LinkedIn holds the power to boost your Education Marketing value. Here’s why.

Many education providers and marketers are reliant on prospective students searching for their institutions and programs, but in reality, many of these students are not always ready to take that first step or have not even sparked their research interest.

Knowing this, education marketers are notorious for pumping resources into campaigns and turning up the volume on subjects and courses as a quick fix.

However, the key factor often overlooked is that prospective students are more likely to be attracted to what value you can add to their personal or career growth, rather than what you are simply offering. Here’s where LinkedIn trumps other social platforms when amplifying the value of an education provider’s course offerings.

Compared to other social channels like Facebook or Instagram, LinkedIn boasts a platform of over 546 million professionals across all types of seniorities, industries, companies and businesses. From an education marketer’s perspective, this opens a plethora of valuable prospective students.

Why? – Aside from the large multinationals and high-level seniors, there is an even larger pool of graduates, students and employees looking to take the next step, whether that be at the upskilling stage, career change or simply looking to move forward in their education journey.

As such, LinkedIn makes it easier than ever to connect with like-minded and highly engaged audiences; enabling education providers to really zone in and tap into a prospective student’s aspirational mindset.

Below, we break down more of LinkedIn’s best qualities and demonstrate exactly how education providers can incorporate these features into their education marketing strategy.

There is no denying that social giants such as Facebook, Instagram and the like have the power to zone in on specific interests and target areas. However, it is usually more of a challenge for education providers to gain rapid traction and have their institutional value resonate within a more consumer-focused audience.

Candidates on LinkedIn often view the platform as a trustworthy source and as mentioned, are generally looking for a value-added experience. LinkedIn’s unique, professional-focused niche makes it an effective option for education providers to market their courses, as there is naturally an aura of wanting to ‘better’ oneself. As such, being able to connect directly with a more motivated and goal-oriented audience is a highly desired characteristic that education providers look for in prospective students.

From a paid perspective, LinkedIn boasts a unique interest targeting strategy where users are not only able to target specific subjects but can also tailor to education levels, seniority, job functions and more. This, along with LinkedIn’s aspirational, goal-oriented audience ultimately translates into an increase in lead quality.

This is especially the case for courses specialising in professional development, online and part-time courses. The rise in the discussion of micro-credentials creates even more opportunity for education providers to expand their offering as these short, compact courses are naturally a great fit for the platform.

Maximising traction and connectivity on social platforms like Facebook and Instagram is highly reliant on a numbers game to feed the short attention spans commonly found in a consumer-focused audience. And while larger following and social engagement still count towards social value on LinkedIn, because users are focused primarily on work purposes and not play, it still creates an equal ground for education providers of all sizes to promote or voice out their expertise on specific topics.

Compared to the snappy, high-energy content we usually find on fast-paced social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn audiences thrive off long-form content pieces such as industry insights and tips, which adds value towards their individual goals and also works as a means of increasing traffic to your websites. Similarly, captions should be two to three times longer than the average social update and are ideally insightful summaries of the content you are sharing. This provides prospective students with the ability to gauge how your qualifications or courses will benefit them in the future.

With so much to offer in the education space, consider looking into sharing reactive content pieces on high-traction topics such as the AQF 2019 Review.

Also note, If you have a following that exceeds 300, the content suggestion tool is great for collecting thought leadership article ideas or for sharing content by other users to spark insightful discussions.

Two major aspects of the LinkedIn community for education providers to keep in mind are that:

With that, a great tool offered on LinkedIn is the ability to form close-knit, specific community groups where like-minded thinkers can share and gain insights from trustworthy sources and from individuals of all seniority levels.

Education providers can consider creating their own groups to answer frequently asked questions or an insight hub to attract prospective students to learn, contribute or share their own experiences as alumni. In addition, LinkedIn groups can also be used as targeting criteria in campaigns to really hone in on specific topics of interest to prospective students.

Aside from groups and communities, another place where prospective students are able to find valuable insights and expand on information is none other than your own provider or brand page. In addition to sending out high-quality content pieces, it is also crucial to have all your contact details front and centre, along with a detailed ‘About’ page to connect with prospective students as an engaging and high-quality source of education.

Showcase pages are also an amazing tool to highlight the different schools, locations or subject areas which your institution offers.

Like many other social platforms, LinkedIn has its own campaign manager where education providers can incorporate paid initiatives behind their messaging or content. As we’ve already mentioned, the nature of the platform adds a touch of professionalism to the way campaigns are built, branching out of the basic characteristics like age and location and allowing users to focus on industry, experience or qualifications, which is extremely useful for reaching out to specific candidates.

