LinkedIn can be used as a marketing tool, networking tool, job board, discussion board, and tool for staying connected with students and alumni. It allows users to build their personal brand through a strong profile, connecting with others, posting relevant content, and participating in groups. The presenter encourages using LinkedIn to help students create professional networks and assess the quality of their online profiles and engagement on the platform.

1. SCOTT FREEHAFER, PH.D., SPHR, SHRM-SCP
THE UNIVERSITY OF FINDLAY
ACBSP REGION 4 CONFERENCE
OCTOBER 19, 2018
LinkedIn: Is It a Marketing Tool, Networking Tool,
Job Board, a Discussion Board/Collaborative
Learning Tool, or a Retention & Recognition Tool?
or
Using LinkedIn to help Students Create a
Professional Network (Teachable Moments)

2. LinkedIn: Is It a Marketing Tool, Networking Tool, Job
Board, or Discussion Board/Collaborative Learning Tool?
• YES!
• It is also a great way to stay in contact with your students,
alumni, and business contacts.
• Let’s learn more!

3. LinkedIn: A Marketing Tool
• Of course LinkedIn is a Marketing Tool!
• With LinkedIn you can help build your personal brand and
your organizational brand.
• You build your personal brand by building a good profile,
connecting with others, posting relevant content, joining
relevant groups, and interacting with them.

4. LinkedIn: Building a Good Profile
• You build your personal brand by building a good profile
which is easy to do. LinkedIn has tools which help you
build your profile.

5. MY PROFILE

6. MY PROFILE – I AM AN ALL STAR! JOIN MY NETWORK!

7. LinkedIn: Connecting with Others
• You build your personal brand by connecting with others

8. TEACHABLE MOMENT
• Do you require your students to have a LinkedIn profile? In my HR classes, I do.
• You can assess the quality and completeness of their profile and you will want
them to connect with you in order to do this.
• Hint: Check out the … and you can download and print out their LinkedIn profile
as a LinkedIn Resume.
• Considerations: How complete is their profile? Is it well written? How many
connections do they have? Have they customized their Public Profile Link? Did
they upload a photo?
• Rule – If they don’t connect with me, I don’t go searching for them!

9. BUILDING YOUR BRAND: POSTING RELEVANT CONTENT

10. LinkedIn: Posting Relevant Content
• You build your personal brand by posting relevant content

11. TEACHABLE MOMENT
• What kind of “Brand” does their LinkedIn profile represent? Is there going to be a
difference in a freshman’s profile versus a senior’s profile or a graduate student’s
profile? Of course there is, but the question is this: Is this the student’s best
profile?
• What have they put out there in terms of content on their Profile? An article? A
video? These are things you can grade!

12. LinkedIn: Joining Relevant Groups
• You can build your personal brand by joining relevant groups,
participating in them, and networking with people in those
groups.
• What groups make sense for you to join? There are groups for
just about everything!
• LinkedHR, SHRM, Workforce, DMD, ACBSP, UF’s COB are a few
of mine.
• What about you?

13. TEACHABLE MOMENT
• Have the students joined any relevant professional groups?
• Have they posted a question or comment in those groups? (You may not be able
to assess this directly, but you can request the student to print out a list of the
responses with a summary and analysis of them.
• You could start your own group for a class, a club, or your college and have them
interact there.

14. LinkedIn: Interacting with Them
• You build your personal brand by interacting with
individuals and with groups.
• By adding value to others, you add value to your network
and by doing do, you build your brand and your network.
• Make your interactions regular and intentional!

15. LinkedIn: A Networking Tool
• While LinkedIn started out as a networking tool and it still is, it has
become much more than that!
• Who is in your network? 1st Degree connections, 2nd Degree
connections, 3rd Degree connections, and Group connections
• Quality or Quantity or Both?
• LIONS
• Hit the Connect Button or Make it Personal??

16. LinkedIn: A Networking Tool – LinkedIn Email
• LinkedIn has a simple email tool built into it, but you are limited to
who you can contact through LinkedIn unless you are a Premium
Member.
• Who can you contact directly – 1st Degree Connections and Group
Members
• Who can you contact indirectly – everyone through a personal
connection request!
• You have 300 characters and spaces to get your message across!

17. TEACHABLE MOMENT
• During the course of a semester, has the student grown
his or her profile?
• Have you sat down with the student to review the profile
and make suggestions on how to improve it?
• Has the student added people to his or her network?
People in the student’s intended career or professional
field?

