Marketing Brief Vol. Two - LinkedIn

While I didn’t receive any feedback about my post, I am confident that some of you enjoyed it. Unfortunately, none of you recommended any companies I work on, so for this brief, I am going to focus on a product enhancement that would hopefully grow the business. Those of you who know me well know that I believe in LinkedIn. I log on and use the site on a daily basis and believe in it. It has allowed for me to connect with professionals I otherwise wouldn’t be able to and grow my business network. Obviously, time will tell if I am truly able to take advantage of these relationships, but I believe I will.


“An online network of more than 25 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.”

Through LinkedIn’s network you can:

• Find potential clients, service providers, subject experts, and partners who come recommended
• Be found for business opportunities
• Search for great jobs
• Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals
• Post and distribute job listings
• Find high-quality passive candidates
• Get introduced to other professionals through the people you know

Issue:

LinkedIn is missing an opportunity to build via College Alumni Associations.

I understand that there is not a focus on Colleges and Universities on the website. In fact, I believe the only way you can search for fellow alumni is through Alumni groups. An alumni-to-alumni relationship is beneficial for a number of reasons, but most importantly because of what there is in common. For example, because of my association with Ohio State, if I were a hiring manager, I would take a strong look at candidates that have graduated from Ohio State. I realize that this may not be a BIG idea, but I believe it would be a great product enhancement for LinkedIn users and thus enhance the overall LinkedIn experience.

Marketing Idea:

LinkedIn’s College Profiles

LinkedIn College Profiles would be very similar to the Company profiles it already serves. For example, on the college profile page, the college can write a short description of its current student population, its alumni and any other important notes that may be relevant to its alumni. It could actually be a strong sounding board for the Alumni Association and should be monitored by an Association employee/member. Using the data from LinkedIn’s members, the college profile would include which are the top industry’s the alumni work in, the most populated cities in which the alumni work, the most common job type as well as top companies that alumni work at.



The college profiles would also show which of your network is also Alum as well as new hires or promotions for specific companies. Lastly, just as it does for Company Profiles, there would be a section for Popular Profiles on each College page. I believe that this subtle product enhancement could lead to a strong tie-in with Colleges and Universities.

If anyone at LinkedIn is reading, I would love to be the Product Manager for Colleges and Universities. :)