LinkedIn is teaming with Kaplan Higher Education Group to launch a new program called Career Journey aimed at helping members navigate through different career stages.
Stemming from
Kaplan’s existing Career Journey group on LinkedIn, the new offering provides individual learning exercises, educational resources and career planning tools. It also taps into the professional
network’s API (application programming interface) to pull member’s information, including profile, content and contacts to create what it calls a “customized path of
action.”
Specific elements of Career Journey include highlighting skills to develop toward a stated goal, articles and videos showing what is required toward a career objective. It
identifies potential mentors in a user’s LinkedIn network, and providing learning opportunities, including degree programs from Kaplan University.
Kaplan will also promote Career Journey
on LinkedIn. To that end, it will use the site’s paid ad options like Sponsored Updates, Sponsored InMail and display banners as well as conducting Webinars and database marketing to boost
awareness. It will also leverage LinkedIn’s social media presence.
In a blog post today, Jonathan Lister, LinkedIn’s ad sales chief, called Career Journey, “one of our more
extensive API integrations to date, and a great demonstration of how brands are leveraging LinkedIn as a content marketing platform.”
The new program is the latest effort by LinkedIn to
expand its content offerings and give people more reason to spend time on the site. The company in July acquired startup Newsle, which makes technology that finds blogs and articles mentioning people
who might be professionally relevant and notifies you upon publication. Other LinkedIn publishing tools include SlideShare and its Influencer blogs and blogging platform for all users.
Linkedin
in July reported second-quarter revenue increased 47% from a year earlier to $534 million. Its ad business, which accounts for 20% of overall revenue, grew 44%, an improvement over the 36% in the
first quarter. Growth in page views, however, was down from a year ago, at 22%.