Are College Student's LinkedIn?

Are College Students LinkedIn?

Team: You’re Hired!

Seth Brown

Christopher Dietz

Jeffry Gunter

Jeremy O’Connor

BUS M-303

Marketing Research

Spring 2016

Table of ContentsExecutive Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………2

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...3

Problem Definition………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3

Symptoms………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3 Probable Problems…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4 Decision Statement……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4 Research Objectives……………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………..4 Research Questions……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………5

Research Methods………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….6

Literature Search………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6 Survey………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6

o Questionnaire Development…………………………………………………………………………………………6o Target Population………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7o Sampling Frame…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7o Sampling Methods………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7o Sampling Procedures…………………………………………………………………………………………………….8o Demographic Information……………………………………………………………………..……………………..8

Data Analysis and Discussion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…8

Literature Search……………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………8 Survey………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………12

o Analysis Results…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12 Advanced Data Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………….……………………22 Overall Discussion……………………………………………………………………………………………..………………………23

Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………26

Limitations………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………27

References……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………29

Appendix: Questionnaire………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………31

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Executive SummaryPrior research has established that LinkedIn proves to be one of the most unpopular social media

applications among adult internet users, especially millennial college students. It has been estimated

that almost 50% of college students have never established a LinkedIn account, and out of all LinkedIn

users 61% view the site every three weeks or less. This is creating opportunities for competitors to

establish similar professional networking tools that are aimed at younger, inexperienced professionals

who feel that LinkedIn is not adequately connecting their strengths to future opportunities.

Based on the understanding that high school career counselors and college career development centers

are pushing for classes to mandate students to establish a LinkedIn account, we decided to focus our

decision statement on increasing their awareness of the benefits of increased site usage. In order to

understand why college students would want to increase their usage, we developed three research

objectives to assist in collecting valuable information.

Our first objective was to identify which social media applications are most popular among our target

population, which preferred devices they use to access them and how often. The next objective was

designed to understand their perception of the importance of professional development and how often

they actively seek information on professional topics of interest. The last objective sought to identify

how many respondents are already using LinkedIn, how often, and their perception of its difficulty.

Our results matched the information from prior research in many ways concerning social media usage,

smartphone dependability, and career center development service awareness; however, our population

sample were much more active in establishing a LinkedIn account and repeat usage. Compared to

national trends, 72% of our respondents had established an account and 57% were checking their

account once a month or more often. This was a small sample size and could have been skewed to

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distort actual campus statistics, but it establishes the importance of continuing training and education

concerning the importance of professional networking and how LinkedIn can be a benefit to all future

professionals.

I. IntroductionThere has been a sharp increase in the amount of college graduates, but there is an increasingly large

number of unemployed and underemployed college graduates among our national workforce. However,

employers are cutting their recruitment efforts and reducing hiring costs. This may not seem to make

sense, but LinkedIn has made it easier than ever before for recruiters and hiring managers to connect

with professionals, and professionals to hiring opportunities.

There has been an obvious disconnect between employers and college students in the area of

professional networking. College students are under the belief that professional networking is not

something you begin until just before, or after graduation, and employers are reporting that they need

graduates to have already established experience and a credible professional network much sooner.

This is a market opportunity that LinkedIn cannot allow to continue to persist unaided. The signs for

market growth are apparent and competitors are starting to act on the lack of LinkedIn’s guidance.

LinkedIn may have a stronghold on established career professionals, but as the next generation

continues to move into the workforce without a clear understanding of LinkedIn’s services they will

begin to seek other providers who are willing to fill the gap.

II. Problem DefinitionA. Symptom(s)

Slightly less than half of college students have never used LinkedIn.

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Competitors, such as About.me, are beginning to fill the professional social networking void

among millennials.

LinkedIn has a low repeat usage, 61% of users view the site every three weeks or less often.

B. Probable Problems

Probable Problem 1

College students are intimidated by lack of professional experience and believe a LinkedIn account

should not be initiated until after graduation.

Probable Problem 2

College students have difficulty translating their skills into professional bullet points.

Probable Problem 3

College students do not realize the value in creating a social identity with LinkedIn.

Probable Problem 4

LinkedIn training is available, but lack of guidance causes new users to put off or decline return usage.

C. Decision Statement

How can LinkedIn increase its usage rate among college students?

