John Hill was hired by Michigan State University to more fully develop the institution’s internship program.  But a chance meeting a few years ago at a fundraiser for Lansing’s Impression 5 Science Center ended with a collaborative idea for linking graduates with business owners in cyberspace.

The website linkedin.com has grown in popularity by jobseekers and employers. But Hill says with a jobless rate in Michigan likely to increase, state officials could better utilize social media and Internet marketing to tout what Michigan’s business community has to offer.

Q:  How did you come up with the idea for utilizing linkedin.com?

A:  I was at a fundraiser at a [Lansing] Lugnuts game and ended up sitting next to Bob Trezise, president and CEO of the Lansing Economic Development Corporation. We started to talk about ways to start up a program to keep our talent in Michigan. We have viable opportunities right here for our graduates, and determined the use of a social website would be the best way to market the idea.

Q:  How does it work?

A:  It’s a professional social media website allowing MSU alumni to post their qualifications and hopes for a job online. Business owners, in turn, can post requirements they’re looking for in a prospective employee.  It’s a foot-in-the-door type approach. We advise our graduates to research a company, get a phone number, then make contact. Ask them to tell you about the company.  What you’ll do is position them as an expert on the business.  You’ll create an internal referral. A hand-delivered resume’ to the human resources director is better than a blind application. It puts you at the top of the list of applicants and increases your chances of getting a job.

Q:  What type of information should a jobseeker post?

A:  The same things you would put on a resume’: work experience, education, affiliations and interests.

Q:  Is the website open to anyone?

A:  It’s open to all Michigan State University alumni, current students, and current and former faculty and staff.

Q:  How long did it take to get the program up and running?

A:  From the time we first talked, the program was online within seven months.

Q:  Have you faced any challenges?

A:  Yes. Michigan State has 47,000 students and 420,000 alumni. As director of MSU Alumni Career Services, I have an assistant, but two people can’t handle efficiently the one-on-one contact—that’s where technology has helped. We now utilize the Internet to help link graduates with jobs. By getting linked, they not only help themselves, but also they can help each other.

Q:  How successful has utilizing a tool like linkedin.com been for  career services?

A:  We have roughly 100,000 alumni with profiles on it, and we have a few million users.

Q: Have you made any improvements to the site?

A:  We allow students with similar interests to form groups like business, communications, or regional location. We currently have 15,000 people in them—that makes us the fifth largest college or university LinkedIn group in the world.

Q:  What are the benefits of the groups?

A:  Members can talk together and exchange information.  For example, if someone is looking for a job in Chicago, the person can make contact with someone who has a job in Chicago. The expansion was the only way we could continue to provide one-on-one career services to the thousands of graduates we work with.

Q:  How does Michigan as a whole rank in terms of utilizing social and professional networking?

A:  The state is lagging behind others. We’re behind the eight ball as compared to small businesses on the East and West coasts. I travel all over the country giving multimedia presentations and, from what I’ve seen, Michigan has a long way to go to reach its potential.

Q:  What do you say to business owners who don’t think the new breed of Internet marketing can really work?

A:  I say it does work and the numbers prove it.  Statistics show, at any given time, there are 50,000 people linked in on a website in a 35-mile radius of East Lansing. If you make it a 50-mile radius, the number of users more than doubles. That’s a lot of people who could be willing to drive up to 50 miles to get a certain product or service.

Q:  Do you see a time when contacts for jobs or services are made totally through social and professional networking sites, where employers hire workers—like consumers today are able to select a new vehicle—with just the click of a mouse?

A:  While I’m heavily invested these days in technology, I just see it as a conduit. I’ve seen how important face-to-face interaction is to believe it will one day go by the wayside.  That personal touch will be a great advantage down the road. More and more people are going to be strong in utilizing online networks in creating opportunity, but if you can’t communicate face-to-face, you’re not going to be able to nail those opportunities.