Using LinkedIn company pages like a pro

I recently taught a class on LinkedIn at the University of Richmond. The two-hour class was offered through the University of Richmond’s Institute on Philanthropy (IOP). Kathy Laing manages this program and we’d met through a local Gettysburg College booster (Kathy is a Gettysburg alum).

I wanted to write about the class for two reasons:

1. IOP is a great program and Kathy is awesome. If you’re a non-profit seeking continuing education in communications, marketing or fundraising, I highly recommend you seek out this unique program at UR. (Full disclosure: UR is also a client of THP) 
2. A couple of things stood out during the class discussion and I thought they’d be worth summarizing here for everyone’s benefit. If you want the complete presentation, you can find me on campus in January.

What follows are just a few of my favorite take-aways from class:

This Content Marketing Thing is Not Easy

There is no tool too simple and no template too obvious to make a marketers life just a little easier these days. Building consensus around copy for collateral is one thing…building consensus around the concept of a blog post can take years. And, yet, we know that producing original content is the best way for organizations to build awareness, credibility and, ultimately, customers.

During class we spent a lot of time talking about the strategic pieces THP uses to make content creation and deployment just a little easier. These relatively straight-forward templates and tips are things we use every day. They’re simple and they work. If we missed fancy and hit functional, that’s just how we roll.

Speaking of which, if you missed our first Hodges Starters event, you can read more about THP’s approach to content here. Because “feeding that content beast” is among the hardest jobs out there today. We know your pain and we are working hard to make it easier for you, step by step.

Look Back at LinkedIn from 2003

There’s a reason this content space has gotten so complex so quickly. Check out this LinkedIn profile page from 2003 – what a difference! Clearly, there’s a reason we thought of LinkedIn as an online Rolodex for so long. That was basically accurate until about 2012. Now, it’s a fully-engaged content publishing platform with robust advertising and sponsored content capabilities.

LinkedIn Higher Education Pages are Nifty

I’ve spent quite a lot of time on LinkedIn’s Higher Education pages recently and they’re awesome. As we discussed in class, there are a lot of things you can do with the data LinkedIn feeds into these pages, particularly if you’re a recruiter, in BizDev or in education. Note the navigation bar just under the page name. These sections take a deep dive into the school’s alumni networks.

As you can see below, alumni professions, employers,  and location are broken out. You can also scroll to the left to see more data and all the information is hyperlinked. This particular widget is really great for researching connections.

LinkedIn also serves up a summary of your network and where it overlaps with the school. This screen shot is from my alma mater, Davidson College’s, LinkedIn page and it shows the fellow alumni I’m connected to – pretty cool.

What this all adds up to for me is the conclusion that LinkedIn has great marketing benefits for all types of organizations – including non-profits and higher education institutions – but it’s always got to come back to strategy no matter what platform you’re tackling. That, and 2003 seems like a long, long time ago.

(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons)