How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New

Features

Slide 1

How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s

New Features

How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New

Features

Slide 2

1) Why LinkedIn is Valuable for Schools

2) Introducing Showcase Pages

3) Other Considerations

Overview

Source: Higher Education Marketing – How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New Features

How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New

Features

Slide 3

As post-secondary students become increasingly concerned

about their future career prospects when choosing a college

or university, many are taking to social media to compare

educational offerings.

Over the past year, professional social network LinkedIn has made

prominent strides towards providing data-driven college evaluation,

with the aim of transforming the college-selection process in the

same way it has changed job recruitment behaviour.

Last summer, it launched dedicated University Pages while

lowering its age limit to 14 to connect prospective students

with the school that fits them best.

While it eliminated its Products and Services tab from Company

Pages earlier this month, the new Showcase Pages feature should

more than make up for it.

1. Colleges and LinkedIn

Source: Higher Education Marketing – How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New Features

How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New

Features

Slide 4

Although at first glance it may seem counterintuitive for

colleges to recruit teenagers on LinkedIn, which has an

average user age of 44.2 according to a 2012 report, the site

has been steadily growing in student popularity.

Students may spend more time on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and

Instagram, but ambitious teens are already using social media to

develop their personal brand.

Many carefully craft their online profiles, conscious that employers

and college admissions teams use social media to screen

prospective candidates, and have adopted a wider variety of

platforms to serve specific functions.

LinkedIn says college students and recent grads are its fastest-

growing demographic, at over 30 million of its 300 million members,

and believes that the competitive college admissions process will

motivate younger users to build their own online resumes.

2. Why LinkedIn is Valuable for Schools

Source: Higher Education Marketing – How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New Features

How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New

Features

Slide 5

Unlike Company Pages, there is greater potential for

personalization and including more relevant information and

images for the university’s target audiences.

The appealing look and design of the new pages even rivals some

schools’ primary websites!

Career colleges will be most interested in the prominent

focus on professional post-graduate achievements, including

the opportunity to immediately network with alumni.

Prospective students can easily observe where alumni live, work and

what kind of work they do in the “Explore Careers” section to see for

themselves what they might expect after graduation and even

network with “notable alumni” to try to get an entry level position.

Colleges may receive messages from interested applicants

or send targeted messages to their followers based on

location, industry or major.

2. Why LinkedIn is Valuable for Schools

Source: Higher Education Marketing – How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New Features

How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New

Features

Slide 6

Although Showcase Pages were first announced back in

November, LinkedIn has recently made them available to

everyone with Company Pages.

The feature allows colleges and universities to create pages

targeted to separate audiences, such as various campuses,

programs, alumni groups or particular campaigns.

You can currently create up to ten free Showcase Pages to branch

off your main Company Page (with only three immediately visible).

Once someone has liked your Company Page, they can choose to

follow specific Showcase Pages for only the most relevant updates

without following the Company Page.

The most apparent feature of Showcase Pages is the visual focus,

similar to Facebook pages.

The large “hero image” of the banner is 974px by 330px, including

the integrated logo and number of followers in the bottom third of the

image. Content is clearly displayed in two columns with easier

audience interaction, again similar to Facebook or Google+.

3. Introducing Showcase Pages

Source: Higher Education Marketing – How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New Features

How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New

Features

Slide 7

Segmenting the right message to the right audience is the

most obvious benefit of the new LinkedIn changes, a

philosophy which should extend to your overall social media

strategy. As each social network has its own purpose and best practices,

determine how your LinkedIn content will differ between pages and how

it will be differentiated from profiles on Facebook, Twitter and other social

media marketing networks.

Universities such as UBC have developed formal protocols to guide the

nature of content, editorial tone, frequency of posts and interaction with

followers.

Integrating relevant keywords in your headline, summary, and more will

elevate your SEO and connecting your optimizing your institution’s

website with Google Analytics will help demonstrate the effectiveness of

this social media channel in your overall marketing strategy.

Take full advantage of the platform by joining groups and interacting with

your community with valuable posts and comments.

4. Other Considerations

Source: Higher Education Marketing – How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New Features

How Colleges can Maximize LinkedIn’s New

Features

Slide 8

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