You Linkedin, the most successful professional social network in the world has much more to offer your educational institution than you can imagine. Over 774 million users, it brings together countless futures online students. Quite a scenario for attracting students, don't you think?
Even with all this potential, most educational institutions do not invest in LinkedIn as an education marketing channel. The idea that populates everyone's mind is that it is a social network just for B2B businesses.
Our intention in today's post is precisely to change this concept in your head and show that there is a universe full of opportunities to attract new students waiting for you within the platform. Let's go?
You will see in this post:
Why invest in LinkedIn to attract students?
- Greater digital presence and promotion of the educational institution
- Credibility
- Production of educational content
- Connecting with potential students
How to use LinkedIn to recruit students
Before we talk about how to use LinkedIn in your Digital Marketing strategies, it is important that you understand what the social network is for and its importance. In the next topics, we will explain how Linkedin works, why you should be present on the platform and how to use it strategically to attract more students.
Good reading!
How does Linkedin work?
Launched in 2003, LinkedIn was created with the intention of being a professional social network. That is, the focus is that, within the platform, you have contacts with professionals, companies and educational institutions.
Unlike Instagram, which has a small bio, on the LinkedIn platform, you need to put all your professional information, showing your skills and experiences.
With richer and generally more objective content, the social network promotes more informative interactions, updating users on news from their educational institution.
In addition, the platform also expands your reach, allowing you to connect with more people and gain recognition in the digital environment. But how can all this help your capture? The answer to this question can be found in the next topic.
Why invest in LinkedIn to attract students?
In addition to concentrating a large number of university students, LinkedIn is also used by many professionals who need constant improvement, such as CEOs of large companies. And each of them has, on average, 930 connections.
This means that if the CEO of a multinational company updates his LinkedIn profile saying that he is doing a postgraduate course at his Educational institution, this information is immediately communicated to approximately 1000 people, who may be interested in his courses as well, after all, someone with a good reputation already made that choice.
Another curious fact is that 41% of millionaires use LinkedIn. Among them, several influencers who can also give visibility to your brand and attract more leads.
It is also worth mentioning that, according to a study carried out by Emarketer, 90.4% of millennials are on social media, that is, they are between 18 and 34 years old. This means that they are exactly in the search period for higher professional qualification through graduation or graduate studies to reach better professional positions.
Which Advantages of LinkedIn in Education?
If there are so many potential students on LinkedIn looking for a qualification, it's clear that your educational institution needs to have a presence on the social network.
In addition, the platform can bring numerous advantages to your school or university. Want to know which ones? We list four benefits of social networking.
- Greater digital presence and promotion of the educational institution;
- Credibility;
- Production of educational content;
- Connecting with potential students
Greater digital presence and promotion of the educational institution
Did you know the world moves closer to five billion people online? Yes, millions of users are on the Internet and many of them are prospective students.
In this increasingly connected generation, LinkedIn can be a great way for your school or university to mark its presence in the digital environment and attract those students who are still looking for a quality educational institution to start their graduation.
As we mentioned earlier, the platform is one of the largest social networks in the world, and if you are just starting out in this virtual universe, this could be the first step towards consolidating your online image.
In addition, being present on the social network allows you to promote the differentials of your educational institution and deliver value to your potential students. That way, the benefits of your IE can be easily seen and shared with other users.
Credibility
Ok, your university is a reference in teaching quality and your students already know that, but now you have a new challenge: to show that credibility in the digital universe.
By creating your LinkedIn profile and frequently sharing photos, videos, blogs and other content about your university, you can show future students everything they will have access to when they join your educational institution.
According to your publications, you can establish your credibility on social networks, showing potential students who are online, the quality of teaching, the excellence of your university and the authority you have in academia.
Production of educational content
DAmong the Digital Marketing actions, educating the lead is one of the fundamental phases for the potential student to create a bond with their educational institution and, finally, enroll. In this conversion process, Linkedin can be a great ally of your EI and help you nurture the lead.
Through the platform, which is a great channel to invest in the production of educational content, your educational institution can present its differentials and, in this way, contribute to the future student's decision-making.
At this point, investing in good content marketing is essential to produce informative publications that speak to your target audience and create a certain student identification with your school.
Connecting with potential students
Another great advantage of LinkedIn is the possibility of connections that the platform brings to your university in the digital environment. With many potential students online being able to communicate with your educational institution easily, you can bond and attract new students.
And since we're talking about connections, Linkedin can also be a great ally in your marketing strategies student retention. By nurturing students who are already enrolled and dialoguing with them on the social network, you have the opportunity to build an even more solid relationship and have propagators of your EI online.
After so many advantages, I imagine you are starting to think about creating your university profile on the platform.
But before that, we want to show you how to use LinkedIn for fundraising. Let's go? Continue reading and find out how to put assertive strategies into practice to attract more students.
How to use LinkedIn to recruit students
The educational institution's marketing strategy on LinkedIn should be to generate value for users' platform with original and relevant content about the job market, which will attract those most interested in developing professionally.
It is also possible to maintain frequent career publications, such as how to behave in job interviews or prepare a cover letter.
In a quick search for professional profiles on the social network, you will realize that teaching people how to use LinkedIn for professional outplacement is also a good way to attract more students to your educational institution.
Encourage teachers to publish content aimed at potential students on LinkedIn and share this content on the institutional page. Thus,teachers become influencers and, consequently, attract more students to the institution.
In order to strengthen the image of the institution, we also recommend that you create a page on University Pages or, in Portuguese, LinkedIn for Universities, a feature that aims to bring educational institutions closer to students interested in improving their knowledge.
You Followers can assess the quality of the Educational institution and successful alumni appear on the page, lending greater credibility to your brand. Furthermore, through the University Pages, you keep users up to date with institution information.
Finally, it is possible to invest in paid ads on the platform, reaching your audience in a segmented and assertive way. The only care to take is to create ads that are really relevant and optimized for social networks.
And since we are talking about recruitment strategies, it is clear that to attract more students it is not enough just to use Linkedin, you need a combination of assertive strategies for your target audience.
We, at 4revops, are specialists in Educational Marketing and we can help you in this mission. How about we talk? Get in touch with us through the link below and talk to one of our specialists.