While LinkedIn is amazing at helping education providers narrow down on specific targeting areas, it’s important to remember to keep your audience size at a minimum of 50,000+ for niche audiences or at least 100,000+ for consistent results. In addition, while you should never pay for the bid you set – it is important to set a realistic goal so that it provides the platform with a range of freedom to find high-quality audiences for you.

The LinkedIn campaign manager also offers a wide range of ad placement options, depending on what your goals are. Some of our tried and tested favourites include:

LinkedIn also offers amazing analytics tools to track how successful your organic and paid activities are at attracting the right audiences. Aside from basic follower demographics are insights on competing providers, update or content performance, industry and more.

With the power to tap into specific student areas and access high-quality and motivated individuals, the LinkedIn platform is certainly a valuable resource and a must-have in any education providers marketing strategy for providing traction and visibility.

Are young Australian struggling to find work? Half of Australians under 25 are unemployed, finding the transition from studying to stable work to be a difficult one.

So what are the factors that are making it difficult for young Australians to find work, and what can we do about it?

If you’d like to read an updated version of this article, you can catch up on it here.

Simply put, the world is not what it used to be. Being married and owning a house by 25 is just not attainable for young people today as it was for previous generations. The issue, of course, is that while the landscape of work has changed, our approach to it hasn’t, which is part of the reason for soaring youth unemployment rates.

Source: www.fya.org.au/

The situation is even more dire for younger people, with the Brotherhood of St Laurence reporting that one-in-nine people aged 15-to-24 are unemployed altogether. Even those who are employed may find that they are in a highly precarious position, with 1 in 5 juggling multiple jobs or working long hours in an unpredictable casual position.

Contrary to mainstream media representation, this isn’t due to a lack of work ethic among millennials: in fact, 17% of 15-24 year olds wish to work more hours but cannot secure them (the highest figure on record), or otherwise cannot find jobs in their field even after obtaining an education.

Many of these issues are due to the fact that young people tend to bear the brunt of economic downturn, with Australia’s rising unemployment rates and scarcity of jobs hitting young people the hardest.

While the lack of full-time employment among young Australians is a cause for concern, 9-5 work does not have to be the only option in today’s hyperconnected, digital world.

According to the Foundation for Young Australians’ The New Work Order Report, 70% of under-34-year-olds will use a digital talent platform to find work, such as Airtasker, Fiverr and the like. This could create an additional 270,000 jobs by 2025, drawing attention to the fact that full-time jobs don’t have to be the only option for young people today.

Policymakers and educators must support young people in reaching their employment goals, whether that’s full-time work or a successful freelance career.

Young Australians have the odds pitted against them, with there now being fewer entry-level positions available than there were in the recent past.

“Reality Bites: Australia’s youth unemployment in a millennial era”, a report published by the Brotherhood of St Laurence, found that there has been a 50% reduction in the number of entry-level jobs since 2006. There are simply too many job seekers for the number of positions available, making entering the workforce and developing experience even more difficult for young people.

There is now an urgent need for greater investment in job creation, as well as a need for better career advice to be offered to young people to guide them towards industries with a skills shortage.

It’s almost become a cynical joke among young people that employers will ask for 10 years of experience when you’ve just graduated at the age of 21. While this is hyperbole, the reality is unfortunately not much better for young Australians. In fact, over 40% of unemployed young Australians attributed their struggle to a lack of work experience.

The higher education system can help to address this lack of experience by promoting work-integrated learning in courses. This can include work placements, internships and apprenticeships to equip young people with real-world experience before they enter the workforce. This will then make them a more desirable candidate in the eyes of employers, increasing their likelihood of securing stable work upon graduation. Such programs should address any deficiencies in job readiness and skills, and should involve collaboration between local service providers and employers.

Certain fields of study are currently oversaturated in Australia, meaning that there aren’t enough jobs for all young people upon graduating.

The situation will only get more dire for young Australians if we don’t change our approach now, with the FYA saying that 58% of university students and 71% of TAFE students are currently studying for an occupation that will cease to exist or transform dramatically in the next decade or so.

The education system needs to have greater transparency regarding the true nature of the job market, with attention being drawn to fields that are currently seeing a skills shortage such as STEM and healthcare. By making students aware of their job prospects and alternative career paths, they can make a more informed decision when it comes to their study choices.

Steven Joyce’s Expert Review of Australia’s Vocational Education and Training System has recommended introducing an industry-owned, government-registered ‘Skills Organisation’ system, that is expected to take charge of qualification development and training. By establishing a structured initiative to tackle the alignment of work-based skills with the changing workforce, we are one step closer to working towards a better equipped workforce, by placing industry experts at the forefront to combat these skills gaps.

Almost 30% of young Australians attributed their unemployment to a difficulty in accessing transportation. Young people in a difficult financial situation are less likely to own a car, and may also live in areas that are poorly connected to public transportation. In cases such as these, remote work opportunities and equipping young people with the skills to freelance in their industry could reduce the need to commute.

According to the Australian Council of Social Service, it is estimated that the average minimum cost of basic essentials in Australia for a single unemployed person was $433 per week. From this research, it is not feasible for the unemployed to manage necessary living expenses, along with the extra costs that come with job search (such as transport, phone calls, interview-appropriate clothing, and internet subscriptions) when living on unemployment benefits.

The odds are stacked against young Australians, with stable work being more elusive than ever.

Educational institutions are well-positioned to address youth unemployment by prioritising work-integrated learning and providing career advice that mirrors the true state of today’s workforce.

The below chart shows the level of sensitivity each state experiences to funding options, which forms part of the Student Sentiment Index. One interesting insight of this article is how Victoria and Western Australia have the lowest score on the index, which indicates that prospective students in these states are less reliant on funding when they decide to study. On the other hand, the two states which experience the highest sensitivity to funding when it comes to studying are South Australia and Queensland.

What we can see in the Index, is that respondents in South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland are the most sensitive to funding changes; whereas Victoria and Western Australia are less influenced by this. When we break down the state funding on a per person basis; we see a strong correlation between funding per person (by population) and our Sensitivity to Funding Index.

For example, the Government expenditure for education is the highest proportionally for Victoria and Western Australia, where there’s approximately $185 and $178 of funding available per person, respectively. When we compare this with respondent’s sensitivity to funding, we can see that these states also score the lowest, indicating that, the more accessible funding is to prospective students; the less impact funding has on their decision to pursue a course.

Another interesting finding that arose in the past two months, was the impact of the ‘Free TAFE Scheme’ announced by the Victorian Government in early June. This initiative provides 50 TAFE courses and apprenticeships free for Victorians and has been widely publicised. One of the advantages of the Student Sentiment Index is that it acts as a leading indicator of overall perception in the sector, whereas other data relevant to the sector is typically released on a yearly basis. So when a change comes about such as the ‘Free TAFE Scheme’, we can see the impact this has on prospective students as it happens.

When analysing the responses following this widely-publicised announcement, what can be seen in the Sensitivity to Funding Index is a 10% drop in the underlying trend for Victoria. This illustrates how changes to the funding landscape can immediately impact the perceived dependence on financial assistance of prospective students. As funding becomes more accessible, which is the case for Victorian TAFE students, we can see this sudden drop in sensitivity.

Much of our success in Australia is attributable to a culture supportive of innovation and a willingness to push the boundaries. Drawing from lean startup principles where experimentation, learning and improvement are cornerstones of the business we are able to continually improve our offering to drive client success on our network. It is these cultural traits we bring to the UK business that will ensure its success. We will not stand still and will continually pivot until we are adding real and measurable value to our clients.

We aim to understand our clients challenges and support them with products to help drive their agenda forward. Candlefox are constantly looking at how to evolve and optimise the student enrolment journey – bringing innovative solutions to the market – there is a raft of supportive products in the pipeline to deliver a game change in the level of conversions and ROMI our clients should expect in the UK. So, watch this space…

Given the importance of data analysis and customer success, we left no stone unturned in looking for the best possible people to lead the team in the UK. After an exhaustive search we appointed our first two employees in May 2018 and we are thrilled to introduce them!

To say SJ has “hit the ground running” would be an understatement. The response from UK educators has been overwhelming and has meant the team has already grown.

With amazing partners joining the marketplace weekly, it was time to invest in two critical areas: Client Support and Data. This month, Charlie Calleja and Jonathan Kedebe, have joined the Candlefox family, both in the role of Course Administration & Analyst.

Jonathan and Charlie will be supporting SJ and Rob (and more importantly our partners) in ensuring the highest possible level of customer service and analytical support.

With a shot like this, they were always going to be “The Band”….