How to Use LinkedIn to Advance Your Financial Aid Career

1
HOW TO USE
LINKEDIN
TO ADVANCE YOUR
FINANCIAL AID CAREER

2
There are 300 million users
on LinkedIn.
For comparison sake, that’s only slightly less than
the population of the United States.

3
LinkedIn is easily the most popular social media for
professionals. The member base spans 200 countries,
with a third of the users living in the U.S.

4
100 million of your fellow Americans display their
professional pedigrees on LinkedIn.
It’s time to ask yourself why you’re not.

5
Postsecondary education administration employs
roughly 162,000 people.
Having a professional presence online is becoming
increasingly important in the financial aid industry.
Don’t believe us?
Below are some of the myriad benefits.

6
BENEFITS OF AN ONLINE
PROFESSIONAL PRESENCE

7
BENEFITS
You are searchable.
Potential employers turn to
LinkedIn to search for candidates.

8
BENEFITS
You have a network.
When you have industry-specific questions, requests
for advice or support or an open position in your
department, a big network is a priceless resource.
See our list of LinkedIn’s higher ed financial aid groups
in slide 36 to grow your network.

9
BENEFITS
You are real.
This may sound silly, but an internet presence is
becoming a proof of existence, and as a result,
a source of trust.
Unfortunately, it is all too easy to make up or steal an
identity nowadays, and those in your industry will often
search you out online before meeting you.

10
BENEFITS
You are tech-savvy.
You may have begun your career when the entire finan-
cial aid process was conducted without computers. If
so, we first must acknowledge the countless students
you’ve served in your career – thank you.
Though it’s not fair to judge from an online profile, that’s
exactly what happens. Certain assumptions will be
made when you don’t turn up in a search.

11
BENEFITS
You’ll notice it’s not just your students who use
computers for nearly everything. College
administrators incorporate more tech (behind the
scenes and in the classroom) every year.
Having an updated online professional profile
illustrates your technical abilities, which will actually
set you ahead of others in the financial aid industry.

12
10 TIPS FOR BEING
LEGENDARY ON LINKEDIN

14
1. COMPLETE YOUR PROFILE.
Seems like a no-brainer, right?
I continue to see profiles that only list the job title and
employer with no summary.
This is as helpful as an obscure menu item with no
description (ah yes, I’ll have the Constellation Burger…
it sounds delicious?).

15
1. COMPLETE YOUR PROFILE.
Especially if you are on the job hunt or considering it,
take the time to write a summary that reflects you and
job descriptions with keywords that relate to
your industry.
This gives potential employers an
understanding of your skills and insight into whether
you’re a fit for their department culture.
Speaking of keywords…

16
2. INCLUDE THE RIGHT
KEYWORDS.

17
2. INCLUDE THE RIGHT WORDS.
LinkedIn’s internal search engines rely on keywords
in searches.
Determine the keywords that potential
employers would use to fill the position you want.

18
2. INCLUDE THE RIGHT WORDS.
LinkedIntoBusiness.com recommends putting your
most important keywords strategically throughout your
profile by placing them in your:
• Professional Headline
• Title Fields (of jobs)
• Specialties
• Interests
• Recommendations (when you request
recommendations from co-workers, it’s fine to ask that
they reference you with certain keywords)
• Education

20
3. SMILE FOR THE CAMERA.
Your picture and headline are all people will see
before they connect with you.
These are your two selling points…make sure they are
crisp, clear and professional.

21
3. SMILE FOR THE CAMERA.
Even if you can’t afford professional headshots,
choose the closest thing.
This article gives useful advice for
taking your own headshots with nothing more
than a smartphone.

23
4. CONNECT WITH EVERYONE.
Connect with old and new colleagues, bosses,
classmates, clients, fellow committee members and
anyone else you’ve associated with for a job,
project, charity or board.

24
Also add people in your industry who you don’t yet
know but would like to, such as the most quoted man in
Financial Aid, Mark Kantrowitz.
Connecting on LinkedIn isn’t about looking popular, it’s
a way to expand your job opportunities.

25
Malcolm Gladwell references sociologist Mark
Granovetter’s well-known study about connectors,
stating his “research showed it was your
acquaintances, not your close friends, who
introduce you to new ideas and opportunities.”

26
For Example:
Take one financial aid counselor I spoke with recently.
She took a couple years off with a new baby and is
looking to re-enter the financial aid industry.

