LinkedIn recently made major changes to its higher education features, discontinuing tools like University Finder and Rankings. This was likely due to low student usage of LinkedIn for college research. LinkedIn's new Student app focuses on career outcomes after college. Schools can still promote themselves on the app by posting career-focused content. While some previous features were removed, LinkedIn University Pages remain useful by highlighting alumni careers and testimonials. The future of LinkedIn and higher education may include merging University Pages with Company Pages to access more analytics.

1. Linked Higher Ed Retooling and Your Recruitment
Campaigns
Presented by:
Higher Education Marketing

2. 1. Major LinkedIn Higher Ed Changes in 2016
2. Why is LinkedIn Changing its Approach to Education
3. Previous LinkedIn University Features: A Missed Opportunity
4. Promoting Your School on the New LinkedIn Students App
5. Using LinkedIn University Pages After the Changes
6. The Future of LinkedIn and Higher Education
Overview

3. Earlier this year LinkedIn announced big changes to its
Higher Education features, including-
„ The discontinuation of a number of its University Pages
features
„ The introduction of a brand-new LinkedIn Student app
Read on to learn more about how the revamp affects your
social media marketing campaigns!
Source: HEM – LinkedIn Retool Higher Ed Features: What This Means for Your Recruitment Campaigns
1. Major LinkedIn Higher Ed Changes in 2016

4. LinkedIn launched its University Pages in 2013 in a bid to
become a trusted authority in the
college decision-making process. But the site failed to capture
the imagination of students.
2. Why is LinkedIn Changing its Approach
to Education?
Source: HEM – LinkedIn Retool Higher Ed Features: What This Means for Your Recruitment Campaigns
Research firm Chegg revealed
that just 11% of high school
seniors in the US used LinkedIn
to research universities, even
less than highly visual social
media sites like Snapchat and
Vine.
Source: Collegewebeditor.com

5. The online recruitment tools that are no longer available on
LinkedIn include-
„ Field of Study Explorer, which helped students to explore a range of
different study areas and the careers of graduates in specific fields.
„ University Finder, which allowed students to refine their search based
on location, subject, and even the amount of alumni employed by a
specific company.
„ LinkedIn’s University Rankings, which ranked schools in different
subject areas based on career outcomes for graduates.
„ Decision Boards, which allowed students to amalgamate all their
findings into a board to help them compare choices, and share and
discuss them among their peers.
Source: HEM – LinkedIn Retool Higher Ed Features: What This Means for Your Recruitment Campaigns
3. Previous LinkedIn University Features: A
Missed Opportunity?

6. Example-
When it was active, University Finder answered very specific
requests based on career goals, like this search for a business
career based in the US with a company like Amazon.
Source: HEM – LinkedIn Retool Higher Ed Features: What This Means for Your Recruitment Campaigns
Prospective students
could add each of
these schools to their
decision board and
compare their choices
3. Previous LinkedIn University Features: A
Missed Opportunity?
Many recruiters may feel the discontinuation of these
features is a missed opportunity for the social network.

7. LinkedIn’s new Student app is aimed at finding current
university students a career once they graduate. It allows
students to:
Source: HEM – LinkedIn Retool Higher Ed Features: What This Means for Your Recruitment Campaigns
Ø Enter the details of their college
major to receive personalised
content
Ø Content is displayed in a series
of cards
Ø Students can view current job
openings in that area
Ø Relevant articles are suggested
for them to read
Ø The app also recommends the
profiles of alumni and
companies
4. Promoting Your School on the New
LinkedIn Student App

8. While the app is targeted more towards job seekers, there are still
a few ways for schools to promote themselves –
„ Post topical, career-focused articles to boost your chances of
having a post featured as a card
„ Partner with LinkedIn to create a specially-tailored version of the
app for your current students, featuring postings directly from your
career portal
„ Sponsored ads may be an option in the future for schools looking to
promote postgraduate courses
Source: HEM – LinkedIn Retool Higher Ed Features: What This Means for Your Recruitment Campaigns
4. Promoting Your School on the New
LinkedIn Students App

9. For now, posting career-focused content is your best chance
of featuring on the LinkedIn Student app
Source: HEM – LinkedIn Retool Higher Ed Features: What This Means for Your Recruitment Campaigns
Example
Posts like this one from John
Cabot University which
provide relevant, informative
advice for career-seekers will
appeal to the app’s
demographic
4. Promoting Your School on the New
LinkedIn Students App

10. Despite the changes, LinkedIn University Pages can still help
you connect with prospective students. One of the biggest
advantages of the platform is how well it links with your
alumni.
5. Using LinkedIn University Pages After
the Changes
Source: HEM – LinkedIn Retool Higher Ed Features: What This Means for Your Recruitment Campaigns
Example-
University Pages feature
information about the careers
of notable alumni prominently,
which is a great way of
showing interested students
the possibilities studying at
your school could open up for
them!

11. The alumni recommendations section of your page has also
remained, which allows you to invite alumni to speak about
your school and how it helped their career
5. Using LinkedIn University Pages After
the Changes
Source: HEM – LinkedIn Retool Higher Ed Features: What This Means for Your Recruitment Campaigns
Example-
This glowing testimonial from
an alumnus of South New
Hampshire is a good
illustration of the kind of
valuable
user-based content LinkedIn’s
alumni recommendations can
generate.

12. Some schools have also had success connecting alumni with
prospective students as part of their campaigns
5. Using LinkedIn University Pages After
the Changes
Source: HEM – LinkedIn Retool Higher Ed Features: What This Means for Your Recruitment Campaigns
Example-
Royal Roads University’s
‘Future Mentor’ program
invited potential leads to
connect with some of the
school’s alumni through
LinkedIn to answer any
questions they had about the
school.

13. Schools can also use LinkedIn Pulse, the site’s news
aggregation section, to boost their visibility and
generate more leads
5. Using LinkedIn University Pages After
the Changes
Source: HEM – LinkedIn Retool Higher Ed Features: What This Means for Your Recruitment Campaigns
Example-
This post from Arizona State
University President Michael
Crow has managed to gain
over 1,000 views on Pulse.
Having renowned faculty
members publishing content
on Pulse will help to maximise
your visibility.

14. It will become increasingly vital to stay on top of your LinkedIn
strategy in the near future, with further changes set to come before
the year is out.
„ Unconfirmed reports suggest that the site will be merging University
Pages with Company Pages before the end of 2016
„ This could allow universities to access the Company Pages
comprehensive analytics tab, which tracks numerous different metrics
relating to updates, followers, and visitors
LinkedIn is still an important lead generation platform. While the number of
prospective students using it is small, they tend to be highly focused and
motivated, making them very desirable recruits!
7. The Future of LinkedIn and Higher
Education
Source: HEM – LinkedIn Retool Higher Ed Features: What This Means for Your Recruitment Campaigns