LinkedIn, and social media expert contributors, offer a wide variety of information concerning how to set

up a professional account, grow your professional network among fellow students, and discover

internships and entry-level positions, but it is not intuitively easy to find or apply. The majority of

problem identification in our literature review establishes that students are late to adopt professional

social networking, but companies and recruiters are increasing their usage of LinkedIn as a hiring tool.

LinkedIn could bridge these two segments by providing more obvious training tools and targeting the

student population with more specific information pertaining to their developmental situation. We will

narrow our research to ascertain information on what type of professional development updates

interest them, and how they would prefer to learn how to better utilize LinkedIn.

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D. Research Objectives

Research Objective 1

The first research objective was developed to understand how college students access social media in

their everyday environment, and then interpret it into actionable information that can be used to

identify how LinkedIn can effectively capture the market segment.


The second research objective was developed to better understand how college students search for

information pertaining to professional development. This type of information will allow us to identify

possible trends between academic grade levels, study concentrations and age groups.


The third research objective was developed to identify how LinkedIn can improve usage among college

students. By identifying strengths and barriers that college students face when setting up and using their

accounts, LinkedIn can position themselves to provide better services.

E. Research Questions

Research Questions (Objective 1)

RQ1) What forms of social media are most popular among college students?

RQ2) How often do college students access social media?

RQ3) What type of devices do college students most commonly use to access social media?

RQ4) Why do college students use or not use LinkedIn?


RQ5) How important is professional development to college students?

RQ6) How often do they research topics of interest in professional development (Internships, Co-op,

Entry-level positions, Starting salaries)?

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RQ7) Is there a preferred site, magazine, journal, newspaper or application that they use to access

information on professional development?


RQ8) Instead of searching and researching for guidance, would college students be interested in

receiving presentations and instructional videos (through newsletters or other forms of social media)

that specifically highlight how to build a great student profile?

RQ9) Rather than receiving information about the business environment in general, would college

students be more interested in receiving LinkedIn Pulse updates specifically highlighting resume writing,

networking, and internships among their career focus (particularly templates and examples of success)?

RQ10) Would college students be interested in subscribing to a LinkedIn Premium account at a major

student discount? (Therefore increasing likelihood that students will repeat usage more often and

remain subscribers after college, while also providing funding for future LinkedIn initiatives directly

focused on student users)

III. Research MethodsA. Literature Search

In order to have a greater understanding of how college students can benefit from LinkedIn’s services

our team thoroughly searched through online articles, social journals and previous research studies.

We found all of our sources over the web, using Google Scholar and the Indiana University Southeast

libraries online services. The amount of time spent on the literature review was an hour per team

member, and a total of four hours. There is a summary of our literature search located in the Data

Analysis and Discussion section.

B. Survey

Questionnaire Development

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The survey on college students’ usage of professional development was based on and developed from

the research objectives; assessing college students’ usage of social media and their preferences of

access, gaining a better understanding of college students’ awareness of professional development, and

identifying how LinkedIn can boost usage among college students. The questionnaire was organized into

four sections to appropriately acquire essential information. Section A, social media usage and

preferences, provides respondents with questions about what forms of social media they access, which

device(s) they use to access social media and how many hours per day they are utilized, where they are

typically located when accessing social media, what categories of interest they follow on social media,

and the ability to rate how much or little social media has had an effect on their lives. Section B,

professional development awareness and usage, provides the respondent with questions regarding; the

importance of professional development on an individual basis, frequent topics of interest within

professional development, preference of access to professional development, frequency of information

searches regarding professional development, personal interest in receiving information about

professional development, and the individual’s perception of how important professional development

is to college students in general. Section C, usage of LinkedIn, provides the respondent with questions

regarding; the establishment of their own LinkedIn account, whether or not they received assistance in

setting up the account, how frequently they access their account, ease or difficulty of using LinkedIn,

awareness of the Career Development Center’s weekly training session and interest in attending, and

interest in receiving a student discount rate on a premium LinkedIn account. Section D, demographics,

provides the respondent with questions regarding; age, current academic grade level, current degree

related concentration, preferred career field, and gender.

Target Population and Sample Frame

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The target population for the survey was college students. The sampling frame was comprised of current

college students at Indiana University Southeast, specifically business school students enrolled in the

spring 2016 International Business course.

Sampling Methods

Convenience sampling was used to administer our survey. This is a non-probability sampling procedure

of obtaining people or units (respondents) that are most conveniently available. Because of the

restrictions in time and other resources, our team was not able to adopt other sampling techniques.