18. LinkedIn: A Job Board

19. LinkedIn: A Job Board

20. LinkedIn: A Job Board – Digging Deeper - Search

21. LinkedIn: A Job Board – Digging Deeper – 7,855 Jobs?

22. LinkedIn: A Job Board – Digging Deeper – 23 Jobs!

23. TEACHABLE MOMENT
• Have the students do a job search using LinkedIn and compare those results to some
of the other job boards like Indeed and Glassdoor? How many jobs do they come up
with and how relevant are those jobs? How do the results in LinkedIn compare to
other job boards? Remember – the quality is more important than the quantity!
• I would not have the students actually apply online unless they are really looking!
• Have they identified jobs that they want and what those jobs require? Do they know
where they fall short on the requirements and do they have a plan in place to meet or
exceed those requirements by the time they graduate?
• Have they identified companies or organizations they would like to follow? Have they
made any connections with people at that company or organization?

24. LinkedIn: A Job Board – Why Recruiters Use It!

25. LinkedIn: A Job Board – Why Recruiters Use It!

26. LinkedIn’s Job Board
• If your Career Services professionals are not using
LinkedIn’s Job Board…they should be!
• If your Alumni are not using LinkedIn’s Job Board…
they should be!
• If your students are not using LinkedIn’s Job
Board… they should be!

27. TEACHABLE MOMENT
• I have my HR students actually conduct a search for a position. Here is the assignment:
• Complete your LinkedIn Profile and link with me. Linking with me will make my 1st degree connections
your 2nd degree connections and you can use the search box to search for candidates. We have a
major player in the recruiting industry here in Findlay Ohio (ADP RPO) and you can use 2 of their
employees as your candidates, but I would like you to find at least one qualified candidate who does
not work for them.
• You have been engaged to use LinkedIn to search for 3 prospective employees who you would
recommend to be interviewed for a Recruiting Manager position at a fictitious local recruiting firm
which is looking to open up in Findlay in August. This person would need to help hire, train, and
manage a team of 10 full-time recruiters. Due to financial constraints and no relocation packages,
please limit your search to no more than 120 miles from Findlay. Think about who would be ready for
this position when you do your search and who would be willing to take on this challenge.
• Write about what makes these three candidates stand out? Who is your top candidate? Why?

28. TEACHABLE MOMENT
• For this assignment, I would like you to select two different positions and two
different locations and see how many jobs are available in those particular
locations. Where you have the option, restrict your proximity to a 30-mile radius.
Position/City LinkedIn Glassdoor Indeed
Position 1/City 1
Position 1/City 2
Position 2/City 1
Position 2/City 2

29. LinkedIn: A Discussion Board/Collaborative
Learning Tool
• If students have developed a fairly significant network, they can post an article or
a question on their profile page and ask for comments.
• If the student does not have developed a fairly significant network (or if they
really want to target a specific audience), they can join a group and post a
question for the group members to respond to.
• I recommend copying the link to the posting to make it easier to track:

30. LinkedIn: A Discussion Board/Collaborative
Learning Tool
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:642989690045500
2112

31. TEACHABLE MOMENT
• When students are in one of your classes, you could require them to join a
specific group in LinkedIn and require them to respond to a certain number of
discussion posting. They would have to do research related to the topic before
they respond and they can do a screen capture of their contribution of the
question and their response.
• You could also require then to post a question which they would qualitatively
evaluate the responses or they could post a brief survey to collect responses to
the group (make sure this is ok with IRB first?). What kind of survey is this? Are
the survey questions appropriate and well written? Can the responses be
summarized and analyzed?

32. LinkedIn: A Great Way to Stay in Touch with Your Alumni

33. LinkedIn: A Great Way to Stay in Touch with Your Alumni

34. LinkedIn: A Great Way to Stay in Touch with Your Alumni

35. LinkedIn: A Great Way to Stay in Touch with Your Alumni

36. LinkedIn: A Great Way to Stay in Touch with Your Alumni

37. SO WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH LINKED IN?
• What are three things you learned in this session?
• 1)
• 2)
• 3)
• What are three things you are going to do as a result of this session?
• 1)
• 2)
• 3)

38. THANK YOU FOR COMING TO THIS SESSION!!
• I hope you got a lot out of this session!
• Please feel free to share it with your students and colleagues!
• Connect with me on LinkedIn!
• This PowerPoint will be available on SlideShare and on my LinkedIn account!