Problem

Despite being a top-tier program, the Carnegie Mellon Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) lacked the digital visibility of its peers. The institution struggled to translate its interdisciplinary expertise into an approachable digital presence that effectively attracted qualified applicants and industry partners. A primary challenge was the lack of a cohesive, data-driven LinkedIn strategy to showcase the institute’s broader impact and facilitate inbound collaboration requests from innovative companies.

Research Results

By analyzing LinkedIn and Google Analytics data, I identified critical engagement gaps and strategic opportunities:

• Industry Dominance: The software development industry generated more than twice the viewership of any other sector, marking it as the highest-potential field for targeted design collaboration.

• Consistency Gap: Top-performing institutions like MIT Media Lab and Stanford d.school achieved superior engagement through strategic, high-frequency posting, whereas HCII lacked a consistent presence.

• Peak Seasonality: Engagement was highly concentrated in only one quarter of the year, with significant drops during November and December, identifying a missed opportunity to maintain momentum during academic downtime.

• Content Misses: Current posts focused narrowly on reposting student content or faculty updates, failing to highlight major achievements like startup competition wins or high-impact research publications.

iMPACT

I delivered a data driven strategy designed to position HCII as a recognized industry leader and maximize partnership opportunities:

• Strategic Content Pivot: Developed a new LinkedIn framework that prioritizes showcasing HCII's expertise, such as a mockup celebrating student research published in the ACM.

• Targeted Engagement: Established a hypothesis that sharing content specifically tailored to the software development sector would directly increase engagement and industry collaboration.

• Metric-Driven Validation: Implemented a tracking system for follower growth, industry demographics, and engagement rates to ensure content resonates with high-value professional audiences.

• Institutional Visibility: The final strategy provided a roadmap for boosting program awareness, attracting fresh talent, and securing valuable long-term industry partnerships.