I was leading a faculty and staff workshop at a Boston area university, when a faculty member raised her hand and said, “I don’t know why I would ever need LinkedIn, I am tenured, and don’t have a need to look for a job, so why would I even have to set up a LinkedIn account.” Well, this misses the point, because LinkedIn is not just for those who are active job seekers. And if you engage with LinkedIn only at the point when you are starting a job search, then you have missed the boat anyway.
LinkedIn is a modern-day Rolodex that makes it easy to connect with your contacts, it is the ultimate networking tool. Depending on the content you present on LinkedIn, you will become viewed also as an expert and thought leader by your network.
For higher education professionals LinkedIn plays a few important functions:
1. Student Recruitment – LinkedIn allows you to showcase your university programs and gets you in front of professionals who are looking to complete their education, get advanced degrees, or earn new certification.
2. Alumni Engagement – Every institution of higher education needs to showcase the success of its alumni. The alumni are the calling card of your institutional achievement. LinkedIn is also a forum for nurturing the alumni relationships. And the more you nurture these relationships, the more your endowment will benefit over time.
3. Brand Awareness – All the research, teaching, volunteering that is taking place at your institution of higher education is not sufficient if it’s a best-kept secret. All of those activities feed and strengthen your institutional brand, reputation, and recognition. When university faculty and staff are active on LinkedIn, they are helping the collective cause of strengthening the institutional brand.
4. Free Advertising and Promotion – If you have launched a new program, certification, or have an enticing lecture series, then what better way to get the word out than to share the news with your LinkedIn network.
5. Graduate Placement – Use LinkedIn to help your upcoming graduating class secure employment.
6. Internships for Students – Your LinkedIn network is also a powerful engine for securing internships for your students. It’s commonly known that internships lay the foundation for successful post-graduation employment.
And, finally, LinkedIn is also an indirect competitor of higher education institutions. In the very least, it is getting into that space. With its 2015 $1.5 billion acquisition of Lynda.com, LinkedIn entered into the space where it can bite into the continuing education and professional development pie that was controlled by institutions of higher education. As they say, forewarned is to be forearmed. Hence, institutions of higher education should up their game on LinkedIn to stay competitive. So, stay active on LinkedIn, and you will find it far more rewarding than expected.