Want to see where energy and sustainability education is headed? Here’s a cool little innovation that says a lot about the role we’d like to play in the energy and sustainability industry: LinkedIn recently released a feature that allows us to synch all of our student activity directly into LinkedIn, so students can showcase their certificates and projects with one click. One click! So now HeatSpring integrates with LinkedIn to help clean energy professionals showcase their expertise and better connect with customers, colleagues, and bosses.
Who benefits from this LinkedIn integration the most?
- Students and alumni – our customers – can display their certificate on LinkedIn with one click. LinkedIn members who add education to their profile get 6x more views. In addition to displaying a certificate, you can also add reviews, upload projects you did in the course, and say whatever you want to contextualize the experience. You get to show what you learned in a way that makes displaying a paper certificate seem cute and funny in comparison (you can still download a hard copy if you like!).
- Prospective students – energy and sustainability professionals – get a much more detailed view of what actually happens inside the courses by seeing who took them, what they did, and reading their reviews. They get to hear about the course from people who actually took it. We call this: “Turning private awesomeness into public awesomeness”.
- Instructors and their courses – the top thinkers in the industry – get more views and recognition. The certificates link back to the course, so people who are interested can learn more about the instructor and the course they teach. This steady stream of highly-relevant traffic translates into a higher profile, more recognition, and more repeatable sales for the course. More visibility = bigger impact.
This might sound small right now, it reflects a seismic shift in how professionals ‘brand’ themselves. Those who can communicate what they know and who they know will succeed in the era of free agency. LinkedIn is a game-changer.
Workshops and seminars have existed for decades. Online training has come a long way over the past five years. We think the next big wave of innovation is about taking ‘private awesomeness’ – the hard work and genius of our smartest instructors and students – and making it ‘public awesomeness’ for the world to see and appreciate.
Are you one of the top thinkers in energy and sustainability? Please be in touch – we’d love to help the world beat a path to your door.
