STORY

New initiative with LinkedIn aims to boost community connections across CU

Shared research will enable university to better understand students, alumni, friends
By Staff
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LinkedIn
A new initiative between the University of Colorado system and dominant career social media platform LinkedIn takes its first big steps this week as alumni are being invited to help bolster community connections across CU.

LinkedIn members who have indicated they are alumni from CU-Boulder this week will receive email invitations giving them the opportunity to join the official LinkedIn group of the CU-Boulder Alumni Association. The group promises exclusive opportunities for career advancement, mentoring roles and potential establishment of hundreds of new and valuable professional connections.

Similar invitations to alumni from the other three campuses will launch in the days to come. (The UCCS, CU Denver and Anschutz Medical Campus groups are linked here.)

CU is one of only 12 higher education institutions taking part in the new pilot program initiated by LinkedIn, which boasts more than 200 million members in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. More than 20 million of those members are university students and recent graduates.

By taking part in the pilot project, CU will gain special access to LinkedIn data and the chance to explore how LinkedIn may be used in a higher education environment. Three administrators will oversee the project within CU: Matt Duncan, social media manager at CU-Boulder; Misa Lobato, manager of research services at the CU Foundation; and Sue Wyman, director of graduate career connections at the CU Denver Business School. Each was chosen to represent a particular aspect of the higher education LinkedIn experience. Their research access will allow CU to better understand and engage CU students, alumni and friends. They will field research requests from across the system.

The effort provides CU the opportunity to share and learn with the other institutions that are working with LinkedIn: University of Michigan; Michigan State University; Syracuse University; University of California San Diego; University of Rochester, Wharton; Brigham Young University; Hult International Business School, Rensselaer; and Rochester Institute of Technology.

For more information, contact: Matt Duncan, Matt.duncan@colorado.edu, 303-492-6692; Misa Lobato, milagro.lobato@cufund.org, 303-541-1204; Sue Wyman, sue.wyman@ucdenver.edu, 303-315-8900.

 

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