics on your Facebook pages, or even number of conversations on your twitter and others using Hootsuite or even clarifying your applications on how they got there. This will provide you with your goals and help qualify your objectives.

4. Plan

Like any good strategy, you must continue with a plan. Identifying who/what/where/when you will communicate is essential to the success of any social media strategy. Using a social media policy and authorised users as well as multiplatform decks such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite allows a multitude of users to participate at ongoing intervals and ensure regular and consistent activity.

5. Walk the Talk

Social media is about conversations - in whatever capacity they may be: blogging, comments, forums, twitter, facebook, webinars etc to participate you must be ready to walk the talk.

Have fun and speak soon!

Andrea Culligan

CEO

The Unimail Group

Oz Harvest, Mission Australia and Qantas have combined to put together the first ever CEO Cookoff.

Over 100 CEO's from around the country, put together with 28 of Australia's best Chefs will see them feeding over 1000 homeless on February 6th.

Leaving Canada in the middle of 1999 without a plan or a thought towards what I was going to do, and with $300 in my pocket, I landed in Brisbane. 3 months into my journey, I was robbed whilst I was sleeping. He took everything I had, my passport, my wallet, my credit cards, even my sunglasses.

At the time I was crazy enough to chase the offender through the campsite I was staying in and eventually catch him. It was a dangerous act, and one of impulsive action but it was done through fear and terror of everything I had being taken away from me. I only had $300 to my name and someone was ripping it out of my hands.

I had never been so scared and frightened. I didn't have a back up plan, or an option to get money from anywhere or anyone else. I did what fear told me to do, without rhyme or reason and acted on it. This fear was monumental, which makes me only imagine how significant it must be to feel that way every day of your life. Hence why I'm so passionate about this opportunity to support and participate with the CEO Cookoff.

Now, my cooking skills leave lots to be desired as pretty much everything I make tastes wonderful (or so my husband says) but looks shocking - so I'm really hoping that there are no scores for presentation!

The event kicks off on February 6th where the likes of Alan Joyce and Neil Perry will showcase their talents or lack there of, combined with the rest of us mere mortals.

I would love your support in helping me achieve my goal of $8000 towards the cause. Each and every cent goes to Ozharvest and Mission Australia (Qantas is footing the bill for everything else) so to increase your support; I'll sweeten the deal….

For donations $100 and OVER:

• I'll bake you something delicious (again, not it may not look good but taste wonderful)
• I'll video the process (this is not going to be pretty, but most likely hilarious)
• I'll send you the baked goods, the video and the ingredients to make it yourself (so you can make it look much better than mine)

You can find me here:

http://www.ceocookoff.com.au/profile/504

Every penny counts and helps someone in need.

Thanks for your support!

Andrea Culligan

Twitter: Acculligan

andrea@theunimailgroup.com

The Unimail Group prides itself on lending a helping hand whenever possible. Earlier this year, our team downed utensils and went hungry for a week living on $2 a day. In the process we raised over $2,000 for the Live Below The Line campaign. The money goes towards widening awareness and helping poverty stricken people out of poverty. There are currently 1.4 billion people worldwide living on less than $2 every day. For anyone interested in participating in 2012, you can follow the campaign at www.livebelowtheline.com.au/about

This month the team has been hard at work contributing to the awesome charity event that is Movember. Our Production Director Brett (left), Account Director Justin (centre) and Web Designer Dave (right) took on the challenge and raised $530 for men's health.

Check out our efforts at the Movember Unimail team page http://www.movember.com/m/1888540

GE's innovative technologies span industries as broadly as they do countries, from nanotechnology, molecular imaging, and photonics to large scale industrial turbines. To attract the right graduates, GE partnered with Unimail to create an engaging and asthetically beautiful graduate website and complimentary social media channels.

The website theme is a generalisation of the Canadian landscape. From Vancouver to the Rockies, the ice fields up north to the rolling hills of the east coast. It depicts Canada's landscape, industries and opportunities. This generalisation of Canada is an engaging visual manifestation of the world of opportunities available to graduates that join GE. Illustrated in-house by the Unimail design team, the campagin theme is striking, imaginative and unique.

The marketing team at GE have been very complimentary on the website. And the sheer volume of traffic on the site and LIKES confirms that another successful project has been delivered!

See the GE Campus Website here

Additionally the Unimail Group has been involved in creating the GE Graduate Facebook page. This has followed the same concept as the website and has a lively and unique feel. The facebook page can be viewed here

It's got a slick new look, razor sharp tongue and super spunky attitude. And it's only going to get slicker, smarter and spunkier tomorrow.

And every tomorrow after that.

As a communications agency, it's our job to ensure your communications is fit for tomorrow. In today's crowded marketplace, there's only one way to do that: get out there.

So we do. On campus, at careers fairs, in the boardrooms of blue chips and start-ups, at industry events, through our database of 55,000 students and the printed pages of our publications.

When we're not doing that, we're trawling the digital space, tweeting, facebooking, blogging, and linking in. Why? It gives us a comprehensive vantage point from which to influence your communications and ensure you're dressed to impress the best for business.

Get ready for tomorrow

Contact our client service team on 1300 134 121 for a chat about how we can help you keep your communications up to date with changing trends.