Are You LinkedIn?

Whether you’re a Northwestern University faculty member, student or staff member, social media is inescapable. While many of these sites are used for connecting and sharing information among friends and family, LinkedIn is a different animal -- a social network specifically intended for connecting professionals and organizations, sparking online networking opportunities and helping people market themselves to potential employers.

To help the Northwestern community get the most out of being LinkedIn, the Office for Alumni Relations and Development is sponsoring two presentations by John Hill, LinkedIn’s higher education evangelist. “Getting LinkedIn to What?” and “LinkedIn: The New Resume” will be held Wednesday, April 25, in the McCormick Auditorium at Norris University Center. The events will be tailored to different audiences, stressing the site’s features and benefits for students and University faculty and staff.

Intended for Northwestern faculty and staff, “Getting LinkedIn to What?” will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The session will outline ways in which higher education staff can get the most out of the site for themselves, as well as how they can help students leverage the site’s tools to make professional connections and find jobs.

Hill will also outline ways in which staff members can use LinkedIn to aggregate audiences, target markets, engage alumni and develop recruiting networks.

Intended for Northwestern students, “LinkedIn: The New Resume” will be held from 3:30 to 5 p.m. As the former director of alumni career services and internship development at Michigan State University, Hill will share his best practices and strategies for why students should join the site and how they can take advantage of its features. Topics will include using LinkedIn to develop a personal online brand, how to network with alumni and professionals in various career fields, and how to leverage that network in the job and internship search.

Both events are free, but registration is required. Click here to register. For more information, contact students@alumni.northwestern.edu or call 847-491-5648. You can also join the Northwestern University Alumni group on LinkedIn.