LinkedIn Page Strategies for Schools, Colleges, Professional Associations and Universities

LinkedIn Page Strategies for Schools, Colleges, Professional Associations and Universities

By Sue Ellson BBus MIML MAHRI CDAA ASA MPC WV SPN AH

I have been providing LinkedIn training and advice to various Schools, Colleges, Professional Associations and Universities for several years now, and in particular, to advancement professional members of EducatePlus at their annual local and international conferences since 2015.

Whilst many Schools, Colleges, Professional Associations and Universities appear to have mastered Facebook, Instagram and sometimes Twitter, their LinkedIn School Page may not attract quite as much personalised attention.

Many staff responsible for the social media presence ask if they can share the same content on LinkedIn as they do on other social media and I usually say 'mostly.' I like to encourage staff to share equal amounts of content across multiple social media platforms (but also add it to the school website where the content can technically remain fully archivable for many years. Social media posts in a Newsfeed can become 'lost' after just one month).

So my mantra has always been to publish content on the School, College, Professional Association or University website first and then share the content on social media. However, I am well aware that this rarely happens. I don't quite understand why the 'website' department doesn't communicate effectively with the 'social media' department, but I don't plan to debate that topic here.

In this article, I will provide a range of LinkedIn strategies for Schools, Colleges, Professional Associations and Universities.

A quick note, if you are part of a Professional Association that provides accredited courses, you can also apply to have a School Page on LinkedIn.

Company Page, School Page or both?

Firstly, some Schools, Colleges, Professional Associations and Universities don't even have a Company Page or a School Page on LinkedIn. This is a major concern because it means that these entities miss out on prime real estate branding opportunities on all of the alumni's Personal LinkedIn Profiles.

For example, if a student has attended your School, College, Professional Association or University, if you have a School Page, they can select this from the drop down box in the Education section of their LinkedIn Profile and your logo will then appear on their LinkedIn Profile and be clickable through to your School Page.

LinkedIn has automatically created some Company Pages or School Pages for individual Schools, Colleges, Professional Associations or Universities (because it is public knowledge), but I often find that no-one from the School is administering the Page because it hasn't been claimed. Once again, no logo appears on the individual person's LinkedIn Profile and it doesn't look good for the School either when they have a School Page that has not been completed and does not include a logo, website link and other information.

Some Schools, Colleges, Professional Associations and Universities only have a Company Page and do not have a School Page. This means that the people who work at the School or University can list it in their Experience or Voluntary Experience section of their LinkedIn Profile but no-one can list it in their Education Section.

So what is the bottom line here then?

1. If you have an automatically created Company Page for your School, College, Professional Association or University that does not have Admin access, please add your School, College, Professional Association or University email address to your LinkedIn Profile at https://www.dhirubhai.net/psettings/email and then claim Admin access at https://www.dhirubhai.net/help/linkedin/ask/CP-MASTER.
2. If you have an existing Company Page for your School or University, organise three staff to have Admin access and ask LinkedIn to convert it to a School or University Page at https://www.dhirubhai.net/help/linkedin/ask/up-anup so that staff can select it in the Experience or Voluntary Experience sections and students can select it in the Education section.
3. If you do not have a Company Page or School Page on LinkedIn, add your School or University email address to your LinkedIn account at https://www.dhirubhai.net/psettings/email, go to https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/setup/new/ and start by selecting 'Educational Institution.' Once completed, staff can then select it in the Experience or Voluntary Experience sections and students can select it in the Education section.

Ultimately, you need to ensure that at least three people have Admin access to a LinkedIn School Page. There is no need to have a Company Page as well.

LinkedIn Content Strategies

We all know that LinkedIn is the world's largest professional network so your content strategy for LinkedIn needs to be professional as well. I often use the expression, 'friendly and professional' when selecting what to Post on LinkedIn. That doesn't mean overtly personal as you may see on other social media networks.

More information on starting with engagement, then curating and creating Content available here.

Topics

Multiple photos from large social events (like sports days or formals) are more suited to a social media platform like Facebook. However, a few photos or a quick video could be suitable for LinkedIn, provided it is introduced effectively.

The way you can do this is by giving each Post on your School Page a 'topic.' It is not a formal topic and it doesn't classify your content in any other format than visually, but it helps people skim through Posts to see what is most relevant to them.

Please note, this is not a LinkedIn suggestion or requirement, this is simply a strategy that I recommend for Posting on LinkedIn.

Suggested topics include:

CELEBRATE – for notable achievements

AWARDS – for external recognition

SCHOOL NEWS – general news about the school

STAFF – general news about the staff

STUDENTS – general news about the students

ALUMNI – general news about alumni

COMMUNITY – general news about the school or university within the local community

You could then start each post with TOPIC // Today xyz.......

Pro Forma Post Layout

Your School, College, Professional Association or University may like to choose a Style Guide for your Posts on LinkedIn. You could recommend using active language, using appropriate emojis, including certain hashtags (or some that must always be used or a maximum number of 3-5 as you choose) and making sure that any person or enterprise is @mentioned so that they can be notified of their inclusion in your Post.

If the first few lines are not turned into a paragraph, more of the text will be seen before the …see more prompt.

More ways to make a Post go viral are listed here. If a specific person has been mentioned, copying a link to the LinkedIn Post and emailing it to them would be a nice gesture, especially if they do not log on to LinkedIn regularly and may miss the immediate Notification.

As you may already know, at present, LinkedIn Articles can only be published by Individuals, not by Company Page or School Page Admins. Tips on how to Search Engine Optimise LinkedIn Articles are listed here.

