Social Business Success

LinkedIn is now marketing to college students.  With the ever-evolving philosophy that LinkedIn has adopted, its latest offering is its University pages.  The University pages are marketed to college students and recent graduates.  That’s right, LinkedIn is now marketing to college students.

One can look at the LinkedIn’s latest move as being right on target.  So many college graduates come out of school with little or no experience and very few connections.  With the job market showing little if any growth, it’s imperative that college students learn another tactic in their search for employment and that is networking.

I think it’s a wonderful idea that LinkedIn has put this in place.  Now the challenge for LinkedIn is to get these on average 18 – 22 year olds to not only establish a LinkedIn account but to use the program.  They need to use LinkedIn like they use Twitter, Facebook and the other social media networks.  Even though LinkedIn doesn’t have the allure of fun and games as the other social networks they use, college students and recent graduates need to understand is that LinkedIn is an investment in their future.

LinkedIn’s University pages

Some positive news for LinkedIn is that approximately 200,000 college students join every month, says Miriam Salpeter from her article “Why Students Should Join LinkedIn in USA News’” Money Careers.

LinkedIn’s new University pages have features such as “Recent Opportunities”.  This section lists jobs for students and recent grads.  There are entry-level positions and internships listed.

Another feature allows you to plug in your school.  Once the student plugs in their school, LinkedIn then show where the alumni work, their occupations, where they live.  This is a great tool for students and recent grads to use to build their network.

Students will learn what networking is all about.  Networking is a skill that is new to many adults, including college students.

LinkedIn right now has fully built out pages for 200 universities.  John Hill, LinkedIn’s Higher Education Evangelist said their goal is pages for 23,000 universities.

Using LinkedIn today is not only for not-so-recent college grads, it’s also for the college student and recent college graduate