As a professional organization CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) has a very broad mandate. Part of its stated vision is to be "the primary resource for professional development and information."
Until fairly recently this meant performing traditional association tasks: providing a master web presence, publishing a magazine and an e-newsletter, and of course delivering workshops and conferences. In other words, it meant being the hub for fundraising, alumni and communications professionals in higher education. Top-down. Centralized.
But the same forces that are decentralizing and flattening the communication model for our institutions are at work on our entire profession. So a couple of months ago
a CASE Group appeared on LinkedIn. Without any advertising or marketing, this network of advancement professionals has slowly grown to
268 393 481 568 652 members with a few more joining each day.
There are several possible uses and outcomes for the group. CASE is still some months from the launch of its new web site so LinkedIn will likely end up as the de facto online directory of advancement professionals. And despite their many imperfections and quirks, LinkedIn's Groups can reward those with a reason for using them, and the patience to learn how they work and what they do.
Discussions: Perhaps the most immediately useful short-term networking tool for professionals in LinkedIn Groups. You can ask a question or search for expertise, ideas, experiences and resources among fellow Group members.
News: Users submit links to articles that are about CASE, or directly relevant to its work. Group members are notified on their home page or by RSS when something is posted.
Jobs: It's hard to believe nobody has posted a position here yet. I'm guessing that soon job postings will pop up in the group.
Members: Who else is in the Group? This tab will tell you the number of members, their degree of connection to you within LinkedIn in, and their job title and network size. There's also a link for sending a private message. And of course you can click through to view another member's individual profile.
And a Settings tab lets you decide whether to display the CASE logo in your LinkedIn profile or next to your name in search results. You can also turn on email updates, specify the address where you'll receive those updates, and determine their frequency. And you can decide whether other Group members can send you private messages via LinkedIn.
This is a very quick snapshot. Used prudently and with just a little forethought, this Group can act as an additional valued resource for those of us who want to visualize our network, increase our awareness and reach within the profession, and find answers and ideas to help us in our work.
Of course, our alumni are participating in Groups on LinkedIn as well, in official and unofficial alumni groups. You should read and contribute to those discussions so that 1) alumni can see where alma mater adds relevance and solves problems and 2) you can keep up with what alumni need and what they are doing.
One last thought: The CASE Group was started by a volunteer leader – not by a CASE staff member. This is another good example of something important, which should be clear to all of us by now: if organizations don't seize the tools and start working outside our old silos, our audience will do it for us. Are you comfortable with that?
CASE Group on LinkedIn
Also:
Facebook Group for CASE
Directory of Groups on LinkedIn
Join LinkedIn if you are not already a member