27
She has about 150 connections on LinkedIn. If each of
those people only had 20 connections, her network
amasses to 3,000 professionals. Imagine if she added
another 10 similar people – that’s 200 more potential
connections who could:

28
• Introduce her to their connections in the industry
• Share a job opportunity with her
• Endorse her skills or recommend her
• Offer advice in her job search
• Post an article or financial aid tool that that earns her
recognition when she lands a job

30
5. CELEBRATE OTHERS.
I have found a “give to get” approach effective on
LinkedIn. Every single person I have recommended has
recommended me back.

31
And when I have a couple extra minutes, I’ll go LinkedIn
and endorse people for skills I know they possess.
The next time I sign in, I always have more
endorsements for my own skills.

32
Plus, in my experience, writing a genuine
recommendation for an old or current coworker lends a
positive, random-act-of-kindness-glow to a
stressful day.

34
6. JOIN GROUPS.
In my opinion, this is the second greatest benefit of
LinkedIn (#1 is finding your dream job opportunities).
Below is a list of the top higher ed Financial Aid related
groups on LinkedIn.

35
6. JOIN GROUPS.
Join these groups to:
• Network with fellow industry professionals
• Ask questions
• Get feedback
• Find out what resources your fellows are using
• See the newest studies and research
• Be among the first to see new job postings

36
6. JOIN GROUPS.
College Counselors: Admissions and Financial Aid
17,000+ members
Higher Ed Financial Aid & Enrollment
6,700+ members
Proprietary Education Career Opportunities (PECO)
2,100+ members
National Association of Student Financial Aid
Administrators (NASFAA) – 5,600+ members

37
6. JOIN GROUPS.
Financial Aid Professionals & Administrators
5,200+ members
Financial Aid Best Practices
3,000+ members
Higher Education Online
2,200+ members

39
7. WEIGH IN.
Joining the right groups isn’t enough.
These groups are full of thousands of invisible
members who don’t contribute.

40
7. WEIGH IN.
Become a memorable name in your industry by posting
relevant, credible articles, liking others’ posts and
commenting when you can offer a knowledgeable
opinion or when you have a question.

41
7. WEIGH IN.
When your resume passes someone’s desk and they
recognize your name from a LinkedIn group you’re
both in, you are immediately more “real” and
interesting than other candidates.

43
8. SNOOP AROUND.
Laura Shin, LinkedIn expert and author suggests
snooping.
She says if you’re considering a school’s job posting,
you can use LinkedIn to find former employees of the
school who can give insight into the
department culture.

44
8. SNOOP AROUND.
You may also find one of your connections is able to
introduce you to the hiring manager.
Also in reverse, if your boss is hiring, you may be able
to peruse your LinkedIn connections to help make
some recommendations.

45
8. SNOOP AROUND.
Never underestimate the value of making your boss’s
life easier; he or she will recognize that your
connections make you a more valuable asset to the
department and school.

47
9. PUBLISH.
If you’re into name dropping, then here is why
Forbes says you should publish.
Otherwise, allow me to elaborate on why publishing on
LinkedIn is the extra credit of being a LinkedIn Legend.

48
9. PUBLISH.
By now, you may have seen posts by your colleagues
or by Financial Aid organizations you follow in your
LinkedIn feed.
For businesses and organizations, LinkedIn is a content
marketing platform just like their company blog.
For individuals, it’s an opportunity to become an
expert in the field.

49
9. PUBLISH.
Every day, you have unique experiences with students.
Likely, you learn something new about financial aid on
a weekly basis or more frequently.

50
9. PUBLISH.
By sharing your solutions to these learning
experiences in an article on LinkedIn, you become a
resource for others in your field (without revealing
specific student information, of course).

51
9. PUBLISH.
Now imagine one of those people who used the
solution you generously shared hears your name come
up as an applicant for a job within their department.

52
9. PUBLISH.
Wouldn’t it be nice if they had such a positive story to
share about your creative problem-solving skills?
#extracredit

54
10. START NOW.
Even if you started reading this article thinking,
“But I’m not looking to leave my current job,”
I hope you have learned that being valuable on
LinkedIn increases your value in your current
workplace, as well as your industry as a whole.

55
10. START NOW.
LinkedIn isn’t the only course to a successful career in
Financial Aid – in fact, many of you led legendary
careers before LinkedIn – but it is unquestionably an
asset to the modern financial aid professional.

56
10. START NOW.
Oh, and it’s free. So why not take time today to
implement one of the suggestions above?

57
THANK YOU.
campuslogic
from the team at

How to Use LinkedIn to Advance Your Financial Aid Career

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