LinkedIn 3D for HEIntegrated approaches between Marcomms, Careers &

Alumni Relations

Post-Conference Summary

#LinkedIn3D

June 2016

LinkedIn 3D for HEConference Overview• The conference ran in April 2016, hosted by Birmingham Business School, University of

Birmingham, UK

• The objective was to bring together Higher Education / University representatives from different departments (Careers, Alumni Relations, Marketing & Communications) in order to:– Explore and share Challenges, Wins and Future needs in their own area– Explore how they can work more effectively together across departments

• Event Summary and Agenda: (for link see Additional Resources at end)– Morning : Welcome, Keynotes and Vertical sessions– Afternoon: Key Themes sessions, “unconference” format, Wrap-up

• 125 delegates attended

• Twitter #LinkedIn3D

Contents

Themes• Careers

• Community

• Content

• Academics

• Alumni

• International

Extras• Additional Resources

• Useful Groups

• Contacts

Careers – the Challenges• Coaching a shift from “online CV” to “networking &

career/employer research skills”

• How to best develop communities & build a “[careers] brand within a [university] brand”

• Teaching digital literacy to millennials – what is the best way?

• Time constraints / efficiency – what to prioritise?

• Overcoming the “fear of making mistakes” that can be passed from careers staff to students – too much attention on negative aspects of social media

• Understanding overlap of stakeholders, how to work together• Careers and alumni to share the generation of content

Careers – sharing the wins

• LinkedIn is an Intelligence gathering tool for career development; the Alumni Tool gives legitimacy to careers advice, for finding mentors, & volunteers

• LinkedIn bridges the gap between current students and alumni

• 'LinkedIn photo booth' at employability events

• Employers are global; LinkedIn enables careers staff to engage globally

• Groups - Contacts not lost if staff member leaves

• Track DLHE non-responders and ask them to complete

Careers – development feedback / requests• LinkedIn Students app launching in UK in Autumn – designed to

help students explore career options: https://lnkd.in/studentsapp

• Student / academic tariff for LinkedIn Premium would encourage greater use (but students need to develop a strong profile first to derive proper value)

• Analytics for Groups to judge engagement

• Ability to use a “Group ID” rather than personal profile in Group communications

• Run more networking sessions / webinars for staff

Community – the Challenges• Joining the alumni page is a ‘rite of passage’ – it happens but

does not automatically inspire the person to engage with content

• Justifying ROI of Groups without analytics/ visible engagement• Idea of ‘successful group’ theoretical, no model examples

• How to overcome the lack of interaction in Groups – how to generate meaningful, engaging content

• Deciding who should be allowed to be members of Groups

Community – sharing the wins• Successful Groups can be run by alumni volunteers (Durham)

• Your University Page (news feed), your website and other channels, can all feed into Groups

• Creating weekly topics to get conversations started

• Networks enable students to connect with employers/alumni globally

Community – developmentfeedback / requests• Analytics for Groups to judge engagement

• Ability to enforce guidelines in breakaway Groups / get breakaway groups to feed into parent alumni groups

• Leveraging more staff members to post / comment to encourage engagement

• Using alumni volunteers to create more discussions

Content – the challenges

• Corporate Communications cannot control all social comment – but how can it monitor, guide and positively influence activity as much as possible?

• Comms still searching for the ideal tools to manage multiple social channels

• How can Comms leverage a range of social content contributors? E.g. from different faculties, departments, alumni, students…

• How can Comms get VCs and Leaders to blog / post / contribute content?

Content – sharing the wins• Good content works on multiple platforms – don’t restrict to just Facebook

or just LinkedIn

• Be human - Don't be a robot: adapt your tone to increase engagement. People and students respond better to people than logos

• Students and alumni are interested in campus imagery and video, such as accommodation and memorable haunts – nostalgia is effective with alumni engagement - e.g. SHU - Psalter Lane Art & Design building

• Good engagement user-generated content:– Requesting alumni to share memories of graduation, photos - shows genuine connection– Instagram takeover: letting students do the work – see this #SHUInsiders example– The value of staff contribution - useful reference: "3-2-1: The art of employee-first content"

• Interactive video campus tour - good for several audiences (prospective students, alumni etc) – plus “genuine” video gets more engagement - see Newcastle example

• Periscope v Facebook – see pros and cons in Matt Horne’s post

Content – the LinkedIn wins• LinkedIn is a good place for showcasing research (top level) – this can then

link to more details / official repository

• LinkedIn now has #hashtags– You can collate posts using the hashtag in the body– e.g. search on #studentvoices (use the Posts filter for the results)– (note : original URL works but is unwieldy; need to use a vanity url e.g. example)

• Sharing stories on LinkedIn University pages – Careers & Alumni Relations work most effectively together (especially when able to leverage Academics!)

• Example of University using a Showcase page for specific audience content = OU for Wales

• It's easy to post blogs on LinkedIn, and you can enhance your personal brand as well as that of your institution (see here for more)

Content – development feedback / requests• In-tool analytics on social engagement with content

• Content Management & Scheduling - either in-tool or via 3rd party tools like Hootsuite

• Vanity URLs for university pages

• University Page Newsfeed - not lose posts after 30 days - ideally archive and retrieve capability for page admin

• LinkedIn pages management via the app (or a dedicated app for this)

• Improved use of video content

• Alerts to Admin about new content (e.g. posts on LinkedIn) by staff and alumni

• Hashtags in body content should be clickable

Academics – the challenges• Academics largely not on LinkedIn - only at the Business Schools

- so how do we get them motivated and up & running?

