Advanced LinkedIn For Colleges And University Career Centers2 (2)
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The document outlines a comprehensive guide for college career centers to enhance their use of LinkedIn in supporting students and alumni. It emphasizes the importance of LinkedIn as a professional networking tool and provides ten actionable steps, including setting up profiles, creating groups, and teaching LinkedIn etiquette. The guide aims to help career centers build professional communities and facilitate connections between students and alumni for job opportunities.
![Questions, Comments? Heather Krasna, MS Director, Career Services, Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington Author, Jobs That Matter: Find a Stable, Fulfilling Career in Public Service [email_address] Heather Krasna © 2011](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/linkedinforcollegesanduniversitycareercenters22-13130451558675-phpapp01-110811014745-phpapp01/85/Advanced-LinkedIn-For-Colleges-And-University-Career-Centers2-2-52-320.jpg)
Advanced LinkedIn For Colleges And University Career Centers2 (2)
- 1. Advanced LinkedIn for College Career Centers 10 Steps to Revolutionize Your Career Center Heather Krasna © 2011
- 2. Quiz: What does this image represent?
- 3. Assumptions: You already have a LinkedIn profile. Your college probably already has a LinkedIn group– even if you didn’t create it. Your college/university is already a “Company” on LinkedIn and is listed as a “School.” Ideally, can access a list of alumni emails. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 4. Why LinkedIn? LinkedIn is quickly becoming the recruiting method of choice. My opinion: it is incumbent on us as career professionals to understand it, use it, and teach it to students. It greatly improves on “cold” applications or employer outreach calls. 70% of jobs are found through networking and LinkedIn is the #1 source for professional networking connections. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 5. Why LinkedIn? There are over 100 million members (44 million in the US) If LinkedIn were a country, it would be the 12 th largest on earth 1 million new users every 12 days Executives from every Fortune 500 company represented
- 6. Why LinkedIn? Research job leads, recruiters, alumni, volunteers, mentors, career histories Build your students’ professional presence and their own network Market/brand your College and yourself Build a professional community for students/ alums Provide job leads to alums/engage them Create a self-updating, self-referring job referral engine for your students/alums Heather Krasna © 2011
- 7. Why LinkedIn? If you get to know your students well enough, you can use LinkedIn as a referral service for students to connect with alumni and employers . You (or your group) will become the super-connector for your students & alumni. You will (almost) always have updated student and alumni employment data. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 8. Why NOT LinkedIn? Not everyone uses it; not everyone will join your group. You can’t download a list of your group members. You can’t find out which of your students contacts which alums. They don’t have rules in place about who can establish an “official” group. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 9. 10 Steps Unleash the Power of LinkedIn Set up your own profile and connections Set up a policy for career services staff and students regarding LinkedIn and communicate this policy Teach your students how to appropriately use LinkedIn Incorporate teaching LinkedIn usage in all workshops/trainings Set up a group —or take over the existing group Identify your group manager (s) Invite students and alumni to join your group Promote the group Engage your group Research prospective employers and alumni mentors Connect with new people/prospects Connect students with alumni Heather Krasna © 2011
- 10. Step 1: Set Up Your Personal Profile Set up with your own information, and make sure your Company (college) is correctly linked on your profile Use keywords and phrases to come up in searches for your field/profession and marketing and branding your organization via your own profile Get to 100% profile completion Heather Krasna © 2011
- 11. Link to Everyone You Know (maybe) If you don’t have enough connections in LinkedIn, your search results of people will be very limited. More connections=more employment prospects, and a big network leads more people to want to link to you. 500+ is a goal. Go to Contacts, then Add Connections. Full disclosure: I am an (almost) open networker. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 12. Be Judicious, Though Syncing your email with LinkedIn will send outreach emails to everyone you’ve ever emailed—plus 2 reminders… It’s safer to enter contacts one by one Heather Krasna © 2011
- 13. Your Staff’s Profiles Ask your staff to create profiles and link prominently to your organization, making sure that it links to your “Company” Ask them to Follow your company Ask them to join your group. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 14. Step 2: Choose Policies Should staff accept all LinkedIn invites from students? From alumni? Staff can be “open networkers” or not. Should staff recommend students? A written policy will help set boundaries—for students, faculty, and staff. Can staff ask students for recommendations? Can students join the group? Open to anyone (not recommended) Open to students, alumni, faculty, staff (recommended) Open to students and alumni who agree to your policies Only open to alumni. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 15. Teach Your Students LinkedIn Etiquette Incorporate LinkedIn training into networking and job search workshops. All the networking rules apply: don’t ask for a job, show gratitude, follow up etc. Use existing guides: learn.LinkedIn.com/students Have sample networking letters/ LinkedIn introductions for students to adapt. Teach students about professional online presence (i.e. how LI is different from FB). Add LinkedIn profile writing to resume workshops. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 16. Communicate your Policies Add a networking page to your handouts and website. Consider a policy that students must sign an ethics agreement before being added to your LinkedIn group. Or incorporate into your existing “terms of use” State the consequences for bad behavior beforehand. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 17. Step 3: Set up (or Take Over) a Group Go to Group Directory to search for existing group. If none: Click the Groups tab, then Create a Group Add logo, group name, group type, summary, description, website, group owner email, set access (as auto-join or request to join), etc. Consider adding subgroups Geographic Schools, majors, or career interest areas Heather Krasna © 2011
- 18. Should we have multiple groups? Depends on size/nature of your school. Subgroups are helpful for issue-specific networking. Separate groups are much harder to manage and reduce the power of your alumni networking by reducing numbers and inter-group referrals. People can only join 50 groups. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 19. What if a group already exists? Reach out to the group owner (usually an alum) and BEG to take ownership of the group. Benefits to the University include that you can invite all alumni to join the group because you own the data to do this. And they don’t. If you know and TRUST the existing group owner, consider allowing them to keep ownership. If not, start your own group. They can delete your group otherwise. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 20. Can I merge groups? Alas, NO : “ There is no automated process for merging groups. Group owners can decide to combine their groups by choosing one group to remain open. If you're the closing group's manager, you can send an announcement to inform your members about your plans. Within the announcement: Include the other group's Join URL . (You can ask the other group's manager for the link.) Suggest they click on the URL to join the new group. Remind them when the group will close. To maintain member privacy, we don't offer the ability to export a contact list of your group's members.” Heather Krasna © 2011
- 21. Step 4: Identify a Group Manager in Your Staff Assuming you have a group that is only open to your students, alumni, faculty and staff: One person (from career services or alumni relations) should approve requests to join on a weekly basis at minimum (more in step 7) Should have access to alumni data to verify alumni requests to join the group Heather Krasna © 2011
- 22. Step 5: Invite Students, Alums, Faculty & Staff to Join Your Group Invite students, alumni, etc. to join your group (and to connect with you personally) Go to the Manage tab in the Group, then “Pre-Approve” people (Upload a file to batch approve) Consider pre-approving all incoming students; or batch approving those who attended your on-campus recruiting workshop Heather Krasna © 2011
- 23. Invite Members to Your Group Go to Manage, then Send Invitations; send one by one or Upload a file of emails Heather Krasna © 2011
- 24. Send a compelling invite message explaining the benefits of joining: * Reconnect professionally with alumni; have discussions; promote opportunities; help students Heather Krasna © 2011
- 25. Step 6: Promote your Group Add link to your website Add link to your signature Add link to alumni e-newsletters and prominently mention it in every communication Heather Krasna © 2011
- 26. Step 7: Use Your Group to Engage Community Start discussions on upcoming events, news items, job and volunteer opportunities, calls to action, etc. etc. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 27. Manage Your Group Moderate discussions Moderate requests to join (if members-only) Edit “Group Rules” to match your policies Send an announcement to all members (use judiciously) Go to Manage, then Send an Announcement Sends an email to all members This can be highly effective, especially in crisis communications Heather Krasna © 2011
- 28. Set up News Feeds Set up an auto-feed of Twitter and an RSS of your blog or webpage to feed to your group and your own personal profile Go to Manage tab, then News Feeds Add RSS feed and Twitter feed Heather Krasna © 2011
- 29. Set Up a Job Feed for the Group Set up a job feed for your group (go to Group, click Jobs link)
- 30. Set up a Job Feed (step 2) Click “Create a Feed” on the right Heather Krasna © 2011
- 31. Set up a Job Feed (step 3) Edit the search for keyword, location, function, industries, experience level etc. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 32. Set up a Job Feed (step 4) Edit the resulting list to delete irrelevant jobs. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 33. Add Jobs Manually Add jobs of special interest/ referrals An especially good way to promote alumni-level jobs. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 34. Engage Your Community Engage in conversations in other groups Create sub-groups for your sub-communities Under the “More” tab in your Group Heather Krasna © 2011
- 35. Step 8: Research Prospects Once your profile and your group have an established community and positive buzz, reach out to prospects Research recruiters and alumni in the industries that students want to access. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 36. Advanced Search of People Click Home (top left) Click Advanced, to the right of People Heather Krasna © 2011
- 37. Advanced Search of People Search keywords, name, title, company, location, country, school, industry, relationship Heather Krasna © 2011
- 38. Find the Super Connectors Sort the results by Connections , and you have the Super Connectors in the field Connect to one or two Open Networkers (LIONS) to expand future search results Heather Krasna © 2011
- 39. Use Groups to Research Alumni Go to Members tab of Group, search by keyword. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 40. Alumni Research via LinkedIn Find your alumni and students’ current employment on the LinkedIn profile Connections and level of connectedness are now visible to you via LinkedIn—will show exactly how many people you have in common Interest level/engagement with the college can be shown by volunteer activities, groups the person has joined etc. Capacity to give can be guessed through job titles…Share this PPT with your Advancement team! Heather Krasna © 2011
- 41. Get a “Feed” of Alumni Updates Go to “Home” (top left of page), scroll down to “All Updates” and click on the magnifying glass next to Search Updates. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 42. Get a “Feed” of Updates (step 2) Heather Krasna © 2011 Scroll down, and look on the left to search by School. Type in the school you work for.
- 43. Get a “Feed” of Updates (step 3) You now have a list of posts, profile updates (including job title updates), etc. just for your students and alums. Click “Save this search.” Heather Krasna © 2011
- 44. Volunteer Recruitment via LinkedIn Post requests for volunteers in your group and other relevant groups in your geography Post volunteer positions “jobs” Ask for referrals and introductions from your staff, alumni and volunteers Heather Krasna © 2011
- 45. Step 9: Connect to New People/ Employer Prospects What connections do you have in common? What groups? Who can/should introduce you? Heather Krasna © 2011
- 46. Get Introduced Click the “get introduced” button, write a compelling email to the prospective connection, and a short email to introducer Heather Krasna © 2011
- 47. Add to Network If you have no one in common, perhaps you have a Group or other network in common—so click Add to Network instead NOTE: THIS IS THE SECRET SAUCE OF ALUMNI GROUPS. Customize your message! Heather Krasna © 2011
- 48. Step 10: You and Your Group are Now a Hub of Student-Alumni Connections Once you grow your own network enough, you have leverage to connect your students with alumni who know and trust you. Your group is a self-referral engine that is: Self-updating with new alumni data Self-referring between students and alumni A closed community of only students & alums Heather Krasna © 2011
- 49. Introducing Students to Alums/Employers If you are comfortable with this: Ask students to connect to you Ask alums & recruiters to connect to you Tell students to use you as an introduction resource to target contacts If you know and can recommend the student, say so in your intro email to the alum.
- 50. What My Network Looks Like http://inmaps.LinkedInlabs.com Heather Krasna © 2011
- 51. What My Network Looks Like http://inmaps.LinkedInlabs.com Heather Krasna © 2011 Baruch alums UW Evans School alums & students Career experts, LIONS, authors
- 52. Questions, Comments? Heather Krasna, MS Director, Career Services, Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington Author, Jobs That Matter: Find a Stable, Fulfilling Career in Public Service [email_address] Heather Krasna © 2011
- 53. ** Bonus Tip!** Conduct Outreach with Power Shares Share a link, discussion item or question in multiple LinkedIn groups using one click in LinkedIn. This can quickly expand your brand awareness or awareness of an upcoming event you want to publicize. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 54. Power Sharing To do this, go to LinkedIn homepage, and enter an update in the “share an update” box, and add a link under “attach a link”. Then click Share. Heather Krasna © 2011
- 55. Power Sharing continued Once your update is posted, click on the “share” link next to the update you’ve just shared Heather Krasna © 2011
- 56. Power Sharing, continued In the popup window that comes up, click on Post to group(s) Heather Krasna © 2011
- 57. Power Sharing, continued… Type in the names of the groups you want to share to. Remember the discussion guidelines of the groups you are in so you don’t “spam” a discussion (i.e. “self-promoting” posts may not be wanted; and job postings might have to be posted in the jobs section rather than through this type of power sharing). Heather Krasna © 2011
- 58. Power Sharing, continued… Then click the Share button. Your share will now be a discussion posting in the groups you have chosen. Heather Krasna © 2011