Halloween has arrived early. Well, maybe not soon enough for my kids, but it sure feels that way for higher education marketers and recruiters.

Last week, LinkedIn announced an inaugural undergraduate ranking. For a social media site best known for its online professional networking services, it was like LinkedIn had showed up at college doorsteps dressed in costume as U.S. News & World Report or The Princeton Review.

However, this one is notably different.

A ranking based on the largest career database in the world, the LinkedIn universityranking focuses exclusively on career outcomes based on member LinkedIn profiles.

At a time when most colleges and universities are struggling to attract enough suitable applicants and there’s widespread reporting of underemployment for a number of college majors including business management and administration, higher education marketers need to pay attention to this ranking because prospective students – and parents concerned about ROI – will.

So how does this ranking work?

As explained in this Inside Higher Ed article, the “new ranking system tracks the success of college graduates in eight broad career paths, adding weight for jobs deemed ‘desirable’. It lists the top 25 institutions in each career category.”

The ranking is based on analyzing employment patterns of 300 million LinkedIn members who earned an undergraduate degree in the past eight years. It begins with identifying the most desirable companies that are best at attracting and retaining talent. In other words, LinkedIn looked at the companies where people in certain professions are choosing to work. Companies that attract and retain employees from competitors score extra points.

As described on LinkedIn’s official blog, LinkedIn calculates “the percentage of relevant graduates who have obtained desirable jobs” at these desired companies to rank their universities.

Like any undergraduate ranking, it does have limitations.  First, it considers only eight occupations:

1. Accountants
2. Designers
3. Financial professionals
4. Investment bankers
5. Marketers
6. Media professionals
7. Software developers
8. Software developers at startups

That certainly leaves out a lot of career paths including many of the fastest-growing occupations such as nursing and biomedical engineering – and, by extension, universities that are known for these programs.

Also, this ranking is based on a direct measure of career outcomes, not an indirect measure of other factors that may influence career outcomes. It’s important to recognize that career prospects aren’t the only variable in the decision-making and selection process. In fact, many students haven’t decided on a career as entering freshman and the college experience itself provides the opportunity to explore career alternatives.

It’s also important to note that it is also limited to members in the U.S., Canada, and the UK which does not give a complete picture of global employment patterns. What does this mean for the top U.S. colleges and universities with the most foreign students?

Having said that, this is just the beginning. LinkedIn has a ton of data, and they’re going to continue to advance their analysis.

In the meantime, prospective students will be forming perceptions of universities and programs based on the information provided. In our hurried world, we don’t always take the time to read the “fine print” and the key point is not whether the data is good or not, but how it is perceived.

So, how should universities respond and react to yet another ranking?

The answer, of course, depends on where you sit.

For ranked programs, it’s another opportunity to spread some good cheer about a powerful proof point – that is, after a few high fives (or an exuberant scream as a certain former admissions officer may have done when she learned about her business school’s inaugural ranking in the Financial Times).

This is when you take to the airwaves with social media posts, blogs, email notifications, videos, and website updates. Here’s an example which illustrates the power of social media engagement.

Don’t forget to take advantage of all the foot traffic on your campus through campus signage as well.  And I mean all the foot traffic. I’ve even seen rankings flyers posted in the ladies’ bathroom stalls at London Business School. Seriously.

For programs that aren’t listed, have no fear. There are plenty of other ways to communicate your proof points to prospective students. It goes back to the power of storytelling. Show your alumni achievements through stories on your website, blogs, lead nurturing campaigns, videos. Here’s an example below with engaging messaging.

The new LinkedIn ranking just goes to show that we’re living in an era where prospective students have an incredible amount of information, and thus control, in the buying process. Yet that doesn’t mean that universities can’t do more to provide helpful information that provides prospects with a better understanding of their distinct value proposition.

In the case of LinkedIn, here are a few tips:

• Encourage alumni to have a profile on LinkedIn.
• Encourage alumni to make sure the profile is up-to-date.
• Consider programs to encourage and advise alumni on LinkedIn participation.
• Be sure to promote rankings across all of your marketing assets across all of your programs. For example, Carnegie Mellon is ranked at the top of the list for designers in the LinkedIn ranking, but Carnegie’s Tepper School of Business can promote as well to show the power of the brand.

In addition, provide opportunities for prospects to connect with alumni through personalized introductions. Be sure to include alumni in webinars and information sessions. Technology offers convenience but admissions offices create value through personalized customer service. I’ve talked to many alumni at recruiting fairs who mentioned that it was the admissions officer whose “personal touch” was the deciding factor.

Finally, consider alternatives for students who have special interests or fall outside of the broad-category rankings. In other words, make it easy for them to connect with alums who have followed similar paths. If the rankings don’t cover a student’s specific interests, get proficient at identifying a set of alums who align with those interests and create your own ranking of one.

A rankings focused on career outcomes has the potential to be very influential. LinkedIn has cast a spell with prospective students eager to find the university that will best prepare them for their desired career path. How universities will leverage this new ranking will determine if it is a trick or a treat.