• Need to get Academics to publish - how? Create and leverage champions, case studies?

• There are no UK academics who are LinkedIn Influencers - how can we change this?– LinkedIn response - need to get Academics posting regularly on LinkedIn, true

leaders in their field, and then propose case for elevation to Influencer status.

• Enforcing the use of LinkedIn in universities - staff fear overflow of connection requests and recommendation requests - how to help them?

Academics – sharing the Wins (1/2)• LSE – To appeal to Academics, need to change perception that LinkedIn is just for

getting a job– At LSE, Academics collaborate with internal departments to get content posted –

they don't do it themselves.

• Birmingham– Biosciences Academics not interested until shown the LinkedIn Alumni tool - now

see value– Academics use other platforms e.g. Academia.edu to share papers / engage

community – can we share / link that onto LinkedIn?

• Leicester – Social Sciences – via weekly alumni events, academics saw the value of LinkedIn, now started using it

• Warwick – Marcomms run social media training sessions for staff, and writing copy - good for internal PR too.

• Aston – Running LinkedIn webinars for staff and these go down well.

• Important to get Academics active & influencing on LinkedIn– Impact on own brand, university brand, attracting staff and prospective

students, current students / careers, alumni connections, research– Like Warwick, can Marcomms run social media / networking / content

posting training modules for staff?– Could Careers run LinkedIn sessions for Staff as they do for Students? – Important to focus the teaching on LinkedIn as platform for networking /

connecting, and skills - not just for jobs / CV (stop obsessing on profile).– LinkedIn is a good place for showcasing research (top level) – they can

then link to more details / official repository

• Enhancing your academic online presence using LinkedIn - useful Slideshare post by Sue Beckingham (SHU)

• Development request– Featured / Notable Academics (on the University Page)

Academics – sharing the Wins (2/2)

Alumni – the challenges• Can often be difficult to know when to stop things that aren’t working

• Challenging to determine whether to invest in expensive, flashy systems

• The data & contacts LinkedIn provides make it difficult to avoid duplication/saturation when managing central record of alumni engagement

• Managing Groups since inactive groups are worse than no group at all

• Getting alumni to create content versus just generated by alumni relations team

• Publishing can be daunting, who is the right audience?

• Tough to get user generated research, establish what they doing and what they want to see in terms of alumni relations/universities

• Challenging to determine what to measure, when (1 year on?), and managing data from mentoring meetings

Alumni – sharing the wins• Press releases and alumni stories have created improvement in engagement

• Use of short 6 digit code (on profiles) for alumni to show students which alumni are willing to be approached by students (Manchester)

• LinkedIn gives relevant up to date contact details for events which is positive

• Working closely with Careers to generate effective content• Use of guest editors to generate content for the day or week

• Get significantly more engagement than on Facebook

• Insights - communicating with alumni to identify/share why they started up their own businesses

• Register content with strong engagement and create a handbook for getting the best out of LinkedIn

• Contact alumni to get valuable data for rankings, accreditations, etc.

Alumni – development feedback / requests

• How can Alumni Relations be alerted to alumni activity? E.g. moved to new employer, new post, etc

• Ability to monitor alumni usage more closely

• Different requirements in different countries

• Cultural challenges in using photos - need to be aware of different sensitivities across different cultures

• International students, particularly Chinese, do not use and update frequently once returned to home country

International students – the challenges

• Use of LinkedIn photo booth at Career Fairs targeted to international students

• Target messages geographically using filters and alumni tool

• Key to approach for students to reach employers is through alumni

• Using LinkedIn in conjunction with student ambassador scheme

International students – sharing the wins

Additional resourcesIncluding LinkedIn 3D event overviews

LinkedIn Students site https://students.linkedin.com/uk

Eric Stoller Event Slides https://speakerdeck.com/ericstoller/why-your-digital-presence-matters

Dave MussonEvent Overview https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/35-gems-inspiration-from-linkedin3d-dave-musson

Joe FieldEvent Overview https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/socialmedia/2016/04/15/linkedin-3d-conference-7-key-themes-an

d-a-few-takeaways/

Matt HorneEvent Overview https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-i-learnt-linkedin3d-conference-matt-horne

Yasmin Ansari Careers post https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lessons-strength-resilience-weightlifting-career-yasmin-ansari?trk=hp-feed-article-title-like

Sarah Blunt Careers post http://careerscaseload.com/3-things-linkedin3d-taught-using-linkedin-careers-adviser/

Conference Summary / Agenda – see here: https://lnkd.in/3D4HE)

• Careers– Social Media for Careers Professionals– Career Services Professionals (LNKD)– UK HE Career Professionals

• Alumni– Alumni & Advancement Professionals– Alumni Relations Professionals

• Comms– University Communications and Engagement Network– Social Media for UK Higher Education Marketing– Digital Communications Marketing in Higher Education

Useful Groups

Events contacts• Charles Hardy

Education Lead, LinkedInhttps://uk.linkedin.com/in/charleshardy

• Tripp MartinCareers in Business Manager, Birmingham Business School, University of Birminghamhttps://uk.linkedin.com/in/trippmartin13

• Jessica Holloway SwiftStudent Engagement Officer & Social Media Lead, Careers Network, University of Birminghamhttps://uk.linkedin.com/in/hollowayswift