LinkedIn to Promote an Academic Journal and Advance Public Health Practice

Health Promotion Practice (HPP) Journal began experimenting with social media for the promotion and dissemination of journal and parent organization content a few years ago. The success of Twitter in driving traffic to journal content soon led Editorial Board leaders to explore other social marketing platforms for the promotion. Fortunately, a strong association with San Jose State University’s department of public health and recreation provides the opportunity to recruit student interns to assist in managing the growing social media presence.

In the spring and summer of 2020, HPP recruited a large number of interested interns, and the timing felt right to further explore LinkedIn and the development of a social marketing strategy for the platform. The authors thus undertook a phased project to officially launch HPP on LinkedIn; including background research, creating a company page, intern and editorial board buy-in, and an approach and schedule to posting. After the implementation of the company page, the intern was in charge of posting to LinkedIn until her internship hours were completed in late September of 2020.

This presentation further discusses the planning and implementation phases of the LinkedIn social marketing project, as well as the activity of both the LinkedIn page and individual posts. Five months of activity data collected from the LinkedIn page will be analyzed and results will be discussed in relation to the goals of the project, including both successes and challenges of setting up and maintaining a promotional presence for an academic journal on LinkedIn.

Learning Objectives:

1) Describe at least two best practices for posting & interacting with a company page on LinkedIn.
2) Analyze professional opportunities and challenges for maintaining an active presence on LinkedIn.