We all recognise those past pupils who, after a while, have found their place in the world, their voice, and their career path. Those past pupils – your school Alumni – are gold dust for your school profile and marketing presence.
If your school isn’t on LinkedIn (with a profile that paints the uniqueness of the school), it should be.
And, if you’re not connecting with your past pupils, then you’re missing a trick.
Here’s why LinkedIn is important for your school
LinkedIn is THE online business platform for B2B social/business networking and, used correctly, your school can maximise the benefits of it by connecting with your ex-pupils.
LinkedIn is used by millions of people across the world, and whilst your Alumni make up a very small fraction of that, they are on LinkedIn for a reason – to connect, market themselves, showcase their business, raise the profile of both them and their business, and generate leads.
For the education sector, the networks and connections that your Alumni, along with their profile, have are crucial. If your Alumni are successful, knowing where they went to school is huge because it formed part of their journey to get to where they are now.
By being linked to their success, your school is showing how you have been instrumental in their education and have helped to create the foundations for their businesses success. This is a massive marketing and PR tool.
When interested individuals or businesses scroll through one of your Alumni’s profile and see your school listed in their history, that Alumni’s credibility and gravitas is directly linked to you.
Why does this matter? PR – people see your school name and your profile is getting hits through subsequent click throughs and follows. The more people who are aware of you, the better. That’s fruitful marketing.
Many past pupils are really proud of where they went to school – it’s a large part of their identity. When they share this information across their networks, it’s passive marketing at its very best. Equally, by forming a connection and narrative with them (commenting on posts and sharing their successes), you instantly form a connection across a very wide network.
But this progression doesn’t always happen by chance – there is some work to put in to engage with your Alumni. It’s easy enough to do, and we can take you through that process.
How to ignite your Alumni Outreach work
We highly recommend you read our Q&A online – We’ve explored these questions with our schools, see the Q&A online: MarketingAdvisers.co.uk/linkedin-alumni
By following the three simple steps outlined in the Q&A to engage with your Alumni, your school marketing team can link with those past pupils who want to remain connected to your school and their contemporaries. LinkedIn offers a first-class facility, within a business setting, to remain connected and, if set-up correctly, offers the users (Alumni) the ability to directly connect with your ever-growing group of loyal past-pupils.
Quite simply, LinkedIn can put your school on the local map and position its uniqueness to the wider world, using your best assets – your Alumni.
Go ahead – make the most of your LinkedIn school profile and encourage your Alumni to link their school education to your main activated page.
Alumni/LinkedIn case studies
Claire’s Court School – Mike Morrissey, Head of Marketing, “We recently reviewed and revised our school LinkedIn profile and as part of this exercise we were able to activate the Alumni tab database functionality. This profile adjustment has now taken effect and will for sure benefit both the school and our ‘linked-in’ Alumni.”
West London Free School Sixth Form – Lucy Frederick, Registrar and Sixth Form Manager. “The LinkedIn Alumni feature for schools and education institutions is a real revelation… and now we are starting our journey to engage our past pupils through the platform.”
If you want to know more, or have any questions, reach out to us or to view the LinkedIn-Alumni Q&A, to check you’re not missing a trick – click here.