Enhancing Alumni Engagement Through LinkedIn Professional Networking at a Master of Health Administration Program

Keeping track of alumni at a professional graduate-level program is a daunting task. The Master of Health Administration Program ("the Program") struggles with constant updates to alumni jobs, email addresses, and names. To mitigate these struggles and enhance alumni communication, the Pro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of health administration education 2023-01, Vol.40 (1), p.51-66
Main Authors: Dickson, Conan Q., Bittle, Mark J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Keeping track of alumni at a professional graduate-level program is a daunting task. The Master of Health Administration Program ("the Program") struggles with constant updates to alumni jobs, email addresses, and names. To mitigate these struggles and enhance alumni communication, the Program decided to pilot the use of an unlisted group in the LinkedIn professional networking platform ("LinkedIn") as the primary alumni tracking and contact vehicle in academic year 2021/2022. The process involved an assessment of LinkedIn as a tool, a reconciliation of the Program's unlisted group list, and a purposeful effort to improve use of the platform. The assessment pointed out benefits, including the enhanced accuracy of information, and revealed potential obstacles related to varying utilization of the service by members. The reconciliation demonstrated that a sizable percentage of our professionally active alumni are members of the service. The posting of brief alumni profiles was an effective strategy for increasing activity. Despite some key challenges, such as ignored invitations to be added to the group, the Program decided to continue use of an unlisted group on the service as a key tool for alumni engagement due to the advantages it offers: access to the most current professional information for a large percentage of profes- sionally active alumni, the ability to post targeted content of interest to both current students and alumni, and helpful search tools for alumni in specific geographies and organizations. This article shares four lessons learned that may be helpful to other professional graduate programs looking to improve the accuracy of alumni information and enhance communication among their program, students, and alumni
ISSN:0735-6722