Universities react to LinkedIn University Pages

LinkedIn’s University Pages have been live since summer 2013, and University Affairs has reported on some reactions from Canadian universities. The University of British Columbia, which was invited to participate in the product’s test phase, has “actively embraced” its page. “For us, it’s a fundamental piece of our social media strategy, because people expect brands to be on LinkedIn,” says UBC Director of Interactive Marketing Juliana Fridman. However, Concordia University was not involved in the test phase, which meant it was notified after the pages’ launch that an empty page in its name was available. “It took us 2 to 3 weeks to populate our page. For anyone who saw it when it was empty, the implication was that we couldn’t get our act together,” says Concordia Director of Web Communications Lucy Niro. Niro adds that she doesn’t think Concordia’s page will attract many teenaged followers – and says those it does attract will be hard to identify. York University’s Mark Farmer agrees, confirming that most of the comments and likes on YorkU’s page are by alumni, not pre-university students. University Affairs