New LinkedIn page connects IU alumni

IU continues to expand its social media presence in efforts to boost its alumni and student networking. This year, the University is turning to LinkedIn.

LinkedIn University Pages is just one of these resources, and IU was one of the universities to participate in this new project.

LinkedIn approached IUAA Director of Alumni Marketing Sarah Anderson about the University page about a year ago.

“LinkedIn wanted to test out their hypothesis of how to go about a university-page type platform,” Anderson said. “They invited several colleges and universities to be a part of a beta project. It is a technology startup innovation that includes a group of users that you want for the new platform to help get feedback of where they can take the project.”

IUAA CEO and Executive Director J. T. Forbes used to be colleagues with John Hill, LinkedIn’s higher education evangelist. Anderson said Hill travels to colleges to explain how universities can use LinkedIn to support their work, alumni relations and provide career advice and development.

Hill visited IU about a year ago, and that’s when the University Page conversation began and ideas started to form.

“LinkedIn has their own goals for the page,” Anderson said. “It’s really user-driven, so it’s about what’s most beneficial for the users. There are many angles for the page. Current students, alumni, faculty and staff are made followers of the page. Our goal for the page is to explore the functionality and provide a landing place for IU alumni to see what their peers are doing.”

Some features include the alumni tool at the top of the page. Anderson said users can filter alumni listings by their occupation and place of residence, so it makes it easy to connect to them.

LinkedIn users can also send out information to large groups. For example, Anderson said the page recently posted IU President Michael McRobbie’s message regarding the goals for IU this year in order to inform alumni.

Anderson said IUAA’s goal right now is to grow its presence as an alumni body on LinkedIn and become a valuable resource for current constituents.

The group is working with other universities to make the pages successful. One hundred and forty-nine thousand alumni have already been identified with the page.

“It’s important because it’s a platform built on networking, and the power of the IU Bloomington network is very valuable,” Anderson said. “It is great to have a platform to show prospective students that you are part of a network and a worldwide family.”