Survey Procedure

The questionnaire was administered by our project manager, Dr. Choi, using a Web form online survey

which was constructed by our team members. The survey was made available on March 12 and 13, for

Professor Choi’s International Business class. Respondents were provided with instructions, descriptions,

and project purpose within the survey. Including a small test-survey sample, 39 target respondents

participated in our survey.

Demographic Information

The age range of our 42 respondents was from 19 to 38, with an average of 24. Eighty six percent of the

respondents were of the millennial generation (age 12 to 34), which places the greater majority of our

respondents within our target population. In regards to the academic grade level of our respondents,

56% were juniors and 44% were seniors. Out of 39 respondents who were instructed to select all

concentrations that apply; 67% are pursuing general management, 56% are pursuing marketing, and

15% are pursuing human resources. When asked if the respondent had already selected the career field

they will seek after graduation, 53% responded with yes. The respondents consisted of an almost equal

representation in gender, 20 males (51%) and 19 females (49%). Our team was pleased with this well-

balanced gender representation, because of the possibility that male and female consumers may have

different perceptions concerning social media and professional development.

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IV. Data Analysis and DiscussionsA. Literature Search

As we began reading the selected literature we were able to identify national trends displayed within

the millennial generation and their use of professional development tools, such as LinkedIn.

1) In a world where social media presence and activity is growing rapidly, college students are not

always as prepared as they believe they are to showcase their digital identity. The Education

Advisory Board, a research and performance improvement organization, published a report

analyzing students’ social identities. While conducting forum research about the connection

between recruiters and potential employers, they discovered that 94% of recruiters research a

potential candidate’s social media presence and 43% of employers passed on hiring a potential

candidate due to negative information on their social media accounts. They also reported that 78%

of employers have hired candidates through LinkedIn, but only 41% of college students use

LinkedIn’s professional services.

2) So what happens if LinkedIn continues to rely on their already professionally established clientele,

instead of pursuing the millennial demographics and the next generation? About.me founders, Tony

Conrad and Ryan Freitas, are showing LinkedIn why they are not doing a great job of capturing the

high school and college student’s interest. They told USA Today that recent high school grads and

new college students don’t understand how to showcase themselves if they haven’t accomplished

anything in the professional world. About.me gives them the opportunity to write a short essay

explaining their interests and goals, and how they would like to be involved with an employer or

their community. Although Conrad admits that LinkedIn is useful and important for a graduate with

multiple years of experience, he explained, “I don't think we would have built this product if I felt

like LinkedIn's product or other products out there served this demographic well. I know that it

doesn't.”

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3) In September 2014, The Pew Research Center conducted a survey involving 1,597 internet users,

aged 18 and up, to determine significant information concerning social media usage. They

discovered that Facebook still remains in the lead with a 71% usage rate, but multiple platform

usage has increased from 42% in 2013, to 52% in 2014, and LinkedIn touts a 50% usage rate by

internet users with a college degree. Of the entire population surveyed, only 28% of adult internet

users have a LinkedIn account and this population is largely made up of employed, college

graduates, who come from higher-income households. Another interesting piece of information

from the report was that LinkedIn is the only social media site that has more 30-64 year old users

than 18-29.

4) College students should be asking what LinkedIn and other social media platforms can do to help

them better themselves professionally, that’s why social media expert and author of “Job Searching

with Social Media for Dummies,” Joshua Waldman wants to help you make that realization. “You can

find a career you enjoy that brings something to the world. If you’re going to spend so much of your

life working, doesn’t it make sense to do something meaningful,” said Joshua Waldman to an

audience of Hillsdale College students. He was brought in by the school’s career development center

to share how LinkedIn has had such an effect on hiring that companies like Coca-Cola have reduced

their candidate hiring search expenses by 50%. He also explained that after May (2015) graduation,

two out of ten graduates will be underemployed and even more will be employed in an industry that

they do not like.

5) Hasn’t anyone conducted a study to identify why college students are late adopters of LinkedIn?

Readwrite wrote an article highlighting a research survey jointly conducted by Millennial Branding

and AfterCollege. The survey was sent to thousands of registered college students and 600

responded. They identified from their findings that 90% of students use Facebook, but just less than

half have never setup a LinkedIn account. They tended to rely more on the company web site,

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career fairs, and online job postings for information pertaining to employers. Students responded

with requests for more help from their colleges about how to network for job searches, but 50%

identified that they had never visited the career development center or had a negative experience.

Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding, believes that students aren’t thinking about their

professional network until after they graduate, but they should be thinking about building their

professional contacts at the beginning of their freshmen year.

6) Have millennials recovered from the Great Recession? According to an article published by The

Atlantic, it’s not that simple to answer. According to a study conducted by The Associated Press (AP),

54% (1.5 million) American bachelor’s degree holders, aged 25 and under, were unemployed or

underemployed in 2012. This not only creates a dilemma for college graduates, but for non-

graduates as well. If recent graduates are applying for positions as at low-skill retail positions, then

chances are that for every underemployed graduate there is an unemployed non-graduate. AP

stated that college graduates with a bachelor’s degree have grown by 38% since 2000, and the job

market has not been able to keep up with these demands. So are prospective college students

supposed to stop going to college? AP reports that students should actually be more focused on the

skills they attain, and less focused on the actual diploma. They reported students in the technical

fields, sciences and accounting (to name a few) were more likely to have success in finding

employment after graduation, and that in an environment flooded with generic college diplomas it is

the skills that matter most.

7) According to a recent article from The Wall Street Journal, if you are ignoring LinkedIn you could be

ignoring your career. A few topics highlighted in the article were how to successfully navigate

LinkedIn’s news feed, build a stronger network, and find a career that you want. By personalizing

LinkedIn’s news feed to your skills and interests, you can receive personalized industry updates

(desktop and smartphone) that benefit your professional development and keep you on the cutting

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edge of industry developments. And how many of us have contacts on Facebook or Twitter that we

have no idea who they are, or how they got there? That may not be a big deal on other social media

platforms, but it is not acceptable on LinkedIn. Before you send a network invite or accept one, ask

yourself how this connection would affect you in a professional office. You should think of LinkedIn

as your rolodex, and if the personnel in your contacts can’t benefit you, or you them, then it

becomes apparent that your 400 contacts on LinkedIn are simply just for show. Lastly, and most

importantly, treat your LinkedIn account the same way you would a resume. You wouldn’t turn in a

cluttered, typo-filled resume, so don’t let your LinkedIn account suffer either. According to LinkedIn,

profiles with a completed summary field receive seven times more views, and profiles with head

shot photos are 14 times more likely to outperform those without. And for professionals who want

to pay for even better services, can subscribe to LinkedIn Premium and receive special perks such as

having their profile placed at the top of a recruiter’s hiring list.

B. Survey

Upon completion of the electronic surveys, our team printed off the surveys and provided a unique

identification number for each one. Then we input the respondents’ answers into an SPSS database

where we used data analysis techniques including, frequencies, descriptive analysis, cross-tabs and

ANOVA.

Analysis Results

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RQ1) What forms of social media are most popular among college students?

Figure 1 shows that 90% of our respondents chose Facebook as their most used social media site,

followed by Instagram and Twitter. This figure is similar to the information reported by the Pew

Research Center.

Figure 1

Facebook Instagram Twitter Pinterest Other N/A0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%90%

64%

49%

39%

15%

3%

Social Media Rank by Usage (n=39)

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RQ2) How often do college students access social media?

Figure 2 displays that smartphone usage is most popular at a cumulative total of 89 hours. Laptop

computers came in second at 22 hours, and then tablets at 12. This would be an indicator as to why The

Wall Street Journal article in our literature review mentioned that LinkedIn was putting more emphasis

on smartphone application development than the desktop version.

Figure 2

Desktop Laptop Smartphone Tablet Total0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

8

22

89

12

131

Hours per Day Spent on Each Device (n=38)

Hour

s

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RQ3) What type of devices do college students most commonly use to access social media?

Figure 3 reaffirms research question two, that smartphones are the most popular device used to access

social media. Laptops come in a distant second, and then tablets.

Figure 3

Desktop Laptop Smartphone Tablet0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

15%

49%

95%

18%

Preferred Device Used to Access Social Media (n=38)

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RQ4) What categories do college students follow on social media feeds?

Figure 4 displays that 92% of our respondents selected keeping in touch with family as the most

important reason for accessing social media. The next category of importance is sports at 46%, and then

news, politics and business are third most important at 44%.

Figure 4

Family Celebrity News Politics Business Sports Other0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%92%

41% 44% 44% 44% 46%

15%

Categories of Interest to Social Media Users (n=38)

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RQ5) How important is professional development to college students?

Figure 5 shows contradicting information concerning respondents’ perception on the importance of

professional development to themselves and to college students in general. From the perception of

college students overall, 50% of respondents believe that professional development is either extremely

important or very important to college students. However, 88% of respondents selected that

professional development is either extremely important or very important to themselves, personally.

Figure 5

Not Very Important

Somewhat Important

Very Important

Extrememly Important

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

2%

10%

44%

44%

8%

42%

32%

18%

College Students' Perception of Professional Development Importance (n=39)

Professional Development Importance (College Students Overall)Professional Development Importance (Personal)

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RQ6) How often do they research topics of interest in professional development (Internships, Co-op,

Entry-level positions, Starting salaries)?

Figure 6 shows that the majority of our respondents (39%) search for information on professional

development at least once a month, followed by 28% who search at least once a week. The professional

development topics of greatest interest among our respondents are internships at 66% and then entry-

level positions at 64%. Resume writing was third most important at 47%.

Figure 6

Less than once a month

At least once a month

At least once a week

More than once a week

Internships

Entry Level Positions

Resume Writing

Student Co-Op

Freq

of S

earc

hTo

pics

of I

nter

est

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

23%

39%

28%

10%

66%

64%

47%

29%

PD Topics of Interest and Freq of Search (n=39)

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RQ7) Is there a preferred site, magazine, journal, newspaper or application that they use to access

information on professional development?

As shown in Figure 7, 82% of our respondents reported that they prefer to access professional

development information through internet research. Access through mobile applications came in second

at 51%, and the Career Development Center is the third most used at 39%.

Figure 7

Apps

News/Journ

al/Magazin

e

Internet R

esearch

Career Development C

enter

Other:

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

51%

21%

82%

39%

8%

Preferred Access to Professional Devel-opment (n=39)

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RQ8) Would college students be interested in receiving presentations and instructional videos

(through newsletters or other forms of social media) that specifically highlight how to build a great

student profile?

Figure 8 displays that 48% of respondents found LinkedIn to be very easy or easy to use, while only 13%

found it to be difficult. Given that there is still a population of respondents who do believe that LinkedIn

is difficult to use, there is evidence to suggest that more LinkedIn training could be beneficial.

Figure 8

Very Easy

Easy

Neutral

Difficult

Est.

Link

edIn

Link

edIn

Diffi

culty

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

72%

29%

19%

39%

13%

Ease of Use (n=31) and LinkedIn Account Establishment (n=39)

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RQ9) Rather than receiving information about the business environment in general, would college

students be more interested in receiving LinkedIn Pulse updates specifically highlighting resume

writing, networking, and internships among their career focus (particularly templates and examples of

success)?

Figure 9 shows that 64% of respondents show some interest in receiving professional development

advice in the form of a newsletter. A Wall Street Journal article among our literature review described

improvements within the LinkedIn mobile app that allow a user to update their preferences and

interests, in order to receive more industry-specific updates.

Figure 9

Not at all Interested

Not Very Interested

Somewhat Interested

Very Interested

Extremely Interested

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

8%

28%

49%

10%

5%

Interest in Receiving Professional De-velopment Information (n=39)

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RQ10) Would college students be interested in subscribing to a LinkedIn Premium account at a major

student discount?

Figure 10 shows the respondents’ answers range from 10-100%, with a mean of 43% and a mode of

50%. We were trying to understand if students would be interested in receiving a discount similar to the

50% discount that Amazon offers students to setup a Prime account. Based on the wide range of

responses, we believe that students may not have fully understood the benefits of LinkedIn Prime.

Figure 9

Minimum Maximum Mean ModeStudent Discount

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

10%

100%

43%50%

Student Discount Preferences (n=39)

C. Advanced Data Analysis

During our literature review, we discovered in a readwrite article a comment about a selected student

who had recently been hired for a paid summer internship, and she actively used LinkedIn to search for

advancement opportunities. So while completing our data analysis we decided to look at the

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relationship between college students who have established a LinkedIn account and their individual

perception concerning the importance of professional development. We wanted to test a prediction

that college students who consider professional development to be important are more likely to have a

LinkedIn account established. We set up the following null and alternate hypothesis to test our

prediction:

(H0): College students who have a LinkedIn account established are less likely to consider

professional development to be important.

(HA): College students who have a LinkedIn account established are more likely to consider

professional development to be important.

We tested the above hypothesis with an ANOVA analysis. The results are shown in Table 1. Because the

p-value (0.015) is smaller than 0.05, we reject the null hypothesis. Therefore we conclude that college

students who have a LinkedIn account established are more likely to consider professional development

to be important.

3.82 4.46F (1,37) = 6.558 p = 0.015 N = 39

Mean on Students w/o LinkedIn Mean on Students with LinkedIn

Dependent Variable: B1) Importance of Professional DevelopmentIndependent Variable: C1) Establishment of LinkedIn Account

D. Overall Discussion

The reason behind our research on the subject of whether or not college students are utilizing LinkedIn

was to identify why millennials, especially those enrolled in college, are not using a provided digital tool

to gain an advantage in securing employment after graduation. In order to collect the appropriate

information, research questions were formed from our objectives and then distributed amongst our

collegiate peers. We believe the answers to the questions provided will give us a better understanding

of college students’ perception towards professional development.

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Discussion of Results by Research Objectives

Findings for Research Objective 1

Our first research objective was to identify how college students are accessing social media, and which

sites are most popular among our population. We discovered in our literature review that this was the

first step in prior studies, so that researchers could develop a strong understanding of what today’s

strongest social media influences are.

Ranking of Social Media Popularity

Our survey findings are similar to what we discovered in our literature review. According to the Pew

Research Center, Facebook is most popular among adult internet users, aged 18-29, at 87%. Instagram

was second most popular at 53%, and was followed by Twitter (53%), Pinterest (34%) and LinkedIn

(23%). Our respondents’ social media usage ranks in the same order.

Most Used Device to Access Social Media

Ninety-five percent of respondents selected their smartphone as their most preferred device for

accessing social media. According to our latest article among our literature review, The Wall Street

Journal analyzed the user friendly nature between the LinkedIn website and the LinkedIn smartphone

application and determined that the application was easier to use. It would appear that LinkedIn is

aware of smartphone dependability, and is working to deliver a much better experience on their

application to encourage more frequent usage.


The importance of this objective was to identify college students’ general interest in professional

development and to determine their most popular sources of information on the topic.

Perception of Professional Development

Our respondents showed overwhelming support for the importance of professional development.

Eighty-eight percent of respondents selected that professional development was either extremely

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important or very important, and 10% selected that it is somewhat important. Surprisingly, our

respondents did not believe that college students, in general, think that professional development is

that important. Only 50% selected either extremely important or very important, and 42% selected that

it was somewhat important to all college students.

Topics of Interest and Information Sources

Respondents selected internships, at a rate of 66%, as their most popular topic of interest among

professional development, with entry-level position availability coming in at a close second of 64%. The

majority of respondents, 82%, utilize the internet as their number one source for locating information

on professional development. Surprisingly, the Career Development Center, an on-campus resource,

was selected as the third most popular resource at 39%. This was consistent with an article in our

literature review, readwrite, stating that approximately 50% of college students among their featured

survey haven’t used their career services department either.


The final objective was to identify potential opportunities that LinkedIn could utilize to boost college

students’ usage of their services.

Establishment of LinkedIn and Repeat Usage

Overall, we were impressed that 72% of our respondents had already established a LinkedIn account.

This finding was well above the Pew Research Center’s estimates of 23%, and Millennial Branding’s

assessment that less than half of college students have not used LinkedIn. When asked about how often

they visit the site, 39% of respondents selected less than once a month and 36% selected once a week.

These percentages are much better than the Pew Research Center’s findings that 61% of LinkedIn users

visit their accounts once every few weeks or less often.

Ease of Use and Interest in LinkedIn Training

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Forty-eight percent of our respondents believe that LinkedIn is either very easy or easy to use, and 39%

selected to remain neutral on the subject. When asked if respondents were aware of weekly LinkedIn

training at the Career Development Center, 92% replied no; but when asked if they would consider

attending a training session, 46% replied yes. This finding is consistent with readwrite’s article from our

literature review, they stated that based on Millennial Branding’s survey 46% of students wanted their

school to offer more instruction on professional development.

Interest in Receiving Professional Development Newsletters

A large portion of respondents, 49%, selected they would be somewhat interested in receiving a

newsletter containing information on professional development; while 15% selected they were either

extremely interested or very interested. LinkedIn offers these services for free through their LinkedIn

Pulse news feed, and according to the Wall Street Journal they are actively improving the information

that Pulse offers, along with its user specificity.

V. RecommendationsWe were surprised at the large percentage of respondents who already have a LinkedIn account, and

how many confirmed that they check their account often. But this is a good thing, and might prove to be

a turning tide in LinkedIn’s market struggle to convince college students of the importance of growing

their professional network as early as possible.