Images

If you are using images of people, you need to ensure that written permission has been secured and that images are not copywrighted to someone else. Whilst faces in images can certainly attract attention, in some cases, it may be important to include faces from a distance so that they are indistinguishable or to take photos from behind people so that the person is unidentifiable, particularly if they are children under the age of 18.

You may like to choose a particular style - perhaps including a school logo watermark, a font or colour scheme that ties in with the main message of the Post or even encourage photos to be taken with something recognisable to Followers of your Page within the image. I personally like images that tell a story on their own. If you need to edit images or include watermarks and additional text, there is a lot of functionality available via the free version of Canva.com

Video

Like most social media platforms, LinkedIn prefers it if you upload videos directly in to LinkedIn. However, I would like to encourage you to add your videos to your School, College, Professional Association or University YouTube Channel first (where they can be added to various Playlists you create in your Channel) and then encourage you to go through the Captions that are generated, edit any typographical errors and then download the Captions file (called a .SRT file).

Then, when you add the video to a LinkedIn Post, you can also add the Captions file and then your video will automatically show Captions to the viewer. This is ideal for people with a hearing impairment but also for people watching videos with the sound turned off.

The reason I like to encourage native uploads to a LinkedIn School Page is because all of your Videos will then appear under the Video tab of your LinkedIn School Page. The videos can all be viewed from the one list and create useful engagement for people looking at your School Page.

Frequency of Posting

I generally recommend at least once per week, but once a month will suffice. Five times a day is pointless because the algorithm will try to share the first Post, and will stop when it receives the second, then again with the third etc, so technically, you are only giving one Post a chance to go viral anyway.

Statistics of Interest

At present, LinkedIn appears to favour Posts shared by Individuals rather than Posts shared by Companies or Schools. Attracting more than five reactions (Likes, Comments or Shares) is a good sign for a LinkedIn School Page. Don't give up if this number doesn't increase as quickly as you would like. I am predicting that as time goes by, more Company and School Page Posts will be featured in your personal newsfeed, but that will only happen if people start sharing quality content on a regular basis (and not just sales pitches).

Increasing Followers

As an Admin for the School Page, you can invite your Connections to Follow the School Page, but only up to 100 people at a time. If a person accepts the invitation, the point you 'lost' by sending the invite will 'return.' As far as I can tell, you receive another 100 credits each month. If you know some people at the School, College, Professional Association or University with a lot of related Connections, you may like to invite them to be an Admin of the School Page so that they can invite selected Connections to Follow the School Page.

Increasing Alumni

I have written extensively on increasing alumni here.

Increasing Marketing

I have written extensively on increasing marketing for schools, colleges and universities here.

Students and Future Graduates

I have written extensively on students and future graduates here.

LinkedIn for Academics, Professors, Adjuncts, Lecturers, Instructors, School Teachers, Educators, Tutors, Researchers, Deans and Vice Chancellors

I have written extensively on the topic of LinkedIn for Academics, Staff etc here. Please remember that if the senior staff do not update their LinkedIn Profiles, it can be difficult to convince other staff or students to do the same.

Risk Management and Easy Referencing

Keeping a record of the links to all of your LinkedIn Posts (click the three dots on the top right hand side of each Post) in a spreadsheet would be very wise, with columns for the Date, the LinkedIn Link, Details of the actual Post and Topic.

This would mean that if you have annual events, you could easily find the link from last year's Post and re-use some of the formatting. It also means that if you need to quickly locate a Post that needs editing, it can be found easily, especially if it is more than one year old as these Posts disappear from the Scroll function.

One School I worked with had a very strong complaint related to a legal matter and fortunately, the person contacted the School before they contacted a lawyer and the offending Post, that could be found quickly, was removed immediately.

Good Practice

It is important to respond to all Post Comments in a timely manner and with as much detail as possible from the Comment. Including some of the words that were used in the Comment in the Reply demonstrates that you care and really understood their Comment. Longer Comments are also good - not just 'Thanks'! If there is nothing else to 'add' by way of a Comment, Liking it is also a good option.

Good Examples

I believe these School Pages offer lots of great ideas that you may like to use for your School, College, Professional Association or University Page.

Knox Grammar School - boys school in Sydney, Australia

TAFE Queensland - technical and further education, Brisbane, Australia

CPA Australia - professional association for Accountants in Melbourne, Australia

University of South Australia - university in Adelaide, Australia

Important Reminders

Don't forget to add the details of the LinkedIn School Page to your School, College, Professional Association or University Website. Remember to invite all Staff to update their LinkedIn Profile when they begin employment, receive a promotion or leave. Remember to invite all students to update their Education Section before they complete their studies. Even if students do not complete their entire qualification, they can still list the Subjects they have completed as this will include them in your Alumni.

Page 179 onwards of my book ‘120 Ways To Achieve Your Purpose With LinkedIn’ goes through more information for Schools, Colleges and Universities. You can download this book at ResearchGate or at 120 Ways Publishing.

Please contact me directly if you have any quick questions via sueellson [at] sueellson.com. If you have several questions or need further support, please engage my professional services for upwards of 30 minutes.

Keyword Hashtags

#linkedinforschools #linkedinforuniversities #linkedinforassociations #linkedinforcolleges #linkedinpages #linkedincompanypages #linkedinschoolpages #sueellson

First Published: 14 December 2020

Last Update: 14 December 2020

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Sue Ellson BBus, MIML, MAHRI, CDAA, MPC, ASA, WV, SPN, AH is an Independent LinkedIn Specialist, Business and Careers Consultant, Trainer and Author.

More information at https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/sueellson and https://sueellson.com

Questions directly via email sueellson [at] sueellson.com