About the Episode
About the Episode: The marketing team at Carroll Community College sought to enhance the profile of the College’s staff, including senior leadership. Through a collaboration between today’s guests, Maya Demishkevich, Chief Marketing Officer, and Kristie Crumely, Associate Provost for Student Affairs and Marketing, Carroll launched a series of workshops titled ‘LinkedIn Impact: Elevating Your Career and Carroll.’ The workshops aim to train faculty and staff to identify their core values, create content pillars, and develop a LinkedIn strategy to enhance their personal brands and the College. Join us as we learn how Maya and Kristie got this initiative off the ground, allowing Carroll faculty and staff to engage in national conversations around their subject matter expertise.
Key Takeaways
- Personal Brands Boost Institutional Visibility: Faculty and staff creating authentic content on LinkedIn help expand Carroll’s reach and showcase the institution’s values.
- Leadership Participation is Key: Involving senior leadership ensures buy-in and fosters a culture where building personal brands aligns with institutional goals.
- Structured Training Makes Engagement Scalable: Carroll’s training workshops guide employees in identifying their personal values, creating targeted content, and navigating social media platforms effectively.
- Proactive Risk Management Builds Confidence: Transparent conversations about potential risks and the supportive culture at Carroll have enabled employees to feel confident in their online engagement.
Episode Summary
A Vision for Employee Advocacy in Higher Education
Carroll Community College’s employee advocacy program, spearheaded by Maya Demishkevich, was designed to achieve two primary goals: increasing the institution’s visibility and providing professional development opportunities for faculty and staff. Maya explained that personal, authentic voices resonate more deeply with audiences than corporate accounts, making LinkedIn the perfect platform to enhance the college’s reputation and connect with key stakeholders.
Kristie Crumley highlighted how this initiative helps individuals connect their work to the college’s mission while building their own professional presence. For Carroll, this approach doesn’t just amplify the institutional message—it fosters a culture of collaboration, trust, and growth.
Training That Empowers and Inspires
The program begins with comprehensive workshops that emphasize authenticity and alignment. Faculty and staff are guided to identify their personal values and passions, and how these intersect with Carroll’s mission. Participants then develop content pillars and brainstorm ideas for posts, ensuring their contributions remain meaningful and aligned with their expertise.
In the second workshop, employees learn to craft engaging content tailored to LinkedIn’s unique format. The strategy starts modestly: one original post per week and two shares, which helps participants ease into a habit of regular engagement.
Success Stories and Real-World Impact
Kristie shared a powerful example of the program’s success: after posting about student basic needs and Carroll’s food locker initiative, her message caught the attention of a national thought leader, resulting in increased engagement and valuable new connections. Stories like this demonstrate how individual voices can elevate not just personal networks but also institutional visibility.
The training also prepared employees to handle challenges like negative feedback. Maya emphasized the importance of trust and noted that Carroll’s culture and training help ensure that employees feel confident representing themselves and the institution online.
Reflections and Lessons for Higher Education
Why Personal Brands Matter
Maya described Carroll’s marketing strategy as a “digital universe” where the college’s main social media accounts serve as the sun, and individual employees’ accounts as stars. Together, these elements create a vibrant, dynamic presence that extends Carroll’s reach far beyond traditional marketing efforts.
Supporting Content Creation Within Workloads
To prevent the initiative from becoming burdensome, Carroll encourages participants to view content creation as an extension of their daily work rather than an added task. Sharing insights from training sessions or reflecting on meaningful experiences at the college are examples of how employees can contribute authentically without significant extra effort.
Addressing Concerns About Employee Retention
Kristie and Maya acknowledged the common fear that building employees’ personal brands might encourage them to leave. However, Carroll’s leadership sees this as an opportunity to strengthen institutional culture. By fostering professional growth and trust, the college creates an environment where employees feel valued and engaged—making them more likely to stay.
About the Show: We hear it every day across campuses: “We need to be working more collaboratively.” The higher education industry is notoriously siloed, with colleagues struggling to connect, duplicating services or having disjointed messaging.
Breaking Silos aims to showcase the remarkable work of marketing professionals and their non-marketing colleagues from different departments across campus, who come together to achieve common goals, implement new initiatives, enhance the student experience, and foster better collaboration among teams.
Each episode features a marketer and their non-marketing colleague to talk about their partnership. This unique format will inspire marketers to try new things and connect with colleagues in new ways, while also allowing non-marketing professionals an inside look at some of the most collaborative projects in higher education marketing.
Connect With Our Host:
Shane Baglini
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanebaglini/
About The Enrollify Podcast Network: Breaking Silos is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!
Some of our favorites include Visionary Voices: The College President’s Playbook and The Application with Allison Turcio.
Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — the next-generation AI student engagement platform helping institutions create meaningful and personalized interactions with students. Learn more at element451.com.
Connect with Us at the Engage Summit: Exciting news — Maya will be at the 2024 Engage Summit in Raleigh, NC, on June 25 and 26, and we’d love to meet you there! Sessions will focus on cutting-edge AI applications that are reshaping student outreach, enhancing staff productivity, and offering deep insights into ROI.
Use the discount code Enrollify50 at checkout, and you can register for just $200.
Learn more and register at engage.element451.com — we can’t wait to see you there!
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