Continue to Develop a Market for Millennials

LinkedIn recently released their first-ever TV commercial during the Oscars. This is undoubtedly another

step toward marketing to the millennial generation, but they need to focus on delivering better

information on the benefits of professional networking. College students are already aware of LinkedIn

and its purpose, but they fail to understand how to use it on a repetitive basis to benefit themselves and

their professional growth.

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Develop Better Training Instruction

Our next recommendation for LinkedIn is to develop better training or better partnerships with

university career development centers. As our literature review confirmed, the sooner a student

understands the benefit of growing their professional network the more likely they are to be prepared

when they graduate and enter the workforce. LinkedIn has to do a better job of convincing college

students that LinkedIn is not a professional tool that you use after graduation.

VI. LimitationsMissing Survey Data

Although the data that was obtained was useful in developing actionable information, there was one

survey that was only partially filled out, one that was not filled out at all, and one student that submitted

an exam guide instead of the actual survey. When dealing with a small selection group such as the

convenience group selected for this project, every survey is of the utmost importance.

Respondent Selection Criteria

Due to the large majority of junior and senior respondents, we believe that our findings failed to

represent particular areas of the national literature review due to a lack of freshmen and sophomore

respondents. Our respondents indicated that the majority of them had been aware of, and using

LinkedIn for some time. If we had access to more first and second-year students, we could develop more

information on the student population that does not use LinkedIn.

SPSS Training

IBM’s SPSS software is incredibly useful and simple to use, however if you are not in a profession where

you use it commonly then it can be difficult to draw on previous training instruction. We are interested

in receiving more training than what was originally provided in order to develop more complex findings

from our survey data.

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Recommendations for Limitations

Use the Career Development Center and social media to seek students who are more interested in

actively engaging professional development and invite them to attend a focus group discussion. We

would use information obtained from the focus group to identify specific strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities, and barriers facing students in our immediate area, and then develop a more detailed

survey that could be randomly administered to students of all academic standings, including graduates.

Develop more opportunities for SPSS training, using data that is available from team surveys. The more

opportunities that a team has to use SPSS in the presence of a trainer, gives the team a better chance to

develop better analysis for management decision-makers.

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VII. References“A New Perspective: Social Media, Digital Identity, and Student Learning Outcomes.” Education

Advisory Board. (n.d.), (accessed 1/28/2016), [available at https://www.eab.com/].

Ahlquist, Josie. “College Student Digital Identity Development.” LinkedIn Pulse (2015), (accessed

1/28/2016), [available at www.linkedin.com].

Blumenthal, Eli. “About.me goes after LinkedIn for college students' attention.” USA Today

(2015), (accessed 1/28/2016), [available at www.usatoday.com].

Duggan, M., et al. "Social media update 2014. Pew Research Center." (2015), (accessed

1/28/2016), [available at www.pewinternet.org].

Finney, Jordan. “Social media expert gives tips to students.” The Collegian (2016), (accessed

1/28/2016), [available at www.hillsdalecollegian.com].

Hall, Brian. “Why Aren't College Students Using LinkedIn To Find Jobs?” readwrite (2013),

(accessed 1/28/2016), [available at www.readwrite.com].

Kim, Daejoong, Jang-Hyun Kim, and Yoonjae Nam. "How Does Industry Use Social Networking

Sites? An Analysis Of Corporate Dialogic Uses Of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, And Linkedin By Industry

Type." Quality & Quantity 48.5 (2014): 2605-2614.SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.

Modzelewski, Angela. “Reaching College Students with Social Media.” LinkedIn Pulse (2015),

(accessed 1/28/2016), [available at www.linkedin.com].

Stern, Joanna. “Ignoring LinkedIn Is Hurting Your Career.” The Wall Street Journal (2016),

(accessed 4/13/2016), [available at www.wsj.com].

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http://www.wsj.com/

https://www.eab.com/

Tadena, Nathalie. “LinkedIn’s First TV Commercial to Air During Oscars.” The Wall Street Journal

(2016), (accessed 4/14/2016), [available at www.wsj.com].

van Dijck, José. "‘You Have One Identity’: Performing The Self On Facebook And

Linkedin." Media, Culture & Society 35.2 (2013): 199-215. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.

Weissmann, Jordan. "53% of Recent College Grads Are Jobless or Underemployed-How?." The

Atlantic 23 (2012), (accessed 1/28/2016), [available at www.theatlantic.com].

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http://www.wsj.com/

VIII. Appendix: Questionnaire

Survey on College Student’s Usage of Professional Development

Student Research ProjectMarketing Research

BUS-M 303

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Pilsik ChoiSchool of Business

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Important Note for Informed Consent

This survey is part of a class project that Seth Brown, Christopher Dietz, Jeffry Gunter, and Jeremy O’Connor are working on for a Marketing Research class in School of Business at Indiana University Southeast. The overall purpose of this project is to better understand how college students access and utilize LinkedIn, as well as other professional development. Based on this survey, a detailed marketing strategy for the LinkedIn Corporation will be presented for the class project.

Your participation in this survey is completely voluntary. You can terminate your participation in this research at any time or refuse to answer any questions to which you don’t want to respond. Your responses will be confidential and only general results from this research will be reported. No one other than the research staff will know individual answers to this questionnaire.

If you agree to participate in this project, please complete questions on the following pages. This should take about 10 minutes. Your completion of the questionnaire will signify your informed consent to participate.

If you have any questions or concerns about this questionnaire, please feel free to contact Dr. Pilsik Choi (faculty advisor, Assistant Professor in School of Business) at [email protected] or (812) 941-2355.

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mailto:[email protected]

Directions: Please answer all of the following questions by checking off appropriate boxes or writing a description. For the purpose of this survey, professional development is the actions you take to prepare yourself for a future internship or career.

A. Social Media Usage and Preferences

1. What forms of social media do you use? (Check all that apply) Twitter Facebook Instagram Pinterest Other: I do not use social media (Please skip to Question 5)

2. How do you typically access social media, and how many hours a day do you access it on each device? (Check all that apply)

Device Hours per dayDesktop Computer

Laptop Computer Smartphone

Tablet Other

3. Where do you use social media the most? (Please check only one option) Home Work School Other:

4. What kind of accounts do you follow on social media? (Check all that apply) Personal (friends/family) Celebrities News Politics Business Sports Other:

5. Please rate, on a scale from 0 to 10, the amount of effect social media has had on your life.(0 being: Has not affected my life at all, 10 being: Has substantially affected my life)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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B. Professional Development Awareness and Usage

1. How important is professional development to you? (Please read the above header) Extremely important Very important Somewhat important Not very important Not at all important

2. What are your topics of interest in professional development? (check all that apply) Internships Entry level positions How to write effective resumes Student Co-op (Cooperative) Other:

3. How do you normally access content related to professional development? (Check all that apply) Apps (phone and/or tablet) Newspaper, Journal or Magazine Internet research Career Development Center (On Campus) Other:

4. How frequently do you search for information about professional development? Less than once a month At least once a month At least once a week More than once a week Never

5. How interested would you be in receiving information on professional development in a weekly or monthly email newsletter? Extremely interested Very interested Somewhat interested Not very interested Not at all interested

6. College students, in general, think professional development is: Extremely important Very important Somewhat important Not very important Not at all important

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C. Usage of LinkedIn

1. Do you have a LinkedIn account established? Yes No (Please skip to Question 4)

2. Did you establish your LinkedIn account for yourself or as a requirement for a class? Myself Class 2b. Did your instructor/teacher inform you how to setup your

LinkedIn account? Yes No I don’t remember

3. How often do you access your LinkedIn account? Less than once a month Once a month Once a week Never

4. How easy do you find it to use LinkedIn? Very easy Easy Neutral Difficult Very difficult

5. Were you aware that the Career Development Center offers weekly LinkedIn training sessions? (Whether your answer is Yes or No, please answer Question 5b) Yes 5b. Would you consider attending a LinkedIn training session at the No Career Development Center?

Yes No I already have

6. LinkedIn offers greater advantages, such as bumping an applicant to the top of a recruiter’s job posting, to members who subscribe to their Premium services for a monthly cost of $30.00. If LinkedIn offered a student discount, how much of a discount would you want to receive?

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%


D. Demographics

1. What is your age?

2. What is your current academic grade level? Freshmen Sophomore Junior Senior

3. What is your current concentration? (Double majors, check all that apply) Accounting Economics Finance General Business General Management Human Resources International Business Marketing Supply Chain & Operations Management Other:

4. Have you already selected the career field you will seek after graduation? (Ex. Banking, Financial Analyst, Retail Management, Sales, etc.) Yes 4b. If yes, what career field have you selected? (Please be specific)

No

5. What is your gender? Male Female

This concludes our survey and we greatly appreciate your